A judge is ruling that Johnson and Johnson must pay $572-million to the state of Oklahoma for misleading marketing for opioids. Judge Thad Balkman said in court today that the pharmaceutical company "created a nuisance" and the state has "met its burden." Balkman added that the nation's opioid crisis is an "imminent danger and menace" to Oklahomans. Johnson and Johnson was the only defendant in the seven-week trial, which began on May 28th. Purdue Pharma and Teva Pharmaceutical each reached a settlement with the Oklahoma attorney general's office before the trial began. The lawsuit claimed the practice contributed to six-thousand deaths in two years and has cost the state as much as 17-and-a-half-billion-dollars. The state has said it wants to use the money for addiction treatment and prevention programs.
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