Preview Newsletter
Opioid Daily Media Report 8/23
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County to study suit against opioid makers
Aug 22, 2017 | Watertown Daily Times (NY)
By Susan Mende
St. Lawrence County legislators have agreed to meet with an attorney about the possibility of joining a class-action lawsuit against companies that manufacture opioids. -
St. Lawrence County one of several counties now suing opioid makers
Aug 23, 2017 | Inform NY
By Alex Hazard
St. Lawrence County has added its name to a growing list of New York counties suing opioid manufacturers. According to the Watertown Daily Times, the county has jumped on an already pending "large scale, multi-defendant opioid litigation." -
McCaskill holds town hall meeting in Kennett
Aug 22, 2017 | The Dunkin Democrat
By Jeff Dorris
Senator Claire McCaskill held a town hall meeting in Kennett on Saturday. -
Two New Hampshire cities may sue big pharma to recoup opioid overdose costs
Aug 22, 2017 | MassLive
By Mary C. Serreze
New Hampshire's two largest cities may join litigation that accuses drug companies of knowingly helping to create the nation's addiction and overdose crisis. -
The Time Has Come to Fight Alabama’s Opioid Crisis (OPINION)
Aug 22, 2017 | Yellow Hammer
By Guest
In 2016, more Americans died from drug overdoses than were killed in the entire Vietnam War. Two-thirds of those overdoses were linked to opioids, a class of drugs that includes illegal substances like heroin, but which is primarily composed of legal painkillers like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone. -
Combatting The Opioid Crisis At Its Source (OPINION)
Aug 22, 2017 | Huffington Post
By Todd Hembree (AG Cherokee Nation)
In the Cherokee Nation, where I serve as Attorney General, I have seen the opioid crisis worsen every year, breaking up more families and taking more lives, as the prescription opioid industry increased its profits by flooding our community with more and more lethal painkillers. -
McCaskill spending offers glimpse at campaign groundwork
Aug 22, 2017 | Associated Press
Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill is investing in fundraising and campaign management more than a year before voters will decide whether to keep her in office. -
County will join in opioids lawsuit; to launch QRT soon
Aug 23, 2017 | Henry County Local (KY)
By Christopher Brooke
Two very different responses to the ongoing opioid crisis were discussed at Henry County Fiscal Court Aug. 15: one involves persuading people who overdose to take treatment and the other involves joining a lawsuit against commercial distributors of the controlled substance.
Traditional Media Coverage
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County to study suit against opioid makers
Aug 22, 2017 | Watertown Daily Times (NY)
By Susan Mende
St. Lawrence County legislators have agreed to meet with an attorney about the possibility of joining a class-action lawsuit against companies that manufacture opioids.
County attorney Stephen D. Button said several months ago he was contacted by several firms involved in large scale, multi-defendant opioid litigation.
“They were interested in gauging the county’s interest in pursuing similar litigation that’s already pending against drug manufacturers’ prescription opioids,” he said.
After reviewing material from different law firms, Mr. Button said the firm Simmons, Hanly and Conroy seemed the best choice for discussing the matter. The national firm has multiple offices, including one in New York City.
“The litigation is premised on the theory that opioid drug manufacturers worked collectively to widely circulate marketing materials declaring opioids safe, despite contrary medical statistics and medical studies, and as such, these manufacturers have played a significant role in the current drug epidemic that is devastating counties across New York state and the rest of the country.”
So far, the firm is representing eight New York state counties including Suffolk, Erie, Broome, Orange, Dutchess, Seneca, Sullivan and Schenectady.
Mr. Button said pending cases brought by counties seek to recover costs counties have incurred fighting the opioid epidemic including addiction, health treatment and criminal justice expenses.
Opioids are a diverse class of very strong painkillers, including oxycodone, hydrocodone and fentanyl, which are synthesized to resemble opiates such as morphine and heroin. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, nearly half of all opioid overdose deaths in 2016 involved prescriptions.
A handful of county legislators have agreed to meet with attorney Paul J. Hanly Jr. at 4 p.m. Sept. 11 prior to the Legislature’s monthly full board meeting.
Legislature Chairman Kevin D. Acres, R-Madrid, said he will attend that session, but at this point he’s not in favor of filing a lawsuit against companies that are manufacturing legal products.
He said he believes in “personal responsibility,” as it relates to the issue of opioid addiction.
Legislature Vice Chairman Joseph R. Lightfoot, R-Ogdensburg, and Legislator John H. Burke, R-Norfolk, said they are interested in hearing the information from Mr. Hanly.
