Taylor Knopf, a North Carolina well being information reporter and moderator of the “Following the opioid settle cash” panel session at Well being Journalism 2022 in Austin.
Billions of {dollars} are quickly to be rolling out within the states to settle hundreds of lawsuits filed towards opioid producers, distributors and retailers.
Journalists will play a vital position in shedding mild on whether or not the {dollars} will really go in direction of addressing the opioid disaster, which killed an estimated 80,816 Individuals in 2021, and greater than 500,000 since 1999, according to CDC information. Total drug overdose deaths have been 107,622 in 2021, up 15% from 2020.
To assist reporters cowl this subject, Taylor Knopf, a North Carolina well being information reporter, Shelly Weizman, a lawyer on the Georgetown College O’Neill Institute for Nationwide and World Legislation middle and Albie Park, an addiction counselor, provided assets and ideas throughout a Could 1 session at Well being Journalism 2022 in Austin.
“If we’re going to get this proper with these opioid settlements, it’s going to take an excessive amount of accountability and transparency and staying on high of this,” mentioned Weizman, who can also be affiliate director of habit and public coverage initiative on the O’Neill Institute.
Earlier this yr, the nation’s three largest drug distributors and a drug producer agreed to pay $26 billion to settle hundreds of state and native lawsuits, whereas Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, agreed to pay as a lot as $6 billion to settle lawsuits and emerge from chapter safety. Different lawsuits are nonetheless pending, however cash from the instances settled are anticipated to start flowing in 2022.
Weizman and Park mentioned their greatest concern was that many of the settlement cash wouldn’t go to making an attempt to handle the opioid epidemic, however as a substitute would find yourself basically state and native authorities coffers for use for different issues like roads and schooling. That is what occurred with the settlement {dollars} from tobacco lawsuits settled in 1998. A lot of the states spent very little of the cash for smoking cessation and prevention applications.
So, getting on top of things on the hundreds of lawsuit settlements and what’s occurring in your state shall be key in coming months. Happily, Weizman, in her presentation offered a roadmap to understanding the authorized course of. The lawsuits, she says, could be considered by way of three buckets: the primary is the multi-district litigation that introduced collectively greater than 3,000 state and native authorities lawsuits in a federal courtroom in Ohio; the second is the state attorneys general cases and the third is civil enforcement and federal criminal prosecutions and malpractice fits introduced towards firm executives and physicians.
In February 2022, the multidistrict fits and the attorneys normal fits got here collectively for a worldwide settlement amount of $26 billion. However not all states, native entities and tribal communities agree with the settlement, so look into what is happening together with your state and the lawsuits.
On a separate authorized observe is Purdue Pharma, which filed for chapter and wasn’t topic to the multi-state and attorneys normal fits. The corporate agreed to pay $6 billion to emerge from chapter in change for absolving the corporate’s house owners — the Sackler household — from authorized legal responsibility.
Weizman’s group can also be monitoring what is going on within the states, the place some legislatures have proposed or handed payments to clarify the place opioid settlement {dollars} must be allotted. Reporters ought to watch that the state isn’t simply supplanting cash from the opioid settlement and utilizing it elsewhere relatively than increasing habit and prevention applications to cease the opioid epidemic.
“Maintain an in depth eye on whether or not that is really new cash” being allotted to [opioid addiction and prevention] applications, Weizman mentioned. Right here group has created a public coverage mannequin for states to make use of to construct and develop drug habit applications.
Park, who co-founded Hurt Discount Works and HRH413 urged reporters to look into whether or not opioid {dollars} shall be allotted towards habit applications that emphasize abstinence-only approaches, which don’t work for most individuals. A rising physique of evidence is displaying a mixture of methods, like offering treatment and protected locations for folks to make use of medication, is critical to assist folks handle their addictions and cut back opioid overdose deaths.
“We’ve this abstinence-only narrative about restoration and remedy,” mentioned Park. “That narrative solely works for a small minority of individuals.”
