Suffolk County must spend opioid settlement money wisely

There’s one fact about the cash Suffolk County will receive in the settlement of its lawsuit against opioid drug manufacturers and distributors that can be taken as either discouraging or encouraging. The money, expected to total $180 million and intended to fight addiction and its effects, will be distributed over 18 years, starting with $25 million this year.

That’s discouraging because it implies the storm of opioid addiction and the waves of death and destruction it is leaving in its wake won’t end anytime soon. It’s encouraging because the structure of the payout, for which Suffolk is now accepting grant applications, indicates the difficulty and endemic nature of this battle are finally coming to be understood.

Over the past two decades, thousands of Long Islanders have died from opioid overdoses. In 2016, Suffolk became the first county in the United States to file suit against drug companies for their role in many of those deaths, a lawsuit Nassau County and the state of New York soon joined. It had become increasingly apparent that manufacturers of prescription pain pills, and oxycodone in particular, knowingly lied to the federal Food and Drug Administration, doctors, and patients about the addictive nature of new painkiller formulations.

The drug companies’ aggressive marketing and dishonesty led to an avalanche of prescriptions being written, dispensing pills to patients who didn’t understand the risks of addiction and succumbed in heartbreaking numbers. As the scope of the addiction crisis grew and states like New York took steps to cut down on the availability of both legal and black-market pain pills, the supply of those pills declined and the street price skyrocketed.

A lot of those addicts moved to street drugs, and the street drug market for heroin boomed — even as extraordinarily deadly and potent fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 100 times stronger than heroin, made its way into the supply. The problem, though difficult, was not intractable. Progress on cutting deaths and new addictions was made … until the pandemic left too many people lonely, depressed, isolated, bored, fearful and hopeless. Now the numbers, of lives ended and families torn asunder, are worse than ever.

It’s good that the money is there, but it won’t be a panacea and it can’t be wasted. 

The best possible practices on addiction prevention, treatment and recovery must be pursued. An eagle-eyed accounting of what does and does not work in the programs this new money funds must be compiled, and must inform future action.

And along with education, addiction prevention, treatment and recovery, the practice of harm reduction, in which addicts who are not ready to quit are helped to lessen the danger and ill effects of drug use, must be a focus.

Addiction is a disease of the mind, body and spirit. Many suffer from it because of the crimes and lies of pharmaceutical companies. And all who do, deserve help.