ALISO VIEJO, Calif.—The Aliso Viejo City Council unanimously approved to opt into a $26 billion settlement agreement with opioid painkiller distributors and manufacturers on Dec. 1, receiving an estimated total of $226,000 over 18 years. The council approved the item without a discussion, Mitzi Ortiz, director of government services for Aliso Viejo, told The Epoch Times. Earlier this year, opioid manufacturer Janssen (owned by Johnson & Johnson) and the “big three” distributors—McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health—resolved their liabilities in over 3,000 opioid crisis-related suits nationwide through a settlement offer. Broken into two separate deals, the distributors pay $21 billion over 18 years, and Janssen spends $5 billion over seven years in the litigation brought by states and cities across the United States. Aliso Viejo joins over 80 other cities and counties in California to recover monetary damages. California is one of 41 states in the settlement. “Nothing can undo the devastating …