Native Tribes on Cape and Islands may join $590 million national opioid settlement
Indigenous tribes on the Cape and Islands have yet to get clarity about how the $590 million settlement with one opioid manufacturer and three distributors will directly affect them.
Native American tribes reached a settlement with Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson over the respective companies' role in the opioid epidemic. The filing, in US District Court in Cleveland, was made public on Tuesday.
The two federally recognized tribes on the Cape and Islands are the Mashpee Wampanoag and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah.
Brian Weeden, chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag, said the tribe would consider participating in the settlements at its next tribal council meeting on Wednesday.
Weeden said Indigenous people have some of the highest rates of substance abuse out of any ethnic group. The abuse is rooted in Indigenous peoples’ historical trauma, he said.
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Weeden also mentioned that many tribal children are in foster care due to their parents dying from substance abuse.
How does the opioid settlement work?
More than 400 tribes and intertribal organizations have sued over opioids. Any federally recognized tribe can participate in the settlements, but the deal will only be enacted when 95% of the tribes who sued the companies agree to the settlement, according to a lawyer whose firm represents 28 tribes.
The deal states that Johnson & Johnson would pay $150 million over two years, while the three drug distributors would collectively pay $440 million over seven years.
Cheryl Andrew-Maltais, chairwoman of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah, said the tribe has been involved in opioid litigation since the very beginning.
Opioids:Native American tribes reach $590 million opioid settlement from drug distributors, J&J
She said the tribe is happy to hear about the settlement, but doesn’t think it’s nearly enough to account for the damage caused by opioids.
By the time the companies have finished distributing and allocating the resources, it won’t have the intended effect, she said.
She also said the dollar amount of the settlement is not nearly enough to answer the costs of addiction treatment, as well as the social and emotional costs of families and communities touched by the epidemic.
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The settlement money may be divided by 574 federally recognized tribes, each tribe only getting a slice of the money. However, Andrew-Maltais is optimistic about the message that the settlement can send.
“We're hopeful that this will be a wakeup call, not only for Congress, but for everyone, to be mindful about what’s being prescribed,” she said.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this story
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