“It doesn’t mean we are going to sign on, but I think it behooves the Legislature to hear about these kinds of things, ” Mr. Lightfoot said. “People are dying because of the abuse of these drugs.”
He said the opioid epidemic carries not only a financial cost, but a social cost.
Mr. Burke said he expects that Mr. Hanly will present data that will help lawmakers determine the role drug manufacturers may have played in the opioid addiction problem.
“It may help us understand what big drug companies have done or not done,” he said. “We may or may not join forces, but it doesn’t hurt to listen.”
Mr. Button said the Simmons, Haly and Conroy firm is known for winning a $75 million settlement against Purdue Pharma and Abbott Laboraties for damages connected to prescription Oxycontin.
“At this point, we have not discussed a fee but the other Counties that have been involved have been retaining the firms on a contingency fee basis, with no outlay of funds at the onset,” Mr. Button said.
Mr. Button said the material he’s read from several firms detail a systemic process in which manufacturers of opioid medications worked to deceive prescribing physicians in order to increase sales and develop a long-term client base.
“If true, this is an abhorrent practice that should be ceased and the culpable parties should be held responsible,” Mr. Button said. “Unfortunately, in my opinion, this is only one facet of the opioid problem and these lawsuits are unlikely to end the problem that opioid addiction has become for our county and many others.”
However, he said additional funding may be used to expand addiction treatment may decrease costs associated with the county’s response which alleviates the burden on the taxpayers.
The opioid epidemic or opioid crisis is the rapid increase in the use of prescription and non-prescription opioid drugs in the United States and Canada in the 2010s. Opioids are a diverse class of very strong painkillers, including oxycodone (commonly sold under the trade names OxyContin and Percocet), hydrocodone (Vicodin), and fentanyl, which are synthesized to resemble opiates such as opium-derived morphine and heroin. The potency and availability of these substances, despite their high risk of addiction and overdose, have made them popular both as formal medical treatments and as recreational drugs. Due to their sedative effects on the part of the brain which regulates breathing, opioids in high doses present the potential for respiratory depression and may cause respiratory failure and death.
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St. Lawrence County one of several counties now suing opioid makers
Aug 23, 2017 | Inform NY
By Alex Hazard
St. Lawrence County has added its name to a growing list of New York counties suing opioid manufacturers.
According to the Watertown Daily Times, the county has jumped on an already pending "large scale, multi-defendant opioid litigation."
St. Lawrence County joins Suffolk, Erie, Broome, Orange, Dutchess, Seneca Sullivan and Schenectady using a New York City based firm to sue opioid makers for purposely misleading people about the dangers of the drugs.
The Times reports a meeting is set for next month between the law firm and some county legislators to further discuss the case. -
McCaskill holds town hall meeting in Kennett
Aug 22, 2017 | The Dunkin Democrat
By Jeff Dorris
Senator Claire McCaskill held a town hall meeting in Kennett on Saturday.
The event took place at the Southeast Missouri State University Kennett Regional Campus.
The democrat spoke on many topics including EPA concerns, aviation regulation, seniors, planned parenthood funding and the opioid manufacturer’s investigation which she spearheaded.
The crowd that attended submitted questions which the senator randomly addressed.
McCaskill opened the town hall with reassurance that republicans and democrats were indeed working together on many issues, despite media coverage of the opposite.
“There is bi-partisan work going on in Washington,” said McCaskill. “I know it’s hard to believe, because it seems like we’re so divided now.’
McCaskill fielded a question concerning the Affordable Care Act early into the event.
“The mistake we made was going forward with just democratic votes,” stated the senator. “Because once you go forward with one parties votes, it becomes political. It’s not policy, it’s politics.”
McCaskill continued, “The fact that we did not stop and say we’re not going forward without a bi-partisan vote, I do believe that part of it was a mistake.”
She stated that now thee is an opportunity for both parties to work together.
“I actually predict that sometime in the next 90 days, we will have a bi-partisan bill that will stabilize and help repair the Affordable Care Act.”
McCaskill shared her views on Planned Parenthood after an audience member questioned the practices on the organization.
“Teenage pregnancy is at an all time low in this country,” shared McCaskill. “Abortion is at the lowest rate that it’s been since Roe v. Wade was decided. It’s because we’ve made access to birth control so readily available.”
“It’s the most utilized source for birth control for millions of women,” stated McCaskill. “So why would we shut down the funding to the very entity that’s helping us prevent abortions? It makes no sense to me.”
