A New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company caused an Oklahoma opioid crisis that led to thousands of deaths, and must pay $572.1 million to fix it, a Cleveland County, Oklahoma, district judge ruled Monday.

Judge Thad Balkman told a packed courtroom that the opioid crisis is “an imminent danger and menace” to Oklahomans, and the state proved that Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Janssen launched a misleading marketing campaign that created a public nuisance in Oklahoma.Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter, though, called the verdict “a major victory” for anyone who has lost someone to an overdose.

“Johnson & Johnson will finally be held accountable of thousands of deaths and addiction caused by their activities,” he said. “Throughout the trial, our team proved what we have alleged all along: that the company used pseudo-science and misleading information to downplay Fwd: Media Update # 20the risks of opioids, leading to the worst man-made public nuisance this state and our country has ever seen.” Order of the court https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/1660-oklahoma-opioid-trial-johnson-and-johnson/79f3fe55f5fa1a75bd48/optimized/full.pdf#page=1 Norman Transcript