Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu
Earlier this month, a judge ruled in favor of the State of Wisconsin in their lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies.
The short version of the story is the State of Wisconsin is receiving $400 million from the companies as a part of the lawsuit which revolved around the opioid epidemic.
Senator Devin LeMahieu was on the WCUB Breakfast Club recently, where he explained that,“This is the result of lawsuits that have been going for about a decade with pharmaceutical companies for pushing opioids, getting people addicted to them, which has adverse effects. That’s a problem we have been fighting here in Wisconsin for a decade now.”
Seeing that the ruling was going to come down in the near future, LeMahieu’s office began drafting a bill a couple of months ago with the Counties Association to figure out how the money would be split.
“That money needs to be used for treatment for people that are suffering with substance abuse and things like that,” he said. “We passed that bill at the end of June, and the Governor signed that bill…so when this money actually arrives…we can divvy it out to health departments and things like that.”
That bill was just the latest in a series passed by the state legislature which aimed to reduce the amount of opioids prescribed by doctors to patients, and creating treatment programs.
LeMahieu said that lawmakers have been addressing the issue but “It’s still going on.”
