Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 30 July 2019
Big question in opioid suits: How to divide any settlement

By GEOFF MULVIHILL suing partly because they
Associated Press think they can do a better
The roughly 2,000 state and job with the money than
local governments suing states did with the tobacco
the drug industry over the funds. Rice noted the opi-
deadly opioid crisis have oid crisis has run up costs for
yet to see any verdicts or local governments in ways
reach any big national cigarettes did not.
settlements but are already New Jersey's Camden
tussling with each other County, for instance, start-
over how to divide any ed allocating extra mon-
money they collect. ey for its Office of Mental
The reason: Some of them Health and Addiction to
want to avoid what hap- deal with problem back
pened 20 years ago, when in 2015. That first year, the
states agreed to a giant county of a half-million
settlement with the tobac- people just outside Phila-
co industry and used most delphia kicked in $150,000.
of the cash on projects that This year, it is up to $600,000.
had little to do with smok- The sum does not include
ing's toll. other crisis-related costs
"If we don't use dollars re- sprinkled throughout the
covered from these opioid This Sept. 17, 2015, file photo shows a sign barring smoking at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City. county budget: $156,000
lawsuits to end the opioid Associated Press for opioid treatment for
epidemic, shame on us," jail inmates, cleaning up
Kentucky Attorney General each year. ments under which tobac- sociated with the epidem- "needle parks" and holding
Andy Beshear said. In their lawsuits, the gov- co companies would pay ic, such as rising expenses an annual recovery softball
Overdoses from opioids, ernments contend the them forever. A tally by the for jails and mental health game.
which include prescrip- brand-name manufac- Campaign for Tobacco- services, more ambulance In the event of a nation-
tion painkillers and illegal turers fraudulently down- Free Kids found states have runs and police calls, and wide settlement, Rice and
drugs like heroin, have sur- played the addiction risks received more than $161 more children of addicts other lawyers represent-
passed automobile crashes of the powerful painkillers billion so far. placed in the care of the ing local governments
in recent years as the big- while encouraging doctors But some of the money has child-welfare system. have proposed a plan that
gest cause of accidental to prescribe their patients gone toward such things as There have been disputes would set in advance how
deaths in the U.S., account- more drugs and at higher roads, bridges or teacher within states over who much county and local
ing for the loss of more than doses. They also argue pensions. Some of the mon- should allocate money governments would get,
400,000 lives since 2000. that drugmakers and dis- ey went into states' general from opioid-related settle- based on the amount of
An Associated Press analy- tributors failed to stop sus- fund accounts, available ments. In Oklahoma, law- drugs shipped there, the
sis found that by 2011 and piciously large shipments. for all sorts of uses. makers objected earlier this overdose deaths and the
2012, the industry was ship- The defendants dispute the "Most states have used year when the state attor- number of people addict-
ping enough prescription allegations. their settlement recover- ney general struck a deal ed.
opioids to give every man, In the late 1990s, attorneys ies, which are massive, for with Purdue Pharma that In the case of a $1 billion
woman and child in the general for all 50 states everything but the prob- allocated much of a $270 national settlement, for in-
U.S. nearly a 20-day supply reached colossal settle- lem that gave rise to the million settlement to a cen- stance, Camden County
litigation," said Doug Blake, ter for treatment and re- would get $1.3 million, and
New York reduces a former Minnesota assis- search. The lawmakers said the communities in the
tant attorney general who they should be the ones to county would share an ad-
penalties for marijuana worked on the state's to- make those decisions. Law- ditional $900,000.
makers in West Virginia are But many attorneys gen-
bacco settlement.
possession The anti-smoking group asking the attorney general eral have asked U.S. Dis-
says that for the fiscal there to let them allocate trict Judge Dan Polster
year that ended in June, the $37 million settlement not to approve the plan.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New The law also requires that states took in $27.3 billion with the drug distributor Thirty-eight warned in a fil-
York's governor signed a bill records tied to low-level from the settlements and McKesson. ing this month that the pro-
Monday that softens pen- marijuana cases be au- from tobacco taxes and Close to 2,000 local govern- cess "would make 'global
alties for possessing small tomatically sealed and spent just 2.4% of that on ments have made claims peace' more, not less, dif-
amounts of marijuana and creates a process for ex- kick-the-habit and smok- against the drug industry. ficult to achieve."
allows for the expunge- pungement. It will take ef- ing-prevention programs. While the states' lawsuits The states also worry about
ment of some past offens- fect in 30 days. The group also found that are in state court, most of the wisdom of splitting set-
es. "Communities of color states spend, on average, the city and county claims tlement funds with local
The law changes an un- have been disproportion- less than one-fifth of what are in federal court, where governments.
lawful possession of mari- ately impacted by laws the U.S. Centers for Disease they have been consoli- "Doling out small buckets
juana statute into a viola- governing marijuana for far Control and Prevention dated under one Cleve- of funds without regard to
tion that's similar to a traffic too long, and today we are recommends on anti-smok- land-based judge who is how the funds should be
ticket, instead of a criminal ending this injustice once ing programs. pushing for a settlement. spent is the opposite of a
charge. and for all," Gov. Andrew In the opioid litigation, Joe Rice, an architect of 'coordinated' response,
Under the new law, the Cuomo said in a state- plaintiffs want to make sure the tobacco settlement which would balance
maximum penalty is $50 ment. People can still face the money goes toward and one of the lead lawyers statewide efforts — such
for possessing less than one probation violations and treating addiction and pre- in the opioid cases, with cli- as public education cam-
ounce of pot and a maxi- immigration consequences venting drug abuse. Some ents including both local paigns — with any local ef-
mum of $200 for between under the decriminalization also want to be reimbursed governments and states, forts," the attorneys general
one and two ounces. bill, George said.q for extra taxpayer costs as- said local governments are wrote.q