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Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report 10/2

Washington / Seattle Suit

Pharma faces lawsuits while Kirkland mom watches son suffer from heroin addiction
Sep 29, 2017 | My Northwest (WA)
By Hanna Scott

Both the Washington state attorney general and Seattle city attorney have filed separate lawsuits over the opioid crisis.
State Attorney General Sues OxyContin Maker Over ‘Opioid Epidemic’
Oct 2, 2017 | The Chronicle (WA)
By Staff

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and the city of Seattle have filed separate lawsuits against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, alleging that the drug maker of contributing to the state’s “opioid epidemic.”
AG Sues One Of The Nation’s Largest Opioid Manufacturers
Sep 29, 2017 | The Seattle Medium
By Staff

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson recently filed a lawsuit accusing OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma of fueling the opioid epidemic in Washington state, embarking on a massive deceptive marketing campaign and convincing doctors and the public that their drugs are effective for treating chronic pain and have a low risk of addiction, contrary to overwhelming evidence. This deceptive marketing resulted in the deaths of Washingtonians and devastation to Washington families.

Other Coverage

State launches opioid probe
Oct 2, 2017 | Yale News (NJ)
By Anusha Manglik

A group of 39 state attorneys general are taking steps to investigate the opioid crisis by cracking down on the pharmaceutical industry’s presentation of prescription opioids.
7 things Nevada is doing to fight the opioid abuse epidemic
Oct 1, 2017 | The Nevada Independant
By Michelle Rindels

It was Michael Yenick’s love for the community, his desire to be a “hometown hero,” that prompted him to choose the University of Nevada, Reno over the other schools that were recruiting him to play football, his mother says.
As Overdoses Continue, Opioid Lawsuit Pending
Sep 30, 2017 | The Greenville Sun
By Ken Little

More district attorneys general are expected to join a lawsuit filed in June by local state prosecutors against Purdue Pharma L.P., related companies and other defendants in an effort to curb the regional epidemic of addiction to prescription painkillers.
Westchester to sue pharma companies tied to opioid, heroin crisis
Sep 30, 2017 | Lohud (USA Today Network)
By Mark Lungariello

Westchester County is set to join a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies linked to the opioid and heroin crisis that has left hundreds in the county dead.
Nikki Sixx: Take it from a recovering addict, a lot more could be done to end the opioid crisis (OPINION)
Sep 29, 2017 | Los Angeles Times
By Nikki Six

Heroin nearly killed me. As a matter of fact, it did: For two minutes in 1987 I was pronounced clinically dead from an overdose.
Nikki Sixx Condemns Trump Administration in Opioid Addiction Op-Ed
Sep 29, 2017 | Rolling Stone
By Kory Grow

Nikki Sixx, who was once declared clinically dead after overdosing on heroin at the height of Mötley Crüe's fame, has penned an op-ed decrying the way the government is handling the United States' opioid crisis.
Lawyers in Opioid Suits Aim for MDL to Handle Dozens of Cases
Sep 29, 2017 | The National Law Journal
By Amanda Bronstad

As more governments across the nation sue dozens of drug companies to claw back money spent battling opioid addiction, one lawyer has moved to transfer all the cases into a single federal court.
Taking opioid companies to task (OPINION)
Sep 30, 2017 | Nevada Daily Mail (NV)
By Sen. Claire McCaskill

“Start them high and hope they don’t die,” is how an employee at Insys, a major U.S. opioid manufacturer, described one of his company’s unofficial slogans according to legal documents.
Opioids On Trial: Can Lawsuits Help Fix The Addiction Crisis? (AUDIO)
Oct 2, 2017 | Ohio Valley ReSource
By Aaron Payne

AUDIO LINK: https://wfpl.org/opioids-on-trial-can-lawsuits-help-fix-the-addiction-crisis/ (3:54) When health care and law enforcement officials met recently at a health policy forum in Lexington, Kentucky, to share ideas about the opioid crisis, Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear listed some groups that have benefited from money won in a 2015 settlement with Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin.
FDA requires opioid makers to develop doctor training
Oct 2, 2017 | Associated Press
By Carla K. Johnson

The Food and Drug Administration is requiring manufacturers of the most widely prescribed painkillers to provide extensive training to doctors in an attempt to reduce the number of patients who become addicted, and stem the ongoing opioid crisis.

