Colorado’s share of a $26 billion national opioid settlement will begin arriving later this year, and state and regional leaders tasked with overseeing much of its distribution met for the first time Thursday to begin laying the groundwork.

The Opioid Abatement Council, made up of 12 people from across the state and chaired by a non-voting Attorney General Phil Weiser or someone from his office, is tasked with ensuring Colorado’s share of the money is distributed according to the settlement agreement. The state is expected to receive nearly $400 million over the next 18 years as part of a settlement involving Johnson & Johnson and three large drug distributors. 

The money will likely become available in mid- to late summer, depending on when the national administrator of the entire settlement amount is appointed and settled. In Colorado, the state council’s framework – and the council itself – will also oversee any future opioid settlements. The settlement dollars can have a relatively wide array of uses, so long as they’re legitimately under the umbrella of abating the opioid crisis. That could include, officials said Thursday, drug-treatment programs that support users of opioids as well as other substances.

The money will be doled out across four categories: Twenty percent will go to local governments – all but a relative few of whom have signed on – based on a set formula. Sixty percent will be spread across 19 different regions in the state. Ten percent will go to infrastructure in parts of the state hit particularly hard by the opioid epidemic, and the final 10% will go directly to the state government.

Weiser, who chaired the group Thursday, said he was “deeply” concerned about the opioid epidemic in Colorado right now, which is being propelled by fentanyl and has led to significant increases in fatal overdoses in recent years. The crisis has been 25 years in the making, he said, and “it’s worse now than it’s ever been before.”

Much of Thursday’s meeting was educational: Council members received training on the state’s open meeting law and other information about serving on a public board.

But Weiser also urged local governments to consider pooling their settlement allotments. Under the 20% slice, each county and municipality is eligible to receive a set amount of money each year. They can choose not to, instead dumping their share into the larger regional pot. Anyone who does take the money must report on how they spent it each year or face “remedial” action from the council, said John Feeney-Coyle, a senior assistant attorney general.

With the exception of areas in the metro or El Paso County, Weiser said local governments should combine their funds to best make use of them. Crestone, for instance, will receive 38 cents or so a year, said Alamosa County Commissioner Lori Laske. 

Not only will small communities’ money not go very far, Weiser said, but the reporting requirements may be difficult, too.

Beyond the state’s major population areas, the attorney general said he would “have a hard time advising any municipality to keep the money.” It’d be better served combining it into the broader regional pot.

Each of the 19 regions – of which the metro constitutes several – has or will appoint a local council to lead their effort. They’ll each draw up an abatement plan describing how the money will be spent and to what effect, which will then be submitted to the state council for approval and oversight. 

The exact amount that each region receives will be understood soon, Feeney-Coyle said. City leaders in Denver said in December that the capital – which operates both as a local government and as its own region – will receive roughly $39 million over 18 years.