Native American tribes reached major settlements over the massive toll that opioids took totaling more than half a billion dollars with drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and the three largest drug distribution companies in the U.S.
Johnson & Johnson, along with distribution companies AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson, were accused of knowingly pushing addictive drugs into vulnerable communities.
Broad terms for the settlement were laid out in the filing in the U.S. District Court in Cleveland. Some of the details are still being negotiated and hashed out.
The settlement is open for participation for each and every federally recognized Native American tribe in the country, even if the tribe itself did not file a lawsuit over opioids. There are 574 federally recognized tribes in the U.S., and it will be up to each of them to determine whether to participate in the settlement. The money must be used in relation to the opioid crisis.
It is likely that there will be additional lawsuit settlements between other firms and tribes that were hit the hardest by the opioid overdose crisis. A huge number of tribes have sued over opioids, with more than 400 tribes and intertribal organizations issuing lawsuits, making up for a shocking 80 percent of Native American citizens.
Opioid overdoses have run rampant in Native American tribes. According to studies, in 2015 Native Americans had the highest per capita rate of overdoses out of any population group in the United States.
The chairman of the Washington state-based Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, W. Ron Allen, said that it was a big deal for tribes to be able to reach their own settlement. This is in stark contrast to tobacco industry deals that happened in the 1990s, which left out the Native American population.
While Allen does not expect his tribe, which makes up close to 600 people, to receive very much from the settlement, he said it will help efforts to build healing centers for those addicted to opioids.
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