It’s a bitter pill for Gov. Andrew Andrew Cuomo — a federal judge smacked down his “opioid tax” Wednesday as unconstitutional.
The Opioid Stewardship Act, which took effect July 1, created a $600 million war chest to fight the state’s painkiller-addiction epidemic that was to be funded through a surcharge on pill producers.
But trade groups and drug manufacturers sued the state Health Department and Attorney General over the measure.
The law prevented drug companies from passing the surcharge on to out-of-state consumers, which unconstitutionally interfered with interstate commerce, Manhattan federal Judge Katherine Polk Failla said in a ruling Wednesday.
“[T]he method by which the Act extracts payments from opioid manufactures [sic] and distributors to redress those concerns violates the Dormant Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution,” she wrote.
The state could appeal and is reviewing the decision, officials said.