Deadly Outcomes that Millions Cannot Change: Opioid Crisis Settlement Cases

  By: Mizia Claire Wessel
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        Earlier this month, the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson entered into a $20.4 million settlement with counties in Ohio state in an opioid case. The settlement marks one of the first federal opioid related cases to be brought against a pharmaceutical company. While a large sum of the payment will be funneled toward opioid addiction treatment, settling litigation leaves us a long way from solving the deep rooted and deadly consequences of the opioid crisis across our country.
           
         One of the most serious and dire effects of the opioid epidemic is its link to deaths by suicide. In a study in Flint, Michigan, researchers found that 39% of patients at a local hospital described one of the main reasons for the opioid or sedative overdose was because they either wanted to die or did not care about the risks. Moreover, most patients prescribed opioids are suffering from chronic pain. As a result, they are often more likely to suffer from mental illnesses such as depression and therefore also at a higher risk of suicide. Opioid users are a higher-risk population when it comes to death by suicide; a truth that pharmaceutical companies like Johnson & Johnson have been slow to address.  
 
           While companies like Johnson & Johnson may fail to adequately address the consequences of the opioid epidemic, politicians on both sides of the aisle are paving the way for a shift in this mindset. U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and U.S. Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) announced legislation in March 2019 to limit opioid prescriptions for acute pain to less than a week. While this bill may not help those using opioid prescriptions for chronic pain, it is a step in the right direction in terms of how to critically think and enact change for those suffering as a result of the epidemic.
 
            A change in the views about mental health and opioid usage is also happening at the level. In Washington, D.C., for example, the newly created Community Response Team is actively working to connect opioid users to crisis response as well as longer term mental health support. Hopefully, grass-roots movements like the one in D.C. will spread to the federal level to help those most at risk and help destigmatize the opioid crisis around the United States.
 
 
 Sources
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/messages/2019/suicide-deaths-are-a-major-component-of-the-opioid-crisis-that-must-be-addressed.shtml
 
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306460317304380?via%3Dihub
 
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/02/766332253/in-opioid-settlement-johnson-johnson-agrees-to-pay-ohio-counties-20-million
 
https://www.gillibrand.senate.gov/news/press/release/senators-gillibrand-and-gardner-announce-bipartisan-legislation-to-combat-opioid-crisis-by-limiting-prescriptions-to-seven-days
 
https://wtop.com/dc/2019/10/d-c-s-fight-against-the-opioid-epidemic-includes-an-expansion-of-community-based-mental-health-support/