A judge Monday found Johnson & Johnson responsible for fueling Oklahoma's opioid crisis, ordering the health-care company to pay $572 million to remedy the devastation wrought by the epidemic on the state and its residents. Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman's landmark decision is the first to hold a drugmaker culpable for the fallout of years of liberal opioid dispensing that began in the late 1990s. More than 400,000 people have died of overdoses from painkillers, heroin and illegal fentanyl since 1999. With more than 40 states lined up to pursue similar claims against the pharmaceutical industry, the ruling ... could influence both sides' strategies in the months and years to come. Plaintiffs' attorneys around the country cheered the decision, saying they hoped it would be a model for an enormous federal lawsuit brought by nearly 2,000 cities, counties, Native American tribes and others scheduled to begin in Cleveland, Ohio, in October. Johnson & Johnson's products ... were a small part of the painkillers consumed in Oklahoma. But Hunter painted the company as an industry kingpin" because two other companies it owned had grown, processed and supplied 60 percent of the ingredients in painkillers sold by most drug companies. "At the root of this crisis was Johnson & Johnson, a company that literally created the poppy that became the source of the opioid crisis," the state charged. The state also said the health-care giant actively took part in ... an aggressive misinformation campaign.