By The Associated Press
September 18, 2016

The makers of prescription painkillers have adopted a 50-state strategy that includes hundreds of lobbyists and millions in campaigning contributions to help kill or weaken measures aimed at stemming the tide of prescription opioids, the drug at the heart of a crisis that has cost 165,000 Americans their lives and push countless more to crippling addiction.

The drugmakers vow they’re combating the addiction epidemic, but The Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity found that they often employ a statehouse playbook of delay and defend that includes funding advocacy groups that use the veneer of independence to fight limits on their drugs, such as OxyContin, Vicodin and fentanyl, the narcotic linked to Prince’s death.

[su_button url=”http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/09/18/us/ap-us-politics-of-pain-state-influence-abridged.html?utm_campaign=KHN%3A+First+Edition&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=34491970&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_faO5XD0OoQZWyyjIpVWYd5WPmAbCqYxbFtxOAbPqLc0TmwTEL3WJh7Mpf6l70az7Kea3Rc-he2CvTVO_SNNamDnlV3BTCTs-frW8P0qnM5LtCv-M&_hsmi=34491970&_r=1″ target=”blank” style=”flat” background=”#0a3853″ center=”yes” icon=”icon: adjust” icon_color=”#ffffff” desc=”Drugmakers Fought State Opioid Limits Amid Crisis”]Click to read more[/su_button]