Idaho officials on Friday announced a $119 million settlement with drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and three major distributors over their role in the opioid addiction crisis, the Associated Press reported. Republican Gov. Brad Little and Republican Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said that it’s the second-largest consumer settlement in state history, trailing only the 1998 national tobacco settlement of $712 million. An Ada County judge on Wednesday approved the settlement that Little and Wasden had agreed to in August. The state’s participation made it eligible for a minimum of $64 million. It also opened the way for local government entities to take part, and all those eligible did so by the end of December, boosting the amount to $119 million. The money will address damage wrought by opioids, which the federal government declared a public health emergency in 2017. Johnson & Johnson and the three distributors finalized a national $26 billion settlement in February.
