This summer, there’s been a great deal of news on the opioid lawsuit in Oklahoma and the Multidistrict Litigation suits here in Cleveland.

We’ve heard how communities and native tribes throughout the country have suffered at the hands of the pharmaceutical industry. With the ruling against J&J in the Oklahoma trial, and Purdue Pharma offering to settle for $12 Billion and giving up their company, it appears it’s time to pay the piper. So we thought this would be a good time to weigh-in on “How to put the settlement money to best use”.

Together, with Mountain Home Veterans Administration Medical Center’s addiction specialist Dr. Stephen Loyd, Lorain County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services’ President and CEO Tom Stuber, along with feedback from the Center on Addiction’s Director of Health Law and Policy Lindsay Vuolo, we collaborated on an op-ed that was published in USA Today.

So, in today’s podcast, we’ll share our op-ed which began as a rough draft on a drive through the Arizona desert in August.  It’s titled “The opioid crisis: The right way to spend billions in settlement money”

Join us, as we share our op-ed, the creative process behind it, and a way to honor those lost in the opioid epidemic.