$665 million for Native American tribes affected by the opiate crisis in the United States. The agreement was reached between several pharmaceutical companies and representatives of these indigenous peoples.
With our correspondent in Washington, Guillaume Naudin
The opioid crisis in the United States represents 500,000 overdose deaths in 20 years. Twenty years during which pharmaceutical companies sold highly addictive painkillers. Twenty years during which the Amerindian peoples paid the heaviest price for these practices.
Tribes suffered in 2015 from the highest rate of overdose deaths per capita and also experienced, in the previous fifteen years, the largest increase in the number of such deaths compared to other racial and ethnic groups.
This has cost tribal governments across the country dearly. It is these expenses that the agreements made with the laboratories will make it possible to compensate for, subject to a cessation of legal proceedings. The 574 tribes recognized by the federal government will be able to benefit from these agreements.
This major public health crisis has led to thousands of lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies. They have so far agreed to pay billions of dollars in restitution to all the individuals and communities that have taken them to court. The opiate crisis is far from over in the country. Between April 2020 and April 2021, in the midst of a pandemic, the death toll exceeded 100,000.