McCaskill touched base on the opiod manufacturer investigation that she led, stating they are making progress.
“We’ve gotten information back from almost all the manufacturers that we requested documentation from and what we’re investigating with them are their sales and marketing practices,” informed McCaskill.
“When I got my wisdom teeth out as a kid I got Baskin-Robbins as my prescription,” said McCaskill. “You get your wisdom teeth out now they’ll give you thirty percocet. Then your tooth feels much better in a week and you’ve got a bunch of percocets sitting around. We’ve got to get these prescribing levels down.”
McCaskill concluded, “We’ve also got to have money for treatment. It is a treatable disease if we decide it’s important enough. This is the biggest public health crisis we’ve had in this country since the pandemic flu.”
“Prescribing levels are going down, but deaths are still going up,” she said. “We’re making inroads and I’m not going to give up until we get some answers.”
McCaskill had three more town halls scheduled on her visit to southeast Missouri, Saturday.
Town Halls were scheduled in Poplar Bluff, Dexter and Cape Girardeau.
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Two New Hampshire cities may sue big pharma to recoup opioid overdose costs
Aug 22, 2017 | MassLive
By Mary C. Serreze
New Hampshire's two largest cities may join litigation that accuses drug companies of knowingly helping to create the nation's addiction and overdose crisis.
The lawsuits seek to recoup costs associated with opioid overdoses and other drug-related problems, and funds to address the issue moving forward, according to Joseph L. Ciaccio, an attorney with the Napoli Shkolnik law firm.
Manchester has already agreed to pursue legal action, and Nashua is exploring the idea. The New York-based attorneys, already representing clients in Ohio and New York, will work on contingency basis.
Many opioid manufacturers "were so intent on selling as much product as possible, that they either turned a blind eye towards, or intentionally buried, reports that these drugs were highly addictive and potentially deadly," said law partner Paul Napoli in an online statement.
Drug makers and distributors made billions by flooding the country with opioids, according to the law firm, which says the companies knew about the danger of the pills, but pushed them anyway. The firm alleges that pharmaceutical distributors were also remiss in their duties.
State, local and county governments have borne significant costs in dealing with overdoses and addiction. Costs include fire calls, first responder training, police investigations, social services and welfare, and treatment costs.
New Hampshire has one of the highest overdose rates in the country, and also has a high rate of painkiller prescriptions, according to US News and World Report.
Public health studies show that many heroin addicts started with prescription pills. Overprescription prompted the CDC to release new prescription guidelines last year.
All ten fire stations in Manchester are now open 24 hours a day to anyone seeking treatment. In its first year, the program drew nearly 1,650 people. In 2016 there were 332 drug overdoses reported in Nashua, including 44 fatalities.
Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death among Americans under 50. New threats on the street include fentanyl and carfentanil, drugs that are far more potent than heroin.
The state of New Hampshire recently sued OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, accusing the company of deceptive marketing practices and downplaying the risk of addiction, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.
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The Time Has Come to Fight Alabama’s Opioid Crisis (OPINION)
Aug 22, 2017 | Yellow Hammer
By Guest
In 2016, more Americans died from drug overdoses than were killed in the entire Vietnam War. Two-thirds of those overdoses were linked to opioids, a class of drugs that includes illegal substances like heroin, but which is primarily composed of legal painkillers like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone.
Unfortunately, Alabama is center stage in the opioid crisis: according to the Center for Public Integrity, in 2015 Alabama had the highest per capita number of opioid prescriptions of any state in the country, with a rate of 1.2 prescriptions for every resident. Not surprisingly, for the past several years the number of persons dying from overdoses in Alabama has been climbing, with 282 people dying from opioid overdoses in 2015, per data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the company’s own research, 6.5% of BlueCross and BlueShield of Alabama’s members were on a long-duration opioid regimen in 2015, compared to the 3.8% national average.
The numbers are grim, and will continue to get worse in Alabama and across the nation unless lawmakers, pastors, and community leaders band together to address the crisis.
What is driving the surge in opioid abuse? Some experts argue that drug manufacturers and doctors are to blame. In this narrative, during the 1990s doctors began to over-prescribe opioids as patients increasingly expected “pain-free” healthcare. Meanwhile, drug companies overhyped the safety of painkillers and ignored research indicating that some opioids were highly addictive.
Some writers and researchers, like Johann Hari, have pointed to increasing social isolation as the primary driver of the opioid epidemic. As Americans spend more and more time staring at screens and have fewer strong social ties with neighbors and relatives, a web of psychological problems arises. People, in this rendering, turn to painkillers to make up for frayed or non-existent social connections.
