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Clay County puts money from opioid lawsuits toward efforts to prevent future overdoses

By Alecia Taylor
The Cass County Health Department is responding to the opioid crisis by providing free doses of NARCAN® (naloxone), an overdose prevention nasal spray, that is available for free in newspaper-like boxes. The naloxone has been shown to revive those who’ve overdosed on fentanyl. This box is at the Heart-n-Hand Ministries, 200 B St., in Belton, Missouri.
The Cass County Health Department is responding to the opioid crisis by providing free doses of NARCAN® (naloxone), an overdose prevention nasal spray, that is available for free in newspaper-like boxes. The naloxone has been shown to revive those who’ve overdosed on fentanyl. This box is at the Heart-n-Hand Ministries, 200 B St., in Belton, Missouri. Tammy Ljungblad tljungblad@kcstar.com

Clay County has decided how it will spend money from lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies in a widespread effort to prevent future overdose deaths from opioids like fentanyl.

The county will receive annual payments from settlements with major companies including Jennsen, Teva, Walmart, Walgreens, McKinsey, CVS and Allergan. The county has already received funds from a large settlement ruling that a consulting company fueled the opioid crisis across the nation.

In Clay County, there were 60 fatal opioid overdoses in 2022, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

The Clay County Opioid Task Force has been meeting for almost a year. As of now, the county is expected to receive more than $2.6 million in settlement funds with the possibility of more money in the future.

Starting this April, four agencies selected by the task force will start receiving funds to prevent and treat the ongoing opioid crisis in the county. Beacon Health, the Office of Dispute Resolution, the Northland Coalition, and Clay County Public Health are expected to enter service agreements sometime this month.

The commissioners approved 63% of the settlement funds for treatment and 37% for prevention.

“We want to make sure that everybody, all the major components, were represented,” said Jerry Nolte, the presiding commissioner of Clay County.

The agencies are expected to provide the services as follows, according to the plan:

  • Beacon Mental Health: Peer support staff for people in jail, housing, and transportation assistance to try to reduce relapses.
  • Office of Dispute Resolution: Juvenile drug testing and youth programming to try to prevent substance abuse.
  • Northland Coalition: Mini-grants for youth substance prevention programs.
  • Clay County Public Health Center: Narcan vending machines to increase access to overdose prevention.

Now that the task force’s plan has been approved, the board will be dismantled and applications for the Opioid Advisory Committee to make further recommendations for the funds.

The programs will be re-evaluated annually with the new committee presenting findings to the Clay County Commissioners every five years.

This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 6:00 AM.

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