As states consider taxing opioids, drugmakers push back

By Geoff Mulvihill and Kyle Potter Associated Press

Saturday, April 28, 2018 7:05 AM

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) Lawmakers across the country are testing a strategy to boost treatment for opioid addicts as their states confront a rising death toll from drug overdoses.

They want to force drug manufacturers and their distributors to pay for it.

Bills introduced in at least 15 states would impose taxes or fees on prescription painkillers. Several of the measures have bipartisan support and would funnel millions of dollars toward treatment and prevention programs.

Just one in New York has been signed into law so far as the drug industry pushes back against the legislative tax efforts.

Drugmakers and distributors say the cost increases would eventually be absorbed by patients or taxpayers, and that there are other ways to pay for addiction treatment.

As states consider taxing opioids, drugmakers push back

In this April 26, 2018 photo, David Humes stands outside Legislative Hall, the state capitol building, in Dover, Del. Humes, whose son died from a heroin overdose in 2012, has been pushing for an opioid tax in Delaware, which did not increase funding for addiction treatment in 2017 as it struggles to balance its budget. When you think about the fact that each year more people are dying, if you leave the money the same, youre not keeping up with this public health crisis, he said. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)nydi

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In this April 26, 2018 photo, David Humes, left, speaks with visitors inside Legislative Hall, the state capitol building, in Dover, Del. Humes, whose son died from a heroin overdose in 2012, has been pushing for an opioid tax in Delaware, which did not increase funding for addiction treatment in 2017 as it struggles to balance its budget. When you think about the fact that each year more people are dying, if you leave the money the same, youre not keeping up with this public health crisis, he said. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)nydi

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FILE - In this Thursday, March 7, 2013 file photo, Republican state Sen. Julie Rosen confers with fellow GOP Sen. Sean Nienow about an effort to change the first of at least 95 amendments to the health insurance exchange bill at the Statehouse in St. Paul, Minn. In April 2018, Rosen said she walked out of a meeting on opioids with drug industry representatives, saying they were wasting her time. They know that theyre spending way too much money on defending their position instead of being part of the solution, she said. (AP Photo/The Star Tribune, Glen Stubbe)

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FILE - In this Feb. 13, 2017 file photo, state Rep. Dave Baker, R-Willmar, reacts in St. Paul, Minn., after watching the "Dose of Reality" video depicting a parent who can't wake her child who overdosed on an opioid. Baker and Sen. Chris Eaton, D-Brooklyn Center, who both lost children to heroin overdose, are two of the leading voices in the Minnesota legislature for combatting the opioid epidemic. (Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune via AP)

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In this April 24, 2018 photo, Minnesota State Sen. Chris Eaton, a Democrat whose daughter died from a heroin overdose, pushes for a state tax on prescription opioids during a senate committee on finance in St. Paul, Minn. Eaton said her goal is to find a way to create and fund a structure that will ensure addiction treatment is as routine as treating diabetes or cardiac arrest. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

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