Additional academic studies will hopefully shed more light on the complex factors driving the crisis. But solutions, even provisional ones, are needed now. I think that at the least, more treatment centers are needed in Alabama for those struggling with opioid addictions. A central challenge is that these persons have few places to go for counseling and treatment. As public policy writer German Lopez puts it, “it is much easier to get high than it is to get help.”
From a legal perspective, we need to give our law enforcement officers more tools to crack down on fentanyl, an opioid mix that is fifty times more powerful than heroin. Used as a pain reliever for patients, fentanyl is among the most powerful opioids prescribed by medical providers. Its street form is uniquely dangerous since the drug can be absorbed via the skin or inhalation. In next year’s legislative session, I plan to sponsor a bill to make the illicit distribution of fentanyl a Class B felony.
We must see the opioid crisis in the context of broader social problems. As a conservative, I believe government programs are limited in their effectiveness at solving complex social challenges. We need churches, businesses, and community leaders to continue to form creative partnerships, like job-training programs for recovering addicts. The social science publication STAT estimates that 650,000 Americans will die over the next ten years from opioid overdoses. Perhaps no other social crisis in America demands our attention with as much urgency.
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Combatting The Opioid Crisis At Its Source (OPINION)
Aug 22, 2017 | Huffington Post
By Todd Hembree (AG Cherokee Nation)
n the Cherokee Nation, where I serve as Attorney General, I have seen the opioid crisis worsen every year, breaking up more families and taking more lives, as the prescription opioid industry increased its profits by flooding our community with more and more lethal painkillers.
Every day, companies that manufacture and distribute prescription opioid drugs and retail pharmacy chains that sell them to the public reap astronomical profits. And every day, 91 Americans die from an opioid-related overdose, 1,000 people are treated in U.S. emergency departments for prescription opioid misuse, and 55 babies enter this world suffering from opioid withdrawal symptoms, according to the CDC and NIH.
In April, we decided that we could not abide this situation any longer, so we sued McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, Walgreens, CVS and Walmart for their shameful role in perpetuating the opioid crisis. Morality has not stopped them and neither have fines, so the Cherokee Nation will hold them responsible using the most effective means at our disposal – a civil proceeding in a court of law.Over the past two years, these companies have flooded the Cherokee Nation with enough prescription opioid painkillers to provide every man, woman and child 153 doses each.
For far too long, manufacturers, distributors, and retail pharmacy chains have ignored their solemn legal duties to prevent the diversion of massive quantities of prescription opioid drugs from the legitimate supply chain to illegitimate channels of distribution and use, fueling the opioid addiction and health crisis that is sweeping the country and destroying communities, families, and lives. While law enforcement authorities have made efforts to hold these companies accountable for diversion, sadly this has not stemmed the tide of opioid drugs flowing to those who should not have them. The companies apparently view the fines they have paid as a cost of doing business and have not reformed their corporate culture or meaningfully changed their practices.
Last month, CVS agreed to pay $5 million to resolve allegations that it violated the federal Controlled Substances Act because its pharmacies in the Eastern District of California lacked effective controls and procedures to prevent the diversion of prescription opioids. This is a pervasive pattern of behavior. CVS pharmacies have repeatedly filled false prescriptions and ordered more opioids than communities could possibly need, even falsifying DEA registration numbers to fill invalid prescriptions. Over the last decade, CVS has paid over $45 million in fines for conduct that facilitates diversion of prescription opioids.
And CVS is not alone in failing to live up to its legal obligations. The country’s largest distributors and pharmacy retailers have all been subject to numerous DEA investigations and collectively have paid hundreds of millions in fines. Earlier this year, McKesson alone paid a record civil penalty of $150 million for failing to follow its own compliance program from an earlier settlement, filling suspicious orders, and supplying pharmacies with an alarming quantity of prescription opioids. In Florida, Walgreens ignored its own pharmacists’ warnings of diversion printing “FAKE CII DO NOT FILL CANDY DR***FAKE” on prescription labels beneath the doctors’ name, yet continuing to dispense prescriptions to customers its own pharmacists had reported to authorities.