Broadcast Media Coverage

FOX 51 Good Day 7:30am
Oct 2, 2017 | KFXK (FOX)
By Tyler, TX

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29851265?token=573a9f84-684e-489a-ac1d-8be679ffbb57
Politics Now
Oct 2, 2017 | KLAS (CBS)
By Las Vegas, NV

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29851583?token=573a9f84-684e-489a-ac1d-8be679ffbb57
Fox 13 News at 5pm
Oct 2, 2017 | WHBQ (FOX)
By Memphis, TN

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29851592?token=573a9f84-684e-489a-ac1d-8be679ffbb57
FOX 61 The Real Story
Oct 1, 2017 | WTIC (FOX)
By Hartford, CT

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29851603?token=573a9f84-684e-489a-ac1d-8be679ffbb57
KGW News at 10 on Portland's CW
Sep 29, 2017 | KRCW (CW)
By Portland, OR

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29851618?token=573a9f84-684e-489a-ac1d-8be679ffbb57
News 9 at 6:00 PM
Sep 29, 2017 | KWTV (CBS)
By Oklahoma City, OK

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29851618?token=573a9f84-684e-489a-ac1d-8be679ffbb57

Washington / Seattle Suit

Pharma faces lawsuits while Kirkland mom watches son suffer from heroin addiction

Sep 29, 2017 | My Northwest (WA)

By Hanna Scott

Both the Washington state attorney general and Seattle city attorney have filed separate lawsuits over the opioid crisis.
The state’s suit targets Purdue Pharma for what Attorney General Bob Ferguson calls a deceptive marketing campaign for OxyContin, including making false claims about its effectiveness to treat chronic pain and downplaying the risk of addiction.
Seattle’s lawsuit also targets Purdue, along with Tevo, Janssen, Endo and Allergan pharmaceuticals for deceptive marketing campaigns. The lawsuits seek to hold the companies accountable for fueling the opioid epidemic for the sake of billions in profits.
One Kirkland family knows the story firsthand.
“Shame on you! You knew that this was happening and you continued to make it readily available and you did nothing to educate the doctors about the side effects,” Rose Dennis said. “You need to be punished for this, you need to take responsibility and do what’s right because too many people are becoming addicted and too many people are dying. It’s very shameful that they knew this and did not address it.”Kirkland family faces opioid addiction
Dennis, a Kirkland mother, can testify to the damage of prescription painkillers. In the late 1990s, her then 12-year-old son, Matthew, was diagnosed with leukemia.
“So he was admitted to the hospital for nine months of chemotherapy to hopefully put an end to his cancer, which fortunately it did,” Dennis said. “But it was never shared with us during this process that he would be put on pain medication and that the pain medication could become addictive.”
She says he was getting an opioid drip on top of an OxyContin pill at least once a day.
Dennis says the doctors sent Matthew home without weaning him off the pain medication. They just cut him off cold.
Within six months of getting out of the hospital, now 13 years old, she says Matthew was skipping school, hanging with a bad crowd, and stealing from his parents to buy drugs — including OxyContin.
They reached out to doctors at the time about the drug use and what they could do, but Dennis says they weren’t helpful. So Matthew went to various counselors and treatment centers to no avail. Eventually, Matthew turned to heroin, which is now his drug of choice.
He went through treatment 14 times over 15 years and has relapsed every time. He’s lived with his parents off and on over the years, but Dennis says they’ve had to make him leave multiple times because he kept stealing from them.
That led to Matthew living in Seattle’s infamous Jungle and other homeless camps.
Now, at 31 years old, Matthew is still a heroin addict.
“I’ve finally learned not to be hopeful because of the way this disease works, and I know how difficult it is,” Dennis said. “Our hope was always that he would go into treatment and come home healed. But it’s a chronic disease that continues to come back and come back. We’re just hopeful every day that he can figure this out and ask for the help that may be out there. Get clean and live a happy, healthy life.”
The last time they made Matthew move out was last Christmas.
He now stays with a friend in low-income housing, but he still calls his mom and dad when he needs rent money. Dennis says they give it to him. It’s a small amount, but she admits she doesn’t know if he actually uses the money for rent or if it goes to drugs.
She knows some might say that’s enabling, but it’s a personal choice they make as parents.
Matthew tells his parents he’s actively looking for work and wants to get better. Dennis says they hope that happens, but at this point, he’s going to have to find a way to do that on his own.
The state and city hope their lawsuits will force Purdue to give up profits it made from OxyContin, and that money can be used to pay for more resources to deal with the opioid crisis, including more treatment centers.
Dennis says she hopes that happens. She hopes they will be similar to treatment centers in Florida and California that are in-patient only, and rather than just using other opioids like methadone to treat addiction, focus on healing the body through Yoga and other activities. She says Matthew had his best success when he went to a treatment facility like that in Florida, which worked until he returned to Seattle.

