What equals justice for opioid crisis: Help victims or punish Big Pharma?

Three recent developments in lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors point to different models of justice, from criminal prosecution to a $37 million payout without admission of wrongdoing.

What does justice look like in the opioid crisis? Three recent decisions in bellwether lawsuits offer different models of how best to move forward and help individuals and communities rebuild as more than 1,600 lawsuits chug through America’s legal system.

Last week, a Boston jury convicted five executives of opioid manufacturer Insys of racketeering charges, including bribing doctors to prescribe its opioid medication to patients who didn’t need it. West Virginia and Oklahoma have settled lawsuits with McKesson and Purdue Pharma, for $37 million and $270 million respectively. Both companies denied wrongdoing.