State to get $132M settlement from opioid retailers

New Mexico will receive $132 million to fund opioid addiction abatement efforts under the terms of a recent settlement with pharmacy chain operators Walmart, CVS and Albertsons, the state Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday.

The agency will mount an effort to get local governments signed up to receive a share of the settlement proceeds in the next three months.

“The settlement divides funds between State and local governments and requires all funds to be spent on efforts to address the opioid crisis statewide,” the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.

The settlement is one of several the state has reached to resolve lawsuits seeking to hold entities involved in the sale and distribution of prescription opioids accountable for costs associated with an opioid epidemic that has ravaged the state and nation.

The settlement brings the total obtained to date to more than $368 million, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

The agency recently concluded a monthslong trial against Walgreens in which the state has asked District Judge Francis J. Mathew to order the pharmacy chain to fund a $24 billion abatement plan.

The pharmacies were supposed to act as a dam, keeping the drugs from flooding the market in “massive surges,” Attorney General Hector Balderas said in his opening statement in the trial.

Instead, Balderas said, the defendants “smashed those dams wide open” — dispensing with safety protocols in a desire to reap historic profits from the sale of opioids. The result: serious harm and sometimes death.

Mathew has indicated he could make a ruling in the case before the year’s end.

Drug manufacturers Teva and Allergan, along with drug distributor Anda, are scheduled for trial in the state’s opioid litigation in March.