Berrien County is getting a larger opioid settlement payout than previously expected.

The Berrien County Board of Commissioners on Thursday approved an agreement to accept roughly $2 million more in settlement funds over the next 18 years. County Administrator Brian Dissette told us the money is the county’s portion of a payout to the state as part of a lawsuit against several makers of opioids.

The county must use the money to fight addiction.

“The state of Michigan through the Attorney General’s office has made abundantly clear that these dollars were set aside very intentionally and it is to combat addiction issues and we have to be thoughtful in how we use the dollars, we have to be thoughtful in are we getting good return on the investment,” Dissette said.

The county was previously expected to receive about $8 million as part of the opioid settlement, but that’s now up to about $10 million. Dissette says the Opioid Settlement Task Force will be discussing how to use the opioid dollars.

“Anything that is done with the use of opioid funding is first we run it through the committee, we try to do a bid process, we try to do an annual collection of data process, and then ultimately the spend will have to be approved by the board of commissioners.”

So far, the county has used opioid settlement money to support two transitional living homes for men leaving inpatient rehab centers or prison and expanded opioid treatment services and peer recovery programming. It’s been working with the First Church of God in St. Joseph on the former and Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Center on the latter.

This latest bit of opioid money comes from a settlement reached by Purdue Pharma.