A decision to reject the opioid settlement is a major blow to states to local

governments, individuals and tribes all expecting more than six billion dollars.

For more on the court's decision we are joined joined now by Brian Mann, who covers this as NPR's

National Addiction Correspondent.

Brian, it's worth underscoring here what you've reported on for a long time that more than 300,000 Americans have died from

opioid overdoses since the year 2000. Just briefly remind us about the

roles played by Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family in the making of that crisis.

Yeah, so when Purdue Pharma introduced OxyContin under the leadership of members of the

Sackler family, they pushed hard and marketed this medication as lower risk something

that more doctors more dentists more people across the medical industry could

prescribe almost casually and it turns out OxyContin was highly addictive. It opened the floodgate to

this addiction and overdose death crisis that we're still in the middle of now.

We're seeing 100,000 opioid and drug deaths every year in the United States and a lot of public health experts say the opening gate of that was Purdue Pharma's marketing of OxyContin.

So the tribes, the states, the families who wanted to see this deal go through, now it is not,

what are you hearing from them in the way of a reaction?

There's a really complicated mixed reaction out there. A lot of these people say, yes, they want

members of the Sackler family who deny any wrongdoing held accountable for their role in

opioid crisis. But at the same time the family was

offering this six billion dollar chunk of cash out of their own. Oh I

apologize to our viewers at home. Brian I'm so sorry we seem to have lost your audio.

But we thank you so much for joining us tonight.

That's Brian Mann, NPR's National Addiction Correspondent.

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