Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that a bipartisan coalition of states and other parties have reached a $7.4 billion settlement, in principle, with members of the Sackler family and their company Purdue Pharma, Inc., for their role in fueling an opioid crisis that continues to devastate families and communities across Pennsylvania.
The settlement is subject to court approval, and preliminary figures indicate Pennsylvania will receive up to $212 million from the settlement, with payouts happening over the next 15 years.
“No dollar amount could ever replace what has been lost due to the opioid epidemic, but this settlement will go a long way in bolstering treatment resources and helping Pennsylvanians achieve recovery,” Attorney General Sunday said. “This epidemic, no doubt, was fueled by Purdue Pharma’s manufacturing and deceptive marketing of OxyContin, a highly potent and addictive drug. Dependency on the drug ruined countless lives, while the Sackler family and Purdue made more than $35 billion from its distribution, profiting off of the suffering of others.”
If approved, the settlement will deliver funds to the participating states, local governments - including Newtown Township - affected individuals, and other parties who have previously sued the Sacklers or Purdue.
A significant amount of the settlement funds will be distributed in the first three years, with the Sacklers paying $1.5 billion and Purdue paying nearly $900 million in the first payment, followed by $500 million after one year, an additional $500 million after two years, and $400 million after three years.
More details...
*Newtown may also be a special case as it inches closer to rezoning the LI-OLI district to include “mixed-use” and Town Center apartment buildings (listen to my “Concerns Regarding The #NewtownPA Business Commons Overlay Plan”; https://sco.lt/94mupM).
Some members of the Newtown Planning Commission expressed the hope that employees in the Business Commons (located in the LI-OLI district) would buy some of these apartments. It is unlikely, IMHO, that they would be able to afford million dollar apartments, which seems to be the favored price point of Arcadia’s development projects.