ABOUT BEST USE FOR OPIOID SETTLEMENT CASH

Makers and sellers of prescription painkillers will soon begin paying out billions of dollars to settle lawsuits that have accused them of fueling the opioid epidemic. Most recently, more than 40 states have agreed to accept $26 billion from Johnson & Johnson and three big drug distributors, to be paid out over 18 years. It’s a considerable sum — except when measured against more than half a million lives lost this century to opioid overdose, or the tens of billions that state, local and tribal governments spend each year to address the painkiller-heroin-fentanyl scourge.

This money, and billions more from other lawsuits, should be applied to preventing and treating addiction. The task requires a dedicated fund, and a focus on opioid-use disorder. States shouldn’t divert the cash to plug holes in their budgets, as they have with many of the billions they’ve received from tobacco litigation. And it is not enough to sustain current substance use disorder programs; they must be improved and expanded. …

Opioid lawsuit money should also be used to provide housing, childcare, employment counseling and other services to support people in treatment for opioid-use disorder. …

During the past year and a half, as COVID-19 has kept people at home, under stress and away from medical and mental health care, deaths due to opioid use disorder have spiked — especially among Black, Hispanic and Native American people. And it has been difficult for cities, counties and states to adequately respond. Windfalls from opioid lawsuits will arrive at a time of unprecedented need. States mustn’t waste the opportunity.