A decade of DEA fines and investigations has not meaningfully altered the opioid industry’s behavior. Manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacy chains continue to dump enormous quantities of prescription opioids on communities across the country. Retail pharmacy chains fill massive numbers of illegitimate prescriptions, despite red flags that they are obligated by law to recognize and act upon to prevent diversion. Prescription opioids now represent a nearly $10 billion industry, but the prescription opioid crisis costs states more than 11 times as much – at least $78.5 billion a year. In the Cherokee Nation, where the government pays for our citizens’ health care throughout their lives, the costs of the opioid epidemic are staggering.
Over the past two years, these companies have flooded the Cherokee Nation with enough prescription opioid painkillers to provide every man, woman and child 153 doses each, according to figures from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. There is no legitimate explanation for a number this large. Our community cannot sustain the human and economic toll of this crisis. It is an existential threat to our community.
If we are serious about stopping the onslaught of prescription opioid drugs, we must recognize that the practices of the past, while important, are not sufficient. The Cherokee Nation is taking matters into our own hands and moving forward decisively to hold companies in the opioid supply chain accountable for the tidal wave of drugs that, if we do not act, will soon drown every town and shatter every family. I urge my fellow attorneys general to follow the Cherokee Nation’s example and join in this crucial effort.
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McCaskill spending offers glimpse at campaign groundwork
Aug 22, 2017 | Associated Press
Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill is investing in fundraising and campaign management more than a year before voters will decide whether to keep her in office.
McCaskill in 2018 likely will face Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley, who is favored among some big-name Missouri Republicans to take on the Democratic incumbent.
As she gears up for the race, McCaskill’s campaign spending offers a glimpse at some of the groundwork she’s laying, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. That includes raising millions of dollars while getting rid of any donations that could come back to haunt her, hiring seasoned consultants and building a campaign team.
McCaskill’s said at private donor events this year that she plans on raising and spending at least $30 million, the newspaper reported. As of June, she had raised close to $8 million.
To continue bringing in money, McCaskill so far appears to be relying heavily on ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising platform, although she’s also held fundraisers across the U.S. and paid more than $100,000 for political fundraising lists. She’s spent about $84,000 on credit-card transaction fees to ActBlue.
But McCaskill is ditching money that could be used by Republican opponents as fodder against her.
Her campaign confirmed she is not keeping a combined $3,700 from actress Rosie O’Donnell, who’s feuded with President Donald Trump. McCaskill instead donated the same amount to a Kansas City domestic violence shelter.
McCaskill also gave back a $2,700 contribution from pharmaceutical company Pfizer’s political action committee and $500 from the PAC for Navient, which deals with student-loan debt. The senator has said she wouldn’t accept donations from opioid makers, such as Pfizer, and has called student-loan debt “a burden on all Missourians.” Keeping the money would have opened McCaskill up to criticism.
“To avoid even the appearance of anything that would intersect with Claire’s investigation into opioid manufacturers, the campaign instituted a policy of returning any donations from pharmaceutical companies that manufacture opioids,” McCaskill campaign Finance Director Erika Brees said.
Brees said McCaskill returned the Navient donation “following allegations that Navient defrauded student loan borrowers, and given that Claire joined a Congressional investigation into the Department of Education’s relationship with Navient in 2014.”
The senator also hired polling and strategic advice group Kiley & Co. and veteran consultant Anne Lewis, who is known for helping Democrats with communications and fundraising.
McCaskill was paying at least nine staffers as of June.
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County will join in opioids lawsuit; to launch QRT soon
Aug 23, 2017 | Henry County Local (KY)
By Christopher Brooke
Two very different responses to the ongoing opioid crisis were discussed at Henry County Fiscal Court Aug. 15: one involves persuading people who overdose to take treatment and the other involves joining a lawsuit against commercial distributors of the controlled substance.
Henry County officials, including Deputy Judge-Executive Denise Perry, attended a recent meeting hosted by KIPDA to share the successes of the “quick response teams” (QRT) launched by Colerain, Ohio, and Boone County in Northern Kentucky.
The idea behind QRT revolves around a law enforcement officer, an emergency medical technician and a drug assessment counselor making direct contact with those who recently overdosed, Perry explained.
“The goal is, while the situation is still fresh, to encourage individuals to go into treatment and to have support for them, so that they can make that link pretty easy,” she said.
Colerain, Ohio, especially, has experienced tremendous results, Perry reported. “Their success rate at present is 80 percent people who will agree to take an action,” she said. “That may not stick for everybody, but it’s certainly the right direction.”
With the help of local officials such as Henry County EMS Director Paige Lucas, Sheriff Danny Cravens and a counselor from Tri-County Community Action Agency, Perry expects there wouldn’t be much cost to implement a QRT here.
