Joe Nocera, Columnist

$26 Billion Opioid Settlement Doesn’t Go Far Enough

The money is inadequate and won’t change the companies’ behavior.

July 22, 2021 at 3:43 PM UTC

Joe Nocera is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He has written business columns for Esquire, GQ and the New York Times, and is the former editorial director of Fortune. He is the host and writer of the Bloomberg-Wondery podcast "The Shrink Next Door."

The money is unlikely to be a big difference maker for communities trying to end the opioid crisis.
Photographer: Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images

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Well, that didn’t take long.

Hours after a handful of state attorneys general announced they had reached a $26 billion settlement with four companies over their role in the continuing opioid crisis — Johnson & Johnson, McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp. — Bob Ferguson, the attorney general of Washington state, issued a news release summarily rejecting it.