Montgomery County approves $1.67 million in Juul/Altria settlement funds for youth vaping prevention and outreach

The Montgomery County Council on Jan. 23 unanimously approved a $1,672,848 supplemental appropriation to the Department of Health and Human Services for youth vaping and nicotine addiction response, officials said.

Dr. Keisha Davis, the county health officer, told the council the settlement funds are intended for "compensatory restitution or remediation of the past, current, and future damages caused by the vaping" industry and that the county intends to direct part of the money to two immediate initiatives — Beyond the Gloves and the Street Outreach Network — and to a competitive community awards program. "By investing in these programs, we address the immediate and long term impacts of the vaping epidemic on our most vulnerable populations," Davis said.

The appropriation would allocate $250,000 to Beyond the Gloves, which focuses on mentorship, fitness and health resources for youth, and $100,000 to the Street Outreach Network to expand daily outreach and after-school programming that connects youth to health, mental-health and substance-use supports. The executive also proposed a Jewel/Altria community-awards pool of up to $1.3 million to be awarded to as many as three organizations that demonstrate collaborative, youth-centered approaches focused on Black, Latino and low-income communities in high-impact ZIP codes including Aspen Hill, Glenmont, Silver Spring, Wheaton, Gaithersburg and parts of Germantown and Montgomery Village.

Davis said the county expects about $4.1 million in total from the Juul/Altria settlement, with roughly $3.1 million received so far. She added that the remaining payments from Juul were expected in future installments and that final amounts could shift depending on litigation and additional lawsuits.

Councilmembers pressed the administration on how the one-time funds would be used to create sustainable results. "How are we taking into account that these are one-time funds to ensure that we're setting everybody up who receives them for success?" the Chair asked. Davis replied that the county intentionally reserves some funds to identify best practices and to build infrastructure and partnerships that can be sustained beyond the one-time payments.

The executive said the community-awards notice of funding availability will require applicants to show collaborative approaches, capacity to reach target populations and evaluation plans; grants management will work with the Department of Health and Human Services and community reviewers to score applications. Rafael from the Office of Grants Management was identified as the contact for rapid rollout once the council approves the appropriation; the county estimated disbursement could take 8 to 16 weeks depending on council revisions and awardee responsiveness.

Councilmember Malueke raised a procedural concern about alignment with the settlement language, asking whether programs such as RecMode and the Street Outreach Network fit the restitution and remediation intent. The administration said it had consulted the county attorney and interpreted the settlement broadly to allow prevention, cessation, family education and community supports that address the disproportionate harms experienced by certain youth populations. "The community awards program can go up to a higher age group," Davis said in response to a question about serving young adults who were exposed as minors.

The council approved the appropriation by motion and recorded the outcome as unanimous; individual roll-call tallies were not specified in the public transcript. The council discussed next steps for rolling out the competitive awards and returning to the council with final NOFA language and scoring criteria.