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State Attorney General Sues OxyContin Maker Over ‘Opioid Epidemic’

Oct 2, 2017 | The Chronicle (WA)

By Staff

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and the city of Seattle have filed separate lawsuits against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, alleging that the drug maker of contributing to the state’s “opioid epidemic.”
According to a release from the AG’s office, its suit accuses Purdue Pharma of “embarking on a massive deceptive marketing campaign and convincing doctors and the public that their drugs are effective for treating chronic pain and have a low risk of addiction, contrary to overwhelming evidence.”
The suit argues that the marketing practices resulted in deaths and addiction in Washington, and that the company downplayed the risks of addiction inherent in opioid pain relievers and represented the drugs as safe for long-term use for chronic pain without “reliable clinical evidence.”
Purdue made billions of dollars off the sales of its opioid drugs, according to the Attorney General’s Office. Ferguson’s lawsuit asks the company to forfeit its Washington profits.
The city of Seattle’s suit also names Teva Pharmaceuticals, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Endo Pharmaceuticals and Allergan.
Both suits are filed in King County Superior Court. They also argue that drug companies’ actions contributed to doctors prescribing excessive opioid painkillers, leading to addiction and patients turning to heroin or black market pills.
“A 2014 study found that nearly 80 percent of heroin users reported using prescription opioids prior to heroin,” according to a news release from the AG’s office.
Ferguson has ended the state’s participation in a multi-state coalition investigating opioid manufacturers nationwide. Other states have filed similar lawsuits using outside attorneys, but Washington is the second state to handle the cases internally.
“Purdue Pharma ignored the devastating consequences of its opioids and profited from its massive deception,” Ferguson said in a release. “It’s time they are held accountable and pay for the devastation they cause.”
Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes said patients who became addicted were deceived, rather than irresponsible.
“Addiction to opioids and heroin does not stop at Seattle’s City limits,” he said. “This is the city’s problem, the state’s problem, and everyone’s problem.”

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AG Sues One Of The Nation’s Largest Opioid Manufacturers

