As the opioid overdose epidemic continues to ravage the United States, approximately 3,000 state and local governments have sued opioid manufacturers and distributors for compensation for opioid-related harms. These lawsuits have resulted in major structured settlements to certain states and local governments, presenting an opportunity to fund a public health approach to abate the epidemic. National experts partnered in 2021 to develop model state legislation that directs state use of opioid litigation proceeds to fund evidence-based substance use disorder prevention, treatment, recovery, or harm reduction programming, infrastructure, evidence-informed pilots, and establish a council to administer and direct the fund, among other activities.
This dataset is longitudinal and displays key features of laws that direct the use of opioid litigation proceeds across all 50 states and the District of Columbia in effect as of August 1, 2022, through December 1, 2023. This dataset was originally cross-sectional, valid through August 1, 2022. These data can be used to assess states’ progress in enacting the Opioid Litigation Proceeds Model Act, identify gaps in existing state laws, and demonstrate the utility of policy surveillance methods for assessing adherence and diffusion of model legislation.
The data were developed by the Center for Public Health Law Research at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law in partnership with the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association with funding from the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Executive Office of the President. Points of view or opinions expressed related to this dataset are those of the researchers and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the Office of National Drug Control Policy or the United States government.
These data, published in September 2024, were updated with support from the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE) and the Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse Addiction and Abatement Trust in partnership with The Pennsylvania State University.