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By Tegbir Kaur
How Alameda County is allocating $80 million to innovate action plans addressing the ongoing opioid emergency
A national lawsuit filed in January 2025 alleging that the popular pharmacy chain Walgreens was guilty of illegally filling millions of fraudulent opioid prescriptions was settled for $350 million, according to a press release in late April.
Because the case was filed under The False Claims Act brought by national entities and programs such as Medicare and Medicaid that claimed they were defrauded, a significant portion of the settlement went to these organizations, as per NPR reporting. However, this settlement is part of a recent pattern of pursuing a legal route of action to mitigate the opioid crisis—the spoils of which have found their way into Alameda County.
In particular, a multibillion dollar settlement reached in 2023 with many opioid distributors, including Walgreens, initially had the distributors pledging around $40 million to the county to be designated to the California Abatement Accounts Fund and the California Subdivision Fund to address the opioid crisis, reported The Oaklandside and the California Department of Health Care Services.
However, additional settlements have since increased the initial estimated amount of funding. According to a presentation created by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors’ Health Committee in mid-April, the revised total amount paid from settlement funds designated for the county is up to $80 million.
With the $23.3 million Alameda County has received to date, $17.8 million has been allocated specifically toward a multitude of abatement strategies. Among these strategies is a commitment to the expansion of Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), or the combination of FDA-approved medication with different types of therapy to support patients battling with addiction, which has been a particularly crucial resource to maintain at local jails like Santa Rita.
These funds have also supported the Alameda Health System’s Bridge Clinic, which has dedicated itself to the distribution of medicine to assist with addiction and withdrawal. One such medicine, naloxone, has proved to work as an opioid antagonist, meaning that it serves as effective treatment for opioid overdoses. For the 2025-2026 year, $30,000 of the abatement funds have been pledged to aid with its distribution.
Grants made by the Alameda County Health System in collaboration with the Three Valleys Community Foundation to over 12 community organizations, including the Bay Area One Health Coalition and Tha Town, amount to around $3 million and were given as a push for “new and impactful ways to address the opioid crisis,” according to David Haubert, the president of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.
With overdose and addiction rates only climbing in the past few years, it is imperative that various approaches are taken to mitigate the damage of this epidemic; Alameda County has taken steps in the right direction by devoting funds gathered due to alleged propagations of the crisis to a wide variety of strategies addressing different aspects of the issue.
No amount of money can truly compensate for the unrelenting suffering plaguing those who have been hit hard by the opioid crisis; yet, the careful allocation of county funds toward the matter demonstrates that we as a community are ready to take accountability for previous mistakes—the first step toward collective healing.
This article was written as part of a program to educate youth and others about Alameda County’s opioid crisis, prevention and treatment options. The program is funded by the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department and the grant is administered by Three Valleys Community Foundation.
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