LAWTON – Prosecutors and county commissioners in southwest Oklahoma are seeking to build a first-rate opioid treatment center.
The facility would be built with settlement funds from lawsuits filed against national pharmaceutical companies for their role in promoting the opioid drug crisis. The lawsuits were initiated by the U.S. Justice Department and attorneys general in several states, including Oklahoma.
Kyle Cabelka, district attorney for Comanche and Cotton counties, said the idea for the treatment gained momentum two years ago when lawsuits against Big Pharma were settled by state and local prosecutors.
“We needed to convince commissioners from a 16-county area of the idea and to use the (settlement) money for the center,” Cabelka said.
The funds can only be spent on opioid reduction programs, he said.
A county commissioner from each of the four district attorney areas will form a trust to discuss the settlement money and the treatment center. The trust would administer treatment center operations.
“We want to do a case study and evaluate if we need to build one big center or some satellite offices,” Cabelka said. “Comanche County would put in the most money (for the center) because we are receiving the most (settlement) money.”
So far, Comanche County has received an estimated $1 million, he said.
Prosecutors are anticipating on building an in-patient facility since there are not enough treatment beds in southwest Oklahoma.
The 16-county area setup includes DA districts 3-6. District 3 includes Greer, Harmon, Jackson, Tillman and Kiowa counties; District 4 has Canadian, Blaine, Garfield, Kingfisher and Grant counties; District 6 involves Caddo, Grady, Jefferson and Stephens counties.
The next steps are for the trust to hire an executive director and decide where the facility will be built. Options exist for building a new treatment center or using existing unoccupied buildings such as old hospitals, schools and abandoned buildings.
Organizers would be “thrilled” if the center was operational by the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025, Cabelka said.
“A 200-bed facility is not out of the question,” he said.
Settlements with Allergan Pharmaceuticals, Walgreens, CVS and Walmart brought the state's total recovery from makers and distributors of opioids to more than $900 million, putting Oklahoma near the top of all states in recovery amounts on a per capita basis, former Attorney General John O’Connor said in January 2023.
The Oklahoma Opioid Abatement Board has received hundreds of grant applications from nonprofits for some of the settlement money that would counteract the impacts of the opioid epidemic.
Eligible groups included counties, municipalities and public school districts. The abatement board also received letters from technology centers and public trusts.
The awards can be used for treatment and recovery programs, opioid abuse education and prevention, and strategies to decrease narcotics supplies.
Four of the largest U.S. corporations agreed in 2020 to pay roughly $26 billion to settle lawsuits linked to claims that their business practices helped fuel the deadly opioid crisis, according to reports from National Public Radio.
Johnson & Johnson, the consumer products and health giant that manufactured generic opioid medications, will contribute $5 billion to the settlement.
The company announced in 2020 it would get out of the prescription opioid business in the U.S. altogether.
Three massive drug wholesalers — AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson — will pay a combined $21 billion.