Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter had a major victory today, when Judge Thad Balkman, of Cleveland County District Court in Norman, Oklahoma found Johnson & Johnson liable for stoking the opioid crisis in the state and said the company must pay $572 million, far less the $17 billion that the state was seeking.

AG Hunter brought the case to trial arguing the pharmaceutical company executed an intensive marketing campaign that overwhelmed the market and mislead consumers about the addictive risks of the drug.

This precedent-setting ruling was being closely watched as 2,000 other pending suits await to be heard before a federal judge in Ohio in October.

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