To understand why state and local governments are tussling over opioid lawsuit money before any verdicts or settlements, just look at what happened to tobacco settlement money.
FILE - This Sept. 17, 2015, file photo shows a sign barring smoking at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City. The signs were paid for by the Oklahoma Health Department, which works in conjunction with the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust to reduce smoking. Fifteen years after its creation, programs launched by the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust have dramatically reduced tobacco use among Oklahomans.
“If we don’t use dollars recovered from these opioid lawsuits to end the opioid epidemic, shame on us,” Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear said. In their lawsuits, the governments contend the brand-name manufacturers fraudulently downplayed the addiction risks of the powerful painkillers while encouraging doctors to prescribe their patients more drugs and at higher doses. They also argue that drugmakers and distributors failed to stop suspiciously large shipments. The defendants dispute the allegations.
“Most states have used their settlement recoveries, which are massive, for everything but the problem that gave rise to the litigation,” said Doug Blake, a former Minnesota assistant attorney general who worked on the state’s tobacco settlement. Close to 2,000 local governments have made claims against the drug industry. While the states’ lawsuits are in state court, most of the city and county claims are in federal court, where they have been consolidated under one Cleveland-based judge who is pushing for a settlement.
The sum does not include other crisis-related costs sprinkled throughout the county budget: $156,000 for opioid treatment for jail inmates, cleaning up “needle parks” and holding an annual recovery softball game.
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