Sep 29, 2017 | The Seattle Medium

By Staff

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson recently filed a lawsuit accusing OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma of fueling the opioid epidemic in Washington state, embarking on a massive deceptive marketing campaign and convincing doctors and the public that their drugs are effective for treating chronic pain and have a low risk of addiction, contrary to overwhelming evidence. This deceptive marketing resulted in the deaths of Washingtonians and devastation to Washington families.
The lawsuit alleges that Purdue conducted an uncontrolled experiment on the American public without any reliable clinical evidence that opioids are effective at treating chronic pain. According to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), Purdue consistently downplayed the risks of addiction from long-term use and deceptively represented opioids as safe for treating long-term chronic pain to doctors and patients.
The AGO alleges that Purdue’s deception yielded the company billions of dollars in profit nationwide from its opioid drugs. Ferguson’s lawsuit seeks to force Purdue to forfeit the Washington portion of those profits.
In addition to the AG lawsuit, the City of Seattle recently filed a separate lawsuit against Purdue, in addition to Teva Pharmaceuticals, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Endo Pharmaceuticals and Allergan. The city and Ferguson announced their lawsuits together.
Both suits, filed Thursday in King County Superior Court contend that Purdue’s illegal conduct contributed to excessive prescriptions and addiction, causing many addicted patients to look for other ways — including illegal means — to get more pills or to get heroin. A 2014 study found that nearly 80 percent of heroin users reported using prescription opioids prior to heroin.
By filing the state’s lawsuit, Ferguson has ended his participation in a multistate coalition investigating opioid manufacturers nationwide. Several states that have filed similar lawsuits are using outside attorneys to handle their cases. Washington is only the second state to handle its case internally.
“Purdue Pharma ignored the devastating consequences of its opioids and profited from its massive deception,” Ferguson said. “It’s time they are held accountable and pay for the devastation they caused.”
“I stand together with Attorney General Ferguson in fighting for justice for patients who were prescribed opioids and became addicted, because they were not irresponsible; they were deceived,” Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes said. “Addiction to opioids and heroin does not stop at Seattle’s city limits. This is the city’s problem, the state’s problem, and everyone’s problem.”
“Most of our health care professionals want to do the right thing for patients, but some corporations sought to boost their bottom line to peddle opioids on false promises, which, in great part, created this crisis. These corporations must be held accountable. I appreciate the Attorney General taking this important step today,” Gov. Jay Inslee said. “This will help with some recompense so we can implement our state’s opioid response plan and my executive order with the goals to prevent the next generation from becoming addicted, to prevent overdoses and to treat people who have opioid use disorder, a true medical condition with an effective medical treatment.”
The AGO claims that Purdue falsely claims that opioids improve long-term function, have a low addiction risk that can be managed or prevented and that increased doses of opioids do not pose significant additional risks to patients.
False claims of the safety, effectiveness of long-term use
According to the AGO, Purdue aggressively marketed its opioids for chronic pain from conditions like headaches and low back pain, despite a lack of clinical evidence that they are effective and safe for long-term use. Despite Purdue’s efforts over more than two decades, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) noted in its 2016 guidelines that “there is no good evidence that opioids improve pain or function with long-term use.”
Other, safer options — like acetaminophen or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen — are effective and carry fewer risks, the CDC added.
False claims of low addiction risk and “pseudoaddiction”
The AGO maintains that among its marketing claims, Purdue distributed thousands of videos and pamphlets claiming that opioid addiction occurred in less than 1 percent of patients. The number was not based on a clinical study, but rather a 1980 letter to the editor in the New England Journal of Medicine. The actual addiction rate is as high as 26 percent, according to the CDC.
According to the AGO, a study sponsored by Purdue asserted that “opioids were well tolerated with only rare incidence of addiction,” and the need for higher and higher doses as patients built up a tolerance to opioids “was not a clinically significant problem when managing patients with opioids long-term.”
The AGO also alleges that when signs of addiction appeared in patients, Purdue persuaded doctors that what appeared to be addiction was actually under-treatment of their pain, and to respond by increasing opioid dosages.
