The state and cities of Alabama will split nearly $300 million in legal funds from companies that produced and distributed addictive opioid painkillers, and now they face big decisions about how to spend it.

Some legal observers are closely watching how the process plays out in states across the country that mostly bungled the last public health settlement with Big Tobacco. Overall, less than 10 percent of tobacco settlement funds went back into programs to prevent smoking or help people quit.

Instead, in Alabama, much of the money went toward economic development programs that eventually lured Honda and Hyundai to the state. Another large chunk went toward funding the state Medicaid program. The state also spent $1 billion of the BP settlement from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on Medicaid and debt payments.

But this settlement should be different, said Christine Minhee, an attorney who runs a website tracking opioid settlement funds. Unlike the agreement with Big Tobacco, the settlements with opioid companies contain more requirements about where the money will go. At least 70 percent must go toward addressing the future fallout of the opioid epidemic and another 15 percent can pay for costs that have already been incurred.

Minhee said the remaining 15 percent of settlement funds are not specifically earmarked for opioid treatment.

“Some of these monies will be spent in the shadows,” she said.

She said states learned from the Big Tobacco settlement. For instance, North Carolina created a cutting-edge plan that will send most of its opioid settlement money to cities and counties that can spend it on local needs. The state came under fire after the tobacco deal for sending some of the settlement back to tobacco farmers in the form of subsidies.

“States didn’t have these plans for big tobacco money and, if they did, they were obfuscated within regular old appropriations statements,” Minhee said.

Alabama is unique because the state did not participate in the massive $26 billion national opioid settlement. Instead, Attorney General Steve Marshall filed separate lawsuits against opioid companies and settled for $276 million, an amount higher than the state would have received from the national deal.

“The opting out states have generally gotten a lot more money than the other states,” Minhee said. “It has paid off.”

The settlement was reached earlier this year. Members of the Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council will send a report to Gov. Kay Ivey outlining the state’s greatest needs. Then Ivey will include those suggestions in a budget proposed to the legislature.

Although Alabama did not take part in the national settlement, its agreements with Endo Pharmaceutical, McKesson and Johnson & Johnson have some restrictions on how the money is spent.

“The majority of the money has been recovered under settlement terms that require it to be used for opioid abatement,” said Mike Lewis, a spokesman for the Office of Attorney General. “This includes education, prevention and treatment.”

The national opioid settlement has 15 pages of approved uses, including several core strategies that must be included in state plans. Those include increasing access to naloxone, a drug that can reverse overdoses, medication for opioid abuse, treatment for pregnant women and syringe service programs, which provide access to sterile needles and don’t exist in Alabama.

States can use the money for other uses, but they should all be proven methods for treating or preventing addiction, Minhee said. Although the money is not supposed to pay for law enforcement, some states have earmarked portions for that, including Louisiana, which will send 20 percent to sheriffs.

Alabama has already received more than $7 million from a separate $9.2 million settlement with the consulting company McKinsey. That money has been sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, which has been overwhelmed by requests for drug testing, the Office of Prosecution Services, which will use the money for drug and mental health courts, and the Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Neglect.

Minhee said the McKinsey spending probably won’t tell us much about how states will spend the larger opioid settlements.

Alabama’s opioid council will hold another meeting in November. The council includes representatives from the Alabama Department of Public Health, Alabama Department of Mental Health and the Office of the Attorney General.

Several other members have backgrounds in law enforcement or substance use treatment. Minhee said the council should consider adding more members who have survived opioid addiction.

Minhee said the states have improved accountability for the opioid settlement funds compared to Big Tobacco. Most of that money did not go to smoking treatment and prevention.

“That won’t happen in the opioid context,” she said.