Senate passes House bill creating fund, council for opioid settlement funds

The Senate passed on Tuesday a House of Representatives bill that seeks to establish a fund from opioid settlement monies and a council to oversee funding for substance abuse treatment programs.

With all six senators present at a session voting “yes,” House Bill 23-80 now goes to the desk of Gov. Arnold I. Palacios for enactment.

Before passing the legislation, the senators adopted the Senate Committee on Fiscal Affairs’ report that recommended passage of the bill in its original form.

During the session’s public comments portion, Joseph Kevin Villagomez, who is the administrator of the Addiction Services Unit at the Community Guidance Center of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., said the bill is intended to shore up their infrastructure to address the problem of fentanyl and opioid abuse.

Villagomez said the problem is not in the CNMI yet, but the Commonwealth needs to gear up, as fentanyl and opioid abuse kills over 200,000 to 300,000 people per year in the United States.

He said they received some funding from a settlement two years ago and that they started training their clinicians to be able to address fentanyl overdose in the community.

Villagomez said their plan now is to use some of the fundings that they received to make sure they have enough medication to arm front-liners on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota should they come in contact with somebody that may have been abusing opioids, specifically fentanyl.

House vice speaker Rep. Joel C. Camacho (Ind-Saipan) introduced House Bill 23-80 last Oct. 5. The House unanimously passed the legislation that same day.

Camacho stated in the bill that the CNMI anticipates receiving substantial payments from the settlement of litigation against the manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioid analgesics, pharmacies dispending prescription opioid analgesics, and related parties for allegedly contributing to high rates of drug overdoses and other drug-related harms.

He said this bill establishes a dedicated fund for substance abuse disorder abatement, and creates a council to handle the award of monies to agencies that engage in substance abuse disorder abatement.

Under the bill, the Opioid Litigation Proceeds Fund is established in the Commonwealth treasury. It will be administered by the Department of Finance.

Joel Camacho