The attorney general of Washington state has reached a settlement of $149.5 million with pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson. This comes over four years after the state filed a lawsuit against the company for their involvement in the opioid addiction crisis.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson stated to reporters on Wednesday that despite being aware of the potential harm, they still proceeded with their actions.

According to recent data from the Washington State Department of Health, there were 2,048 recorded opioid overdose deaths in 2022, more than double the number in 2019. The attorney general made this announcement.

The agreement requires that state and local governments allocate $123.3 million towards tackling the opioid epidemic. This includes funding for substance abuse treatment, making overdose-reversal medication more readily available, and providing services for pregnant women struggling with substance abuse. The remaining funds will be put towards covering legal expenses.

The damage is now in the hands of policymakers to deal with, according to the attorney general. Alternatively, families and individuals are left to deal with the true tragedy of addiction in a different manner.

The proposed settlement must still be approved by a judge. If it is accepted, the agreement would allocate over $20 million towards addressing the opioid epidemic, which is significantly more than what the state would have received from a 2021 nationwide settlement with Johnson & Johnson, according to the attorney general’s office.

In recent decades, pharmaceutical companies, distributors, and pharmacies have collectively paid over $50 billion to various state and local authorities as a resolution for their involvement in the opioid epidemic.

According to the agreements, the majority of the funds will be allocated towards addressing the country’s problem with addiction and overdose.

Between 1999 and 2021, over 1 million individuals in the United States lost their lives due to drug overdoses, with a majority of these incidents involving opioids. Initially, the issue revolved around the increased use of prescription painkillers in the 1990s, followed by heroin. In the last ten years, there has been a significant rise in fatalities, with synthetic opioids, like fentanyl, being the primary cause of death in many illicit drugs.

In 2020, the Democratic attorney general of Washington state filed a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson, accusing the company of contributing to the growth of prescription opioids in the pharmaceutical industry. The attorney general further contended that the company played a significant role in the opioid crisis in Washington by misleading doctors and the general population about the usefulness of opioids for long-term pain management and the potential for addiction.

In 2015, the attorney general’s office reported that the company was the leading provider of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in opioid medications within the country.

According to a statement released on Monday, Johnson & Johnson stated that their fentanyl patch, Duragesic, and Nucynta opioid only made up a small percentage of opioid prescriptions in both the state and the entire U.S. Furthermore, they clarified that they have not sold any prescription opioid medications in the country for several years.

According to the statement, the Company’s conduct regarding the advertising and promotion of crucial prescription opioids was fitting and ethical.

By the conclusion of the current fiscal year, funds will be granted, allowing the Legislature to designate the funds during the ongoing legislative session. The attorney general’s office states that half of the funds will be allocated to a state account, while the remaining half will be allocated to a local government account.

On Wednesday, Senator June Robinson, a Democrat, shared that she has personally witnessed the devastating effects of addiction on her children’s friends and parents who have lost their children in similar circumstances.

Unfortunately, these lawsuits have been ongoing since then and cannot bring back the lives we have lost,” she stated. “However, they are providing resources to our communities and state that we can use to aid in the recovery process and potentially prevent future addiction and crises similar to the current one we are facing.”

After two years, the nation’s top three distributors of opioids have agreed to pay $518 million to the state. The majority of this sum will be used to address the ongoing addiction crisis.

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Geoff Mulvihill, an AP reporter from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, made a contribution.