In marketing materials, Purdue told doctors and policymakers that “pain-relief seeking behavior can often be mistaken for drug-seeking behavior.”
The concept, called “pseudoaddiction,” was coined by Dr. J. David Haddox, who later became a Purdue executive. His theory was based on the case of a single cancer patient. According to the AGO, there has not been a study that has validated the theory of “pseudoaddiction.”
Despite a lack of evidence of “pseudoaddiction,” the AGO claims that Purdue pushed this theory to convince doctors to give more drugs to patients who displayed signs of addiction, such as asking for early refills on their prescriptions or “doctor shopping” for additional prescriptions.
False claims on risks of overdoses
Opioids are most dangerous when taken long-term and when taken in high doses. In 2013, the FDA noted that research shows that risk of misuse and abuse is great for extended release long acting opioids and observed that these drugs are often used chronically.
Accordingly, the CDC recommends that physicians carefully reassess increasing opioid doses beyond 50 morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs), and avoid exceeding 90 MMEs per day.
Overdose risk for opioids begins at very low doses and doubles when the daily dose is between 20 MMEs and 49 MMEs. By 100 MMEs, the risk of death increases by nine fold. Overall, 1 in every 550 patients started on opioid therapy died of opioid-related causes a median of 2.6 years after their first opioid prescription. That number increased to 1 in 32 for patients receiving 200 MMEs per day.
According to the AGO, Purdue’s sales representatives were trained to reassure prescribers that there is “no ceiling” on the amount of OxyContin a patient could be prescribed.
Ignoring red flags
According to the AGO, Purdue sales staff kept detailed records of prescriptions in Washington by prescriber, drug strength, quantity and other factors. Purdue then used that data to aggressively market its drugs to the highest prescribers in the state.
Washington state medical boards sanctioned some of these prescribers for failing to follow rules related to opioid prescriptions and putting patients at risk. The lawsuit alleges that, in several cases, Purdue salespeople ignored red flags and continued to target these providers with sales pitches.
However, details of specific interactions between Washington state providers and Purdue representatives are redacted from the complaint because Purdue contends the information is competitively sensitive. Ferguson plans to file a motion to unseal this information to reveal to the public additional details about these interactions.
Violating previous court order
Purdue has faced court action before over its deceptive marketing of OxyContin.
A 2007 court order resulting from a consent judgment with Washington and 25 other states prohibited the company from making misleading statements regarding abuse, addiction or dependence in its marketing materials for OxyContin. Purdue also promised to create an Abuse and Diversion Detection Program to detect and take appropriate steps upon detecting “atypical” prescribing patterns — including reporting “pill mill” doctors to the authorities.
Despite the court order, the AGO claims Purdue has continued to engage in deceptive marketing and has remained silent about suspicious prescribers it should have reported.
Washington’s epidemic
According to the AGO, prescriptions and sales of opioids in Washington skyrocketed more than 500 percent between 1997 and 2011. In 2011, at the peak of overall sales in Washington, more than 112 million daily doses of all prescription opioids were dispensed in the state — enough for a 16-day supply for every woman, man and child in Washington. More than 18.2 million daily doses of oxycodone were distributed in Washington in 2015.
Geographic areas in Washington with higher rates of opioid prescriptions show a strong correlation with higher overdose rates.
For example, Cowlitz, Clallam, Mason and Snohomish counties had the highest opioid overdose death rates in the state, according to the state Department of Health. Those counties also had some of the highest opioid prescription rates in the state.
Between 2009 and 2014, Washington saw a 60 percent increase in opioid-related hospital stays, the fourth-highest increase in the nation, according to a June study by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality.
In 2015, the number of overdose deaths in Washington exceeded the number of deaths from car accidents, or deaths from firearms — whether from suicide, homicide or accidental. The majority of drug overdose deaths in Washington between 2010 and 2015 — more than 6 out of 10 — involved an opioid.
Ferguson’s lawsuit seeks civil penalties and damages. Ferguson also asks the court to order Purdue to give up the profits it made in Washington as a result of its illegal conduct. Sales of Purdue opioids are worth billions every year nationwide, and Washington’s portion is expected to be in the millions.
According to Ferguson, the surrendered profits will be used to remediate the effects of Purdue’s misrepresentations of opioids, possibly funding treatment, education and more.

