Connecticut will receive $64 million as part of a massive $7.4 billion settlement between fifty-five states and U.S. territories and Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family for their role in the marketing and distribution of highly addictive painkillers that fueled the opioid crisis in the United States.
Attorney General William Tong, along with fifty-four other attorneys general, signed onto the nation’s largest ever settlement agreement, which will also end the Sacklers’ control of Purdue and their ability to sell opioids in the United States, according to a press release. The settlement funds, which will be distributed over the next fifteen years, will purportedly be used to support addiction support and recovery.
“There will never be enough justice, accountability or money to restore the families whose lives have been wrecked or to right the terrible consequences of the Sackler family’s craven misconduct. What we announce today is both momentous and insufficient, the culmination of years of tumultuous negotiations and legal battles all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Tong said. “Today, every single attorney general, representing all states and territories nationwide, has signed onto an historic settlement that permanently ends the Sacklers’ control over Purdue and their ability to ever sell opioids again, and forces the company and the family to pay $7.4 billion for their role in igniting one of the most devastating public health crises in American history.”
This settlement agreement is $3.1 billion more than a settlement offer in 2021 that was rejected by Connecticut and other states, and is $1.4 billion more than another offer rejected in 2022, which led to a showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court. Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy in 2019 in an attempt to shield itself from states’ legal action; that action, however, was vacated by the U.S. District Court.
The settlement with Purdue and the Sacklers is not the only settlement Connecticut has reached with opioid manufacturers and distributors. Connecticut has secured $600 million from lawsuits against a number of companies, including Johnson & Johnson, for their role in fostering the opioid crisis.
In January of 2025, Gov. Ned Lamont announced an investment of $58.6 million for addiction recovery housing through the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and the Department of Housing to support roughly 500 opioid users per year under the advisement of Connecticut’s Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee.
The Settlement Advisory Committee had $67.7 million on hand, according to their May 13 meeting minutes, and had recommended expenditures totaling $17.3 million to build a real-time, centralized data platform to monitor Connecticut’s drug use, increase operating hours and admissions for Connecticut’s non-profit outpatient opioid treatment programs, and fund the continuation of three recovery centers.
The number of overdose deaths in Connecticut has decreased since topping out in 2021, with 215 deaths in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to 429 in the third quarter of 2021, according to the Department of Public Health. Roughly 76 percent of 2024 overdose deaths were tied to fentanyl, a powerful opioid.
The bulk of the Purdue settlement will be paid out in the first three years, according to the Attorney General’s press release, although Connecticut will receive the $64 million over a total of eight years.
“I will continue to urge that the millions of dollars Connecticut receives be used to save lives through opioid treatment and prevention, as well as to provide direct support to victims and their families,” Tong said.
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