Opioid Settlement Bill Signed Into Law by Governor

(KNSI) – Governor Tim Walz has signed a bill allocating opioid settlement funds within the state. The agreement totals $26 billion across the country. Minnesota’s share is roughly $300 million, and it will be paid by a coalition of pharmaceutical companies over 18 years.

The Opioid Response Bill was passed out of the state House and Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. County governments will get 75% of the settlement funds, with the state retaining the rest.

Senator Julie Rosen, a Republican from Fairmont, says, “This bill will guarantee that communities can receive those funds as soon as possible. The opioid crisis devastated families across Minnesota. The historic settlement agreement with opiate manufacturers will never undo the damage they caused, but it will help those families and our communities recover – and, hopefully, help us avoid a crisis like that ever again.”

There are disturbing new signs that the toll of suicides and overdoses that have ravaged towns and cities of all sizes across the country is not over. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention upped its estimates regarding the number of people who killed themselves in 2021. The CDC believes over 107,000 Americans took their lives last year.

Senator Chris Eaton, a Democrat representing Brooklyn Center, says, “This is the outcome we all wanted, and I am anticipating an abundance of good work coming from the local level to combat this opioid epidemic.”

Painkillers are highly addictive. Many Americans become hooked after receiving a legal prescription when dealing with injury or rehabbing after surgery. They eventually find themselves turning to heroin and other illicit narcotics off the street to further their habit. Overdose deaths have raged for the better part of a decade, fueled recently by the emergence of fentanyl. The destructive cycle of addiction has also caused suicides to surge.

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