“I’m announcing a 290 million dollar statewide opioid settlement agreement with Johnson & Johnson to resolve the opioid crisis,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The attorney general’s statement Tuesday means that counties all over Texas could see dollar signs to help fight the opioid epidemic, like Grayson county.

“Today is a bold first step in holding a company financially accountable so that the county can get resources from responsible parties and put it back into the community to help people suffering from this disease,” said Jeffrey Simon with Simon Greenstone Panatier Law Firm.

Out of that multi-million dollar settlement, Grayson County Commissioners received and accepted around $140,000, which they say will go towards resources to help those impacted by the epidemic.

“We can use these funds to help some of the people that are in our jail system because of opioids, get them the help they need, and get them out of the system to reduce the cost to the taxpayer,” said Grayson County Judge Bill Magers.

More funding could be on the way too.

Grayson county, along with others, can apply for millions more for opioid-related harm reduction.

Paxton also said the state expects an additional 1.2 billion from three other companies.

“Over 70,000 Americans die every year from accidental opioid overdoses,” said Simon. “The epidemic is getting worse, not better, which means that the resources needed to combat it are growing, rather than decreasing.”

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