Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
A spirit that is not afraid

Auburn City Council announces opioid lawsuit settlement

<p>Auburn's City Council meets in the City Council Chamber at 141 N. Ross St. on May 4, 2021.</p>

Auburn's City Council meets in the City Council Chamber at 141 N. Ross St. on May 4, 2021.

 On Tuesday, the Auburn City Council authorized the execution of a settlement agreement with Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries over the company’s involvement in the ongoing opioid epidemic.

Preliminary conversations indicated that the City of Auburn would receive approximately 0.619% of a $70,329,014.38 lump sum as part of the settlement. In total, the city is slated to receive more than $435,000, which will be allocated towards overdose prevention and response. 

As part of the agreement, Johnson & Johnson will not admit liability or wrongdoing yet will also no longer be allowed to manufacture or distribute any opioids or opioid products in the State of Alabama.

The City of Auburn joined hundreds of other jurisdictions in the state seeking compensation after the State of Alabama filed a lawsuit against Janssen, the pharmaceutical company owned by Johnson & Johnson on June 20, 2019. 

According to data from the Alabama Drug Use Central Data Repository, the average annual rate of opioid prescriptions for Lee County was 6.5 per 1,000 residents from 2006 to 2020. 

In comparison, Lee County had an average opioid death rate of 1.71 per 1,000 residents from 2014 to 2018.

“I thank y’all for participating in this litigation,” said Christina Crow, an outside attorney for the City of Auburn. “I think it is very important for the people of the State of Alabama to address the opioid epidemic and to try to come up with effective ways to reduce the effect it’s having on our communities.”

During citizens’ open communication, Dr. Deja Ruddick, director of the Horseshoe Bend Regional Library, urged the City Council to approve the membership renewal.

The City Council also approved a membership agreement renewal with the Horseshoe Bend Regional Library at a cost of $45,846 from funding provided by the Alabama Public Library Service.

The Horseshoe Bend Regional Library provides library services to the residents of Coosa, Elmore, Lee, and Tallapoosa counties and conducts book deliveries to daycare centers around Auburn.

“While tradition does not equal obligation, it does mean that your library and our regional system have mutually benefited from our association for 62 years,” Ruddick said. “This state funding, which Auburn has so generously shared with us for more than half a century, has done incalculable good.”

From the perspective of Ward 2 Councilman Kelley Griswold, the membership renewal with the Horseshoe Bend Regional Library will benefit not only those living in surrounding counties but those living in Auburn themselves.

“Even though this doesn’t directly benefit Auburn, I believe our workforce within Auburn is drawn from surrounding counties, so I see this as beneficial to near-term and future workforce improvement,” Griswold said. “I will be supporting this.”

Those benefits include the operation of a service known as the ‘Bookmobile,’ which is a van that delivers library books and other materials across a broad swath of Alabama, including monthly stops in Auburn.

According to Ruddick, many beneficiaries of the ‘Bookmobile’ are homebound individuals, nursing homes, daycares and homeschool families among others that live in underserved areas.

Without the funding provided by the City of Auburn, Tyler Whitten, Auburn’s Library Director, said that the libraries involved in the agreement would have “a difficult time” replacing the funding if it were not approved.

The Council also filled three vacant positions on the Industrial Development Board. The vacancies were filled by incumbent board members Rod Cater and Martee Moseley and Jim Buston, a former Auburn city manager, over Walt Buie by a vote of 6 to 3.

“The IDB is a board that does a lot of outreach and represents our city, and Jim Buston has great knowledge of the inner workings of our city and what industries are looking for when they’re coming this direction,” said Ward 3 Councilwoman Beth Witten. “I think he would be a good asset for the board.”

Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Auburn Plainsman delivered to your inbox

Daniel Schmidt | Assistant News Editor

Daniel Schmidt, senior in journalism, is the assistant news editor for the Auburn Plainsman. 


Share and discuss “Auburn City Council announces opioid lawsuit settlement” on social media.