Opioid settlement funds must go where they’re needed

We know the precedent we need to avoid. The tobacco settlement funds that came to Connecticut have served a variety of purposes, but action against tobacco-related harms was rarely one of them. We can’t make the same mistake with opioid-related funds.

Attorney General William Tong recently made his stance clear on this matter. “From the very beginning, state attorneys general have adhered to an overarching principle — that the money we recover from wrongdoers must be directed to ‘abatement,’ i.e., strategies, initiatives and programs that help our states, victims and their families confront and overcome the crisis in opioid abuse and addiction,” he said in a letter to Republican and Democratic leaders of the state House of Representatives and state Senate. Treatment, prevention and addiction science are to take top priority, he said.

Connecticut’s share of the $26 billion agreement reached with pharmaceutical distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson will total about $300 million. In most contexts, that’s a lot of money, but in the scope of the state budget, it could disappear quickly. That’s why it’s imperative to see that the money is directed where it needs to go.

State Republican leaders were quick to note the history of the tobacco-related funds. “We must not repeat the infamous misuse of the state’s tobacco settlement funds,” they said in a letter to Tong, referring to Connecticut’s share totaling some $2.8 billion in money from tobacco companies related to past wrongdoing. “In Connecticut, funds promised to curb smoking have far too often been relied upon as a budgetary escape hatch.”

According to the nonprofit Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, only about 2 percent of the $27 billion that states will collect this year from the landmark 1998 settlement with tobacco companies and tobacco taxes will be spent on programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit.

While both represent substantial public health crises, the rate of smoking has declined over the years, while deaths related to opioids continue to increase. Last year, 1,273 people in the state died from opioidinvolved overdoses, up 13 percent from 2019, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

That number could continue to grow this year as effects from the coronavirus pandemic continue. And though settlements are also in the works with Purdue Pharma, the Stamford-based company behind OxyContin, the crisis is not showing any signs of slowing down.

Opioid-related deaths do not make daily headlines the way COVID does, but the situation is just as serious. Nearly everyone has been touched in some fashion by the overdose crisis, and many more are likely to be affected in years to come. Without a concentrated public policy response, the situation is not going to reverse itself.

That’s the opportunity provided by the settlement funds. Keeping people off of opioids in the first place and providing them a means to recover from addiction is the only way forward. Increasing punishments for criminals and wrongdoers can feel like progress, but it doesn’t solve the problem.

Connecticut needs to make sure the settlement funds go where they are most needed. Officials are on the right path so far. We need to ensure they stay there.

While both represent substantial public health crises, the rate of smoking has declined over the years, while deaths related to opioids continue to increase.