Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, has made a new offer to settle nationwide opioid litigation, increasing its contribution and guaranteeing that funding will go toward helping individuals and communities devastated by the opioid epidemic. In a filing to bankruptcy court, Purdue upped its offer to $4.2 billion over a decade—from around $3 billion—mostly from members of the firm’s founding Sackler family, who would relinquish control of the company. And it proposed setting up trust funds to handle distribution of the money to victims, hospitals and Native American organizations, rather than going into the general coffers of state and local governments. Purdue is not out of the woods yet, as a bankruptcy court and tens of thousands of parties to the litigation must approve the settlement proposal.
Meanwhile, Kevin Sabet writes in the New York Post that the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package will deliver $100 billion to New York State to shore up its budget shortfall—thereby eliminating one of the main arguments that Big Post uses to push for marijuana legalization. Legalization would also fail to create an “equitable” industry, wipe out the illicit market, and keep the drug away from young people, Sabet writes.
And finally, legal weed is also under debate in Rhode Island, where lawmakers are discussing two major questions: how much revenue will be generated from legalization, and would this have to go toward the increased costs associated with addiction that legalization is expected to cause? Unlike other legal states, Rhode Island is considering these issues before it moves ahead with allowing easier access to weed.