City of East Lansing to Receive More than $340,000 From Latest Opioid Settlement
The City of East Lansing will receive more than $340,000 as part of the latest national settlement with companies that contributed to the opioid crisis.
The payment is part of an approximately $14 billion settlement to be paid by Walmart, CVS, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. and Allergan Finance, LLC. East Lansing is one of around 4,000 local governments functioning as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
This is the second major opioid-related settlement for the City of East Lansing. The first paid out a total of roughly $26 billion dollars, around $600,000 of which is to be paid to the City of East Lansing. So far, $115,000 from that settlement has been received by the city.
Attorney David Mittleman of Grewal Law is a part of a team that is representing the City of East Lansing in the litigation. He explained to ELi that the City of East Lansing and the State of Michigan will be splitting the new settlement funds evenly, as are most communities involved in the suit. The attorneys representing the city will be paid 15% of the gross awarded to the city.
The settlement money does not go into the city’s general fund but is instead used to assist people struggling with opioid addiction. Examples of how the money could be used include providing Narcan, training on how to assist someone who is overdosing or other educational programs. It can also be used to recoup losses the city endured due to the opioid crisis. The money that goes to the state will be used for similar causes.
The money from this settlement will be paid out over varying time periods. Teva will pay up to $3.34 billion over 13 years, Allergan will pay up to $2.02 billion over seven years, CVS will pay $4.9 billion over 10 years and Walmart will pay $2.74 billion within six years.
At its Tuesday, April 4, meeting, East Lansing’s City Council approved a resolution to accept the funds. Answering questions from Council, Mittleman said that there are other companies that are currently involved in litigation and East Lansing’s total payout from settlements could rise to between $1.2 and $1.4 million. The first two settlements total around $1 million.
The lawsuit is a result of a crisis that has killed East Lansing residents along with people around the United States. Companies named in the lawsuit will be required to change their practices.

The settlement requires Teva and Allergan to abide by strict limitations on how they market and distribute opioids. This includes bans on lobbying, on incentivizing employees based on the amount of opioid-based drugs they sell, and on giving funding or grants to third parties.
Additionally, Walmart and CVS have been ordered to change how they handle opioids. This includes requirements to address their compliance structures, pharmacists’ judgment, suspicious order monitoring and red-flag processes.
The settlement is the latest step in getting some form of retribution for the practices companies put in place that led to heightened opioid addiction and overdoses. The goal is also to enact measures to ensure these practices are not put in place again.
Between 1999 and 2020, more than 564,000 Americans died of opioid overdoses. The dramatic spike in overdoses was largely driven by the overprescribing of opioid-based drugs, dishonest marketing and hiding of the drugs’ dangers.
According to the CDC, about 75% of the 91,799 drug overdose deaths in 2020 involved an opioid.
East Lansing’s 54-B District Court has been home to a “drug court” specifically dedicated to helping people with addiction and drug use disorders to recover. The goal is to provide whole-life support to break cycles of harm.
Find out what else happened in East Lansing this week in this ELi report.