The St. Louis Board of Aldermen Health and Human Development Committee voted to give a due-pass recommendation for a bill that authorizes the city Department of Health to accept recent opioid settlement payments and appropriate them for prevention, treatment, education and recovery efforts.

The payments cited at the committee meeting included $48,153.29 from Walgreens and a one-time payment of $304,591.02 from McKinsey & Company. "These amounts can only be used ... to support prevention, treatment, education, and recovery efforts for opioid use and abuse, substance use abuse, and related behavioral health conditions," Craig Smith of the Department of Health told the committee.

The bill authorizes the department to accept settlement proceeds received by the city pursuant to national opioid settlement agreements and to execute contracts as needed to expend the funds. Committee members were told some of the settlement money is already allocated across existing contracts and that the department requires Board approval to accept the new payments.

The committee moved the measure forward with a due-pass recommendation. The clerk recorded the previous-roll result as three ayes and no recorded objections during the roll call; the committee chair then directed that the bill be forwarded with a due-pass recommendation to the full board for final consideration.

Committee discussion focused on routine acceptance of restricted settlement funds and brief staff explanations of intended allowable uses; no substantive amendments or conditions were raised on the floor during the committee meeting.