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Use drug money as revenue

I have a question and a suggestion about West Virginia’s budget and financial situation. We are millions of dollars in the hole. But our Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has been suing large pharmaceutical companies and drug distribution companies for bringing in huge numbers of painkillers (one source said 22 million hydrocodone pills and 76 million oxycodone pills were brought into West Virginia).

Where’s the money? Where do the fines go? And how sensible would it be for the fines to be returned to the state of West Virginia? The drug epidemic costs West Virginia $40 million per year, so the fines would go a long way toward making up the loss. Recently, Morrisey settled with 1) J.M. Smith Corporation (revenues of $5 billion) for a teeny tiny fine of $400,000; 2) TOP RX (annual revenue of $98.4 million) for a fine of $200,000; and 3) Masters Pharmaceutical LLC. J.M. (annual revenues of $45 million) for a fine of $200,000.

Also, Morrissey sued and won $4.2 million from five drug companies, plus $2.5 million from Miami-Luken, and $16 million from Amerisource Bergen. Cardinal Healthcare had quarterly revenues of $33.15 billion, and settled for $20 million.

OK, so two questions: Is West Virginia receiving adequate compensation for the wreckage these companies caused by deliberately flooding our area with addictive opioids? We could certainly direct our attorney general to insist on settlements more equal to the damage caused.

And if I add up what’s been reported to date, it looks like West Virginia is being paid almost $43 million in settlement fees. Where does that money go? The governor is proposing $26.6 million in cuts to education, libraries, the arts, labor, mentoring and tourism. The drug fines could easily be used to cover these costs as well as reduce the need for increases in DMV and sales taxes.

Move that source of revenue where it can do some good.

Wendy Tuck

Parkersburg

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