Spilled bottle of white pills on wooden table
January 25, 2024

Johnson & Johnson to Pay $150 Million in Washington Opioid Lawsuit.

What Happened?

Four years after the state of Washington sued Johnson & Johnson in 2020 for its key role in the growing opioid crisis, the pharmaceutical giant was ordered on Wednesday, January 24 to pay a $149.5 million settlement to help fund substance abuse treatment and increase access to overdose-reversal drugs. $123.3 million will be split between the Washington state government and various local governments, and the remaining $26.2 million will go to the office of Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson to pay for legal costs.

The 2020 lawsuit claimed that Johnson & Johnson cultivated narcotic-producing poppy plants for its own opioid products– both naturally-derived and synthetic– and ultimately became the top U.S. supplier of raw narcotic materials for opioid manufacturers. Furthermore, the lawsuit suggested that J&J pushed prescription narcotics into Washington state and convinced the public, including medical professionals, that opioids could safely treat chronic pain without causing addiction.

“They knew what the harm was. They did it anyway.”

– ATTORNEY GENERAL Bob ferguson

Moving Forward

According to the Washington State Department of Health, opioid-related deaths in the state more than doubled in 2022 compared to in 2019. Reducing the societal damage caused by synthetic opioids, according to Attorney General Ferguson, is mission-critical.

“We have an urgent need for resources to address the fentanyl crisis that is impacting communities in every corner of the state,” Ferguson told reporters after the agreement was announced. “We are standing up to some of the largest corporations in the world that fueled the epidemic in pursuit of profit, and we are winning critical resources that must be used to address the harm.”

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