Months into a complex trial over their role in flooding Washington with highly addictive painkillers, the nation's three largest opioid distributors agreed Tuesday to pay the state $518 million, with the vast majority being directed toward easing the addiction epidemic.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced the deal, noting that it's worth tens of millions of dollars more than Washington would have received from the companies if it had signed onto a national settlement reached last summer involving the distributors and Johnson & Johnson.
