BY PEPPER FISHER
Port Angeles – As of Monday, July 28, more than 100 local governments in Washington are now eligible to claim their share of $122 million in settlements with Purdue Pharma and eight generic opioid manufacturers.
Port Angeles is one of the cities that will benefit from these settlement funds, which are earmarked to be used for programs that combat the opioid epidemic, support first responders, build treatment clinics, and provide overdose reversal kits.
A previous opioid settlement with the Kroger supermarket chain netted Port Angeles over $100,000. Those funds were used to support Operation Shielding Hope, a program run by the police and fire departments to tackle the opioid crisis.
City Manager Nathan West says the program has been a huge success.
“And I think it’s important to look at some of the metrics that we’ve seen, reported by Chief Sharp at the fire department recently, which includes, from 2024 to 2025 we saw Clallam County drop from the second highest overdose fatality rate in the state, to the 10th highest, as well as a reduction in fatal overdoses from 73% per 100,000 to 41% per 100,000.”
And since those numbers West quoted came out, the reduction of fatal overdoses further reduced to 34.8, a remarkable 63% drop in overdose fatalities.
These latest settlements will bring the City’s settlement totals to $2.66 million, to be paid out over a 15 year period, with much of the funding distributed in the first three years.
We asked West if these newest funds will be enough to sustain the current Operation Shielding Hope program, or might there be enough coming in to possibly expand it.
“First, we’re going to look at and ensure that those programs we have in existence are going to be sustained for a long period of time because, obviously, they’re doing a great deal of good in our community. So we’re going to look at that first. But yes, I do believe as we’re seeing more funding come in, and particularly with this latest settlement, we’re more likely to be in a scenario where we can expand and provide additional staff-related resources to these programs.”