Nebraska one of many states signing opioid agreement with CVS, Walgreens

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Several states, including Nebraska, finalized an agreement settling litigation against Walgreens and CVS over the opioid crisis.
Attorney General Doug Peterson announced Monday that Nebraska had joined the agreement, bringing the national amount from investigations and litigation against the pharmaceutical industry for its role in the opioid crisis to more than $50 billion.
Under Monday's agreements, CVS will pay $5 billion and Walgreens will pay $5.7 billion, totaling $10.7 billion.
Nebraska's share of the funds is just over $41 million.
In addition to the financial settlement, CVS and Walgreens, along with Walmart earlier, agreed to court-ordered injunctive relief that requires the pharmacies to monitor, report, and share data about suspicious activity related to opioid prescriptions.
This court-ordered injunctive relief will help ensure a crisis like this does not happen again, Peterson said in a press release.
The terms of this agreement will now go to the states for their review. Each state will have until the end of 2022 to join, after which the Walmart, Walgreens, and CVS agreements will go to local governments around the country for sign-on during the first quarter of 2023. Nebraska intends to join the agreement. Nearly all of the settlement funds must be used to remediate the opioid crisis, including prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery services.
The negotiations have been led by Attorneys General from North Carolina, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Texas.