St. Paul, MN (KROC-AM News) - Governor Mark Dayton today rolled out a plan to have drug manufacturers pay for programs aimed at combating the growing opioid addiction and overdose epidemic in Minnesota.

His proposal would levy a tax on opioid painkillers that would be paid by the manufacturers. His administration says the one cent “stewardship fee” on each milligram of active medication in the painkiller pills would amount to approximately one penny per pill and would raise an estimated $20 million a year for state treatment, recovery, and prevention initiatives.

In announcing the proposal, the Dayton administration noted that an estimated 16,800 Minnesotans struggle with opioid addiction and the state has seen a dramatic rise in the number of opioid over deaths in recent. The total last year was nearly 400, and statistics show there was a 66-percent increase between 2010 and 2016.

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