Some logistical issues need resolving before QRT can begin, such as making sure the general public knows it will be available, Perry said. Boone County got the word out about its program by putting door hangers out around the community, and local organizers see the value in that, too, Perry added.
Henry County officials are passionate about the opioid addiction and overdoses and are anxious to get out in front of the problem, she said.
“If you work with the public you know that people are desperate for answers,” Perry said. “It’s such a serious problem, it would be a really good way to start.”
QRT could provide important assistance not only for individuals trying to deal with their substance abuse, but also their loved ones, Perry said after the meeting. Those who spoke at the KIPDA gathering talked about reaching out to whole families to provide help and the belief that QRT saves lives.
“The presenters we saw recounted experiences with family members who needed answers for their loved ones to cope and find help,” Perry said. “There are so many who aren’t aware of resources. We would just be meeting them in their time of greatest challenge and providing guidance and encouragement.”
Community members will have an opportunity to assist with QRT, as organizers plan to mobilize volunteers, Perry said. It’s still unclear exactly when the program will launch.
After Perry wrapped up her remarks to fiscal court, Magistrate Terri Cummings reported on an informational meeting she recently attended in Shelby County, organized by a Florida man who encouraged representatives of local governments to bring suit against commercial distributors of opiates.
“Through the controlled substances act of 1970, they had only one job to do and that was to let the federal government know if their distribution spiked 10 percent or more in one year,” Cummings recalled. “There were only 800 licenses, so there were 800 distributors, and he said they did not do their job.”
The organizer recommended filing a suit in federal court to hold companies, such as Cincinnati-based supermarket chain Kroger, responsible, she said. Each county would need to generate a dollar amount of what the opioid crisis has cost in services to seek damages in the lawsuit.
“Kroger is a distributor, so that would be one of the companies that would be named in the suit,” Cummings said.
If the lawsuit generates any awards, the attorneys would take a 30 percent fee, she said. If there’s no award, then there will be no cost to the county.
The organizer wanted to file suits in waves of about 30 counties and see how they go, Cummings reported.
“If we don’t win, we don’t pay, so it doesn’t look like there’s a lot of downsides,” Cummings noted. “It looks like there are 30 or close to 30 counties that are doing this.”
Given an opportunity to speak from the audience, Patrick Davis expressed skepticism about filing a lawsuit.
“This just looks like a shakedown,” he said. “That’s part of the problem of what we’re doing here — we’re penalizing good businesses…”
But Judge-Executive John Logan Brent said he has a different perspective, after Kentucky counties have been flooded with narcotics.
“This little Henry County Fiscal Court with an entire budget of $4 million in general fund had its jail bill go up $80,000 in one single year,” Brent answered. “So, I’m not quite as worried about Kroger as I am about how we’re not going to raise your taxes.”
Davis said he understood local services are stressed, but what about people taking personal responsibility for their problems.
Opening it up to discussion among the magistrates, it appeared some county officials also felt a little hesitant to engage in a suit.
“I don’t know enough about it to even have thoughts about it to be honest,” Magistrate Jason Stanley said. “It almost sounds like one of those things they send you in the mail, saying, ‘Do you want to get on this lawsuit?’ kind of thing. I don’t want to be a downer. I don’t know.”
With 30 other counties participating, Henry County may be left out of any awards if the fiscal court doesn’t sign on, Brent said.
In the end, Cummings offered the motion to approve hiring a law firm “regarding litigation and the award of damages from the contributors of opioids within the county.”
With a second by Magistrate Scott Bates, the motion was approved.
In other action, the magistrates:
• discussed the bids to replace the aging Wolfpen Road bridge, which ranged from $392,723 to $650,000.
Brent recommended accepting the low bid, which came from Roederer Construction, pending the company gets all the necessary state approvals. The owner of this company lives about three houses away from the bridge, the judge-executive said during further discussion.
The project engineer is studying the plans to see if a minor change could save an additional $20,000, Brent said. County road crews will have the responsibility of building the approaches to the bridge.
With questions about the possible change to the bridge deck and the approvals still pending from the state, Stanley recommended tabling the bid award until the fiscal court’s September meeting.
Brent promised to have the engineer present at the next meeting to answer any questions.
• approved a motion by Magistrate Mike Fisher to leave tax rates the same as last year.
• held a first reading of the zone change required to allow the Thorntons to build on Ky. 153 near the Interstate 71 exit in Pendleton.
Fiscal court will take public comments on the proposed zoning change at its September meeting.
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