Louisiana one of many states benefiting from Purdue Pharma settlement

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – Louisiana is part of the tentative settlement reached with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma.

The state’s chief deputy attorney general, Bill Stiles, said Thursday the attorney general’s office believes the agreement is a good deal for Louisiana and will help stem the tide of the opioid epidemic.

He says reaching a settlement was preferable to waiting for Purdue to file bankruptcy on its own with no guarantees for states’ compensation and with proceedings that could take years.

The tentative agreement between Purdue, thousands of local governments and more than 20 states could be worth up to $12 billion over time.

Stiles says the attorney general’s office hopes states could start seeing money from the deal within six months to a year. It’s not yet clear how much money Louisiana could receive.