We get $73 million for 25,000 dead Kentuckians? That’s a monument to failure | Opinion
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky received $73 million from Purdue Pharma over 25,000 overdose deaths.
- Critics argue settlement underscores systemic failure by regulators and lawmakers.
- True justice calls for criminal charges and long-term investment in recovery.
Kentucky’s $73 million settlement with Purdue Pharma isn’t justice.
It’s a monument to failure—of Purdue, of the government, and of our so-called leaders who watched this crisis unfold and did far too little to stop it.
Yes, the Sacklers built the machine. But they didn’t act alone. They were aided and abetted by a regulatory system that looked the other way, lawmakers who chose campaign contributions over confrontation, and a public health apparatus that was too slow or too underfunded. See Dopesick on Hulu.
Meanwhile, entire communities—especially working-class, rural Kentuckians—were flooded with opioids. Over 25,000 Kentuckians have died from overdoses since the late 1990s. That number rises every day. Children grew up without parents. Grandparents became full-time caretakers. Small towns devastated. We lost lives, labor, and love.
Federal agencies routinely use $10 million as the value of a human life in policy decisions. That means Kentucky’s loss totals between $250 billion and $300 billion. And what did we get? $73 million. That’s less than $3,000 per life. That’s not justice (even if you count previous settlements). That’s an insult.
Real justice would mean criminal accountability. Long-term investment in housing, treatment, and recovery. Structural reform. And a hard reckoning with the elements of the political class that failed us.
Because it wasn’t just the Sacklers who sold us out. It was every leader who stayed quiet while families were being destroyed. Every system that saw the warning signs and moved too slowly. Every voice that got along to get along.
We have every right to feel righteously angry. We better be. Because this crisis is not over. Pills are being mis-prescribed. Grief is still being buried in silence.
Don’t call this a win. Don’t let them rewrite the story.
This settlement is not the end of anything. It’s a monument to failure and a reminder of how deep the damage goes—and how much work we still have to do
Taylor Coots is a principal at Blue Dot Consulting in Louisville.