How Illinois will decide on spending $40M opioid settlement with Kroger

[November 12, 2024]  By Nicole Jeanine Johnson, Medill Illinois News Bureau

CHICAGO – Illinois will receive a $40 million share of a $1.4 billion bipartisan national settlement with Kroger over the grocery chain’s role in the opioid crisis, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced. The settlement is the latest contribution to the 2021 Illinois Opioid Allocation Agreement steered by Raoul and state’s attorneys.

“This settlement ensures Kroger is held accountable and allows resources to reach communities hardest hit by this ongoing opioid crisis that continues to affect all corners of America,” Raoul said in a Nov. 4 statement announcing the settlement.

Under the agreement Kroger will also require its pharmacies “to monitor, report and share data about suspicious activity related to opioid prescriptions,” the statement said. The agreement will only be applicable to states in which Kroger and its subsidiaries operate, according to the statement, noting that in Illinois, Kroger operates under the Kroger name as well as Mariano’s and others.

By 2038, Illinois’ Opioid Remediation Fund is projected to receive approximately $772.6 million in total from various opioid manufacturers and distributors, according to the settlement fund allocation dashboard operated by the Illinois Department of Human Services. Illinois was awarded more than $420 million from Johnson & Johnson, Walmart, Walgreens, Allergan, CVS, Teva, Mallinckrodt, and opioid distributors, such as AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson.

Since Gov. JB Pritzker signed Executive Order 2022-19 in 2022, funds received from any settlements will be distributed into three areas: 55% will go into the state’s Opioid Remediation Trust Fund that will finance organizations across Illinois working to abate the opioid crisis in their respective communities; 25% will be awarded to local governments to provide their own abatement programs, and the remaining 20% will go to the state to carry out abatement programs through the Illinois Department of Public Health.

To date, Illinois has committed or spent $115 million from the fund, according to the Illinois Opioid Settlement website. Most of the money has been awarded to organizations that have applied for funding to implement opioid abatement programs in their areas. Current and previous funding opportunities can be found here.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul is pictured at the Democratic National Convention. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)

The Illinois Opioid Remediation Advisory Board is the governor-appointed body that is responsible for making advisory recommendations for how the Illinois Opioid Remediation Trust Fund will be spent.

State Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, was appointed by the governor to serve on the board, along with organizations that represent the needs of the entire state. In an interview, Ford said he has dedicated a lot of his time to this issue.

“Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton brought grassroots organizations to the advisory board, allowing them to have input on how the money is being spent, which is critical, when you have people, organizations, nonprofits doing the work and having a say in how the settlement funds are spent,” Ford said.

All programs and funding priorities must align with strategies described in the 2021 agreement, including: naloxone or other overdose reversal drugs; medication-assisted recovery and other recovery or bridge services; services for pregnant of postpartum people with opioid use disorders, as well as neonatal abstinence syndrome; treatment for incarcerated people; syringe services; prevention programs; harm reduction programs; and syringe services.

According to Ford, once recommendations are made by the advisory board, they will be forwarded to Raoul’s office for approval to ensure that the programs align with the priorities set in the settlement agreement.

Nicole Jeanine Johnson is a graduate student in journalism with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, and a Fellow in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.