The cigarette makers eventually settled with the state for about $17.6 billion.

Big Tobacco is still paying that settlement and it hasn’t been too much of a burden. They just increased the price of cigarettes and went on to deal with other states and the federal government with the money forked over by millions of smokers. In the end, government and lawyers raked in the cash. The tobacco industry did have to change its marketing strategy a bit, but the same cigarettes are still available just about everywhere—selling well enough to generate record profits for the top tobacco companies—and smokers are still getting sick, still dying.

We wonder if the results will be any different now that Big Pharma has come under fire.

Last week, Bowie County joined a number of states, counties and cities in suing several pharmaceutical makers over the growing opioid addiction crisis in the U.S.

The plaintiffs claim that Big Pharma used deceptive marketing to convince doctors opioid painkillers were safe and to write more and more prescriptions. This, they say, led a nation of prescription medication addicts.

So, how will this play out? We hope the results will be better for the real victims in all of this, though we won’t hold our breath.

Just like tobacco, there is a desperate market for opioid painkillers and where there is a market there is money. While the plaintiffs may have good intentions here, we can’t help but think that in the end there will still be large numbers of opioid addicts, large pharmaceutical companies making big profits. The only thing that will change is that governments and lawyers will get a big payoff to go away.

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