Don’t waste opioid settlement, Conn.

Whatever money Connecticut might get from a settlement with the company accused of fueling the opioid crisis must go toward stopping addiction. The state can’t disappoint on this, as it did with the huge tobacco settlement reached in 1998.

Connecticut spends virtually none of its $110 million-plus annual tobacco-settlement take on stopping kids from smoking or helping smokers kick the habit, according to Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. The group ranks Connecticut dead last in the nation on tobacco prevention spending.

This is “severely hampering (Connecticut’s) ability to respond to the youth vaping epidemic and tobacco use disparities,” says the American Lung Association.

Will this same indifference hamper Connecticut in dealing with the opioid scourge?

Deaths from opioid overdoses in Connecticut have risen from 298 in 2012 to 1,273 last year. In other words, they are up to more than three deaths a day.

A deep look by Hearst writer Paul Schott into the devastation wrought by opioids is chilling. Many opioid deaths, the state has alleged, are linked to the painkiller OxyContin, produced by the now-bankrupt pharmaceutical giant Purdue Pharma of Stamford.

Connecticut’s lawsuit is among 3,000 local and state actions against the company that have been consolidated in Purdue’s bankruptcy case.

Purdue has denied that it engaged in misconduct that contributed to the opioid epidemic. It says its painkiller OxyContin makes up a small share of the market for pain drugs

But Edward Neiger, a lawyer for many of the victims suing the company, says Purdue wrote the playbook that other opioid companies followed in pushing their products.

In 2007, Purdue reached a settlement with Connecticut and two dozen other states to resolve lawsuits alleging it did not adequately disclose the risks of abuse and addiction to OxyContin.

Connecticut’s current lawsuit alleges that from 2007 to 2018, Purdue’s marketing blitz continued as it rewarded high-prescribing doctors with meals, gifts and money. Purdue denies the accusation. It has proposed settling this and all other lawsuits.

“Our goal is to achieve a global settlement that would deliver more than $10 billion in value, including 100 percent of Purdue’s assets, to address the opioid crisis,” Purdue said.

Whatever money might come Connecticut’s way, it has pledged to put the funds toward tackling opioid addiction instead of doing what did with tobacco settlement money — throwing it into the state’s general fund to balance the budget.

“My biggest disappointment is not being able to determine how the nearly $5 billion in settlement money allocated to Connecticut has been spent,” Richard Blumenthal said back in 2008 when he was attorney general.

Let’s not let that happen again. The opioid crisis has ruined too many lives. Connecticut can’t turn its back on victims.