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Other Coverage

State launches opioid probe

Oct 2, 2017 | Yale News (NJ)

By Anusha Manglik

A group of 39 state attorneys general are taking steps to investigate the opioid crisis by cracking down on the pharmaceutical industry’s presentation of prescription opioids.
The bipartisan group of attorneys general is targeting five companies and their subsidiaries — Purdue Pharmaceuticals, Endo International, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Allergan, Inc. — to look for information about how prescription opioids have been manufactured and distributed. Connecticut’s Attorney General George Jepsen announced on Sept. 19 that he and his counterparts across the nation are also subpoenaing internal documents from three major distributors of opioids: AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson Corp.
Jepsen said in an email to the News that the investigation stems from concerns about how opioid manufacturers represent the safety of opioid drugs and their marketing regarding the drugs. The probe also seeks to determine whether the distributors failed to control opioid distribution properly, including through illegally failing to report and detect unusual opioid orders.
“The companies and distributors that are subject to the investigation are a focus because of their conduct and/or their current or historic market shares in the sale and distribution of opioid drugs,” Jepsen said.
The argument in the case is that pharmaceutical industries marketed prescription opioids as risk-free cures for pain, said Yale Law School professor Abbe Gluck, an expert in health law. Doctors would have made an effort to prescribe opioid painkillers in lower quantities to fewer patients if the risks of those medications were accurately portrayed, Gluck said.
For the companies under investigation, the legal implications are far-reaching. The money from any settlement will presumably go toward helping states combat the opioid crisis and any settlement would likely force the defendants to change their behavior significantly, Gluck added.
Director of the Emerging Infections Program Robert Heimer said he believes that if the companies are found guilty, it could have an adverse effect on what drugs they choose to make available to the public. A guilty verdict may have a chilling effect, he said, making the pharmaceutical companies withhold new treatments because of fear of lawsuits.
Solely targeting drug companies for their marketing practices is not the most effective approach to combatting the opioid crisis, Heimer said. Rather, governments should expand access to medications that treat opioid addiction alongside targeting the supply-side problems that the pharmaceutical companies bring to the epidemic, he added.
According to Connecticut’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, 1,079 people are expected to die of opioid-related deaths this year. This number is higher than the previous year, in which 917 people died of opioid-related deaths, and 2015, in which opioids claimed 729 lives.
With an increasing number of people dying from opioid-related causes, Jepsen said his office will continue searching for ways to provide relief and pursue policy changes that will mitigate the epidemic.
“In considering appropriate relief, we will be mindful of the financial strains this crisis has caused to state and local governments,” Jepsen said. “We are also acutely aware that this opioid crisis is an urgent, worsening and ongoing public health crisis and so will look for opportunities — through settlement discussions or otherwise — for meaningful policy changes within the relevant industries.”
He added that it is too early to gage the outcome of the investigation and the relief it will produce.
Connecticut ranks among the top 25 percent of states for opioid-related inpatient hospital stays according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

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7 things Nevada is doing to fight the opioid abuse epidemic

Oct 1, 2017 | The Nevada Independant

By Michelle Rindels

It was Michael Yenick’s love for the community, his desire to be a “hometown hero,” that prompted him to choose the University of Nevada, Reno over the other schools that were recruiting him to play football, his mother says.
It was the hard hits from playing defensive end, the back injury and the two knee surgeries and the painkillers that a hometown doctor prescribed him, that led to his downfall. In October 2015, he died of an opioid overdose at the age of 33, and his parents have been fighting ever since to prevent more young people from losing the same battle.
“He would want us to do that,” his mother, Cyndi, told attendees at the Governor’s Opioid State Action Accountability Task Force on Monday.
Gov. Brian Sandoval and his wife Kathleen have been active over the past few years trying to fight opioid abuse, which is a primary driver behind the 619 drug overdose deaths the CDC counted in Nevada in 2015. The state has one of the highest rates of opioid painkiller prescription in the country, with 87.5 prescriptions per 100 state residents in 2016 compared with 66.5 per 100 nationally, and hospitalizations where opioid abuse is a contributing factor have more than doubled over the past six years.
But the dramatic case of an illegal prescription drug ring in Reno, which has been linked to Yenick’s death, particularly moved the governor, according to his chief of staff. Sandoval convened a prescription drug abuse summit in the summer of 2016 that drew about 500 people and led to a detailed plan to address the crisis, and at one point set a goal of reducing abuse by 18 percent by 2018.
He’s now having the task force meet periodically to offer updates on progress.
“I don’t have the words to tell you how sorry I am in what you have gone through,” Sandoval told Yenick’s mother during the meeting. “But I will tell you … that that has been an inspiration and a motivator for me to get this done because it’s inconceivable to me what you’ve been through.”
Sandoval’s office has also spearheaded two major bills over the last two sessions that seek to get a handle on the crisis. Among the strongest supporters in the Legislature is Sen. Patricia Farley, who is in the process of being certified as a foster parent so she can take four nieces and nephews into her home next month. Their parents became addicted to drugs and lost custody.
“It was a dirty secret we didn’t talk about,” Farley said about the opioid addiction issues in her family following a Wednesday news conference on the issue. “We didn’t have the resources and we didn’t know where to go to get help. What you had is a bunch of people who’d never really seen it before trying to deal with it.”
She said she hopes the state can do more to educate youth and stave off future addiction, but also provide the mental health and wraparound services that addicts need during a recovery process that can last a lifetime.
Here are seven things the state is doing to fight the epidemic:
1. BETTER TRACKING OF OVERDOSES
Ask whether Nevada’s opioid problem is improving and you might not get a clear answer.
“Although it’s difficult to provide a general response to the question, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Division of Public and Behavioral Health have seen some improvements,” state officials told The Nevada Independent. “We see mortality rates decreasing and we see that overdose hospitalizations have not increased over the past seven years, which is a positive.”
It’s true that poisonings — what most people would understand as an overdose — have remained mostly flat, with the 576 inpatient cases in 2016 just a slight change from 599 cases in 2010. And the rate of opioid-related deaths has dropped from 16.9 per 100,000 in 2011 to 13.3 in 2016.
But hospitalizations where medical personnel indicate the patient is abusing opioids or dependent on the drugs are veering upward. There were 3,899 such inpatient cases in 2010 and 8,210 in 2016.
“There isn’t a clean check box on any inpatient admission forms that say yes, this is an overdose. There are a lot of things that a provider in the ER could look at to consider something an opioid overdose,” said Elyse Monroy, Sandoval’s health and human services policy analyst. “We know that deaths have gone down. We don’t really have a good, complete data picture to say we know why.”
The state wants to get a better handle on where its problem areas are — both geographically and otherwise. A new law passed this spring requires health-care providers to report to the state whenever they encounter an overdose or suspected overdose case. That kind of reporting was previously only required of certain contagious diseases.
“We will have more real time reporting of opioid overdoses from the facilities which may serve as a surveillance system to monitor opioid related overdoses more timely and accurately,” the health department said.
The data it currently keeps is being distributed to service and treatment providers, work groups trying to study and address the problem, and to inform state grant writing efforts.
State statisticians are working to develop online “dashboards” that update frequently and let the public explore opioid abuse trends and hotspots down to individual ZIP codes. State statisticians told the panel that they hope the dashboards would be ready for a review by the next time the panel meets, in January.
The data are limited based on the quality of the input, and it’s not always cut-and-dried. For example, the state maintains statistics on how many times first responders administer naloxone, which can reverse the effects of an overdose.
But it’s categorized by the number of calls to emergency services reporting an overdose; sometimes, a single overdose can lead to multiple calls. State statisticians told the panel they weren’t sure where to begin on how to correct the data and reflect multiple calls on single overdoses.
2. DISTRIBUTING NALOXONE
Nevada greatly increased access to naloxone, a drug that can quickly reverse the toxic effects of an opiate and prevent an overdose, during the 2015 legislative session. While state law in the past allowed practitioners to prescribe the drug to people at risk of experiencing an overdose, the so-called “Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act” made such prescriptions available to family members, friends and other people who might be around when a person overdoses, including emergency medical technicians (EMTs).
An effort called the Nevada Rural Opioid Overdose Reversal project (NROOR), which brought together UNR, rural hospitals and state emergency personnel, trained 117 EMTs last year to recognize the effects of an overdose and respond with naloxone. A $100,000 grant from the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy helped them purchase 500 pre-filled syringes of naloxone — a drug that costs about $75 for two doses — and distributed them to EMTs in seven rural counties.
But with most of the doses set to expire in November, rural EMTs have administered only five of them. Program administrators had projected the number of doses based on hospital billing data, emergency room admissions and overdose deaths.
“The data that we have so far suggest these EMTs are not necessarily being called to overdose emergencies with the frequency we expected,” said Karla Wagner, a UNR professor who’s evaluating the partnership’s success.
Wagner said it’s possible people aren’t calling 911 after a friend or family overdoses and are taking the person to the ER themselves, perhaps because they fear they’ll get in trouble for drug use. She said it shows a need to educate the public about the Good Samaritan law that gives some criminal immunity to people who report an overdose.
The program plans to redistribute the unused naloxone to community health centers in more populous areas, including Trac B in Las Vegas and Nevada Hopes in Reno, so they might be used before they expire.
The agency said it’s hoping for better data so naloxone can be targeted more efficiently in the future. The grant was a one-shot award and the partnership is seeking ways to remain sustainable.
One obvious success, though, was that the initiative appears to be boosting overdose knowledge among first responders. Only 18 percent knew who could legally possess the drug before the training, and 50 percent of participants correctly answered the question afterward.
Aside from the rural EMTs project, naloxone is available elsewhere. A survey sent to nearly 400 Nevada pharmacies found that 80 percent of respondents stocked naloxone, and there were 660 doses furnished by pharmacists since the 2015 law passed — all of which could potentially save a life.
3. MAKING TREATMENT EASIER TO FIND
State officials acknowledge they don’t have enough treatment providers to handle the demand, but they landed a $6.5 million federal State Targeted Response grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that they hope can grow capacity and quickly connect people to the appropriate services.
Nevada is building up a “hub and spoke” model similar to one used in Vermont so there’s no wrong door when patients go seeking help for an opioid problem.
“One of the issues we’ve realized in our state is the lack of connectivity to services,” said Dr. Stephanie Woodard, who’s overseeing the project. “There’s really a lack of knowledge about how they would get someone into treatment if they encountered a patient needing treatment.”
The state issued a request for applications last week for clinics that want to be one of at least three “hubs” in the state, called “Integrated Opioid Treatment and Recovery Centers.” Those centers will offer a range of medical services such as psychiatry and the ability to do medical and behavioral health screenings.
They’ll have formal written agreements with agencies that provide services such as transitional housing, methadone treatments and HIV/hepatitis C testing. The “hub” will guide people to the appropriate agency to continue treatment — those agencies are the “spokes” in the model.
While insurance, including Medicaid, would pay for much of the direct cost of services, the grant money will help clinics ramp up their services, upgrade their electronic health records and “onboard” new staff.
“These grants are very finite. We need to be very smart about how we use these dollars,” Woodard said. “I don’t want to build a system that is dependent on dollars only to know in two years they’re going to go away.”
As for Medicaid itself? Groups including the Children’s Advocacy Alliance praise Sandoval’s decision to expand coverage, which means nearly 9,000 more opioid addicts in Nevada have insurance and can access treatment such as medication that reduces cravings and withdrawals.
4. FLAGGING OVER-PRESCRIBERS
Sandoval backed bills in 2015 and then again in 2017 that seek to put a check on the pace at which doctors are prescribing and ensure accountability for unnecessary prescriptions. The first bill, SB459, required prescribers to check the state’s Prescription Monitoring Program database and review a patient’s prescription history before calling for more opioids.
The database, which has been around since 1997, was meant to curb “doctor-shopping” — when patients go from doctor to doctor hoping a different person will write them an additional prescription. While the number of providers enrolled has jumped from 16 percent to 81 percent in recent years, the state hopes to close the gap.
AB474, passed in 2017, requires all providers to enroll in the Prescription Monitoring Program and makes it easier for boards to use the system to address over-prescribing — an issue that had previously drawn few complaints and was a low investigative priority for the boards that oversee medical professionals.
Monroy said that in the past, occupational licensing boards might receive notification that a doctor was writing a large number of prescriptions, but they often didn’t act upon the notice because doing so would constitute a full-fledged investigation. Under the new legislation, boards must follow up on the notifications but under the less draconian “administrative review” process — which can be used as an opportunity to educate a provider or gather more information and doesn’t necessarily escalate to the level of an investigation.
The new bill, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2018, requires providers to take two hours of continuing education on drug abuse issues and go through a list of steps before issuing an opioid prescription. Those include having a bona fide relationship with the patient, doing a risk assessment on them, creating a treatment plan and obtaining their written consent.
The detailed guidance, which varies based on the length of the prescription, is an expansion for a state that had previously only used federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and didn’t have state-level mandates. It also ensures more frequent use of the prescription monitoring database, requiring prescribers to check for a patient in the database every 90 days rather than just when an initial prescription is written.
Boards are now drafting regulations based on the bill that will address topics such as how to discipline for over-prescribers.
The Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners, which has about 7,000 licensees who can prescribe, said it now has a dedicated attorney, investigator and a staffer focused exclusively on prescribing cases.
5. TAKING BACK DRUGS
In the past eight years, efforts to round up unused pills and prevent them from ending up in the hands of youth or other potential addicts have gained steam.
The first Washoe County drug roundup in 2009 netted 39,471 pills, while that number was nearly five-fold — 224,416 pills — in the April 2017 roundup. Clark County counts their collections in pounds and not pills, but they rounded up 1,052 pounds in an April takeback.
With help from coalitions that are fighting drug abuse, all counties are collecting prescription drugs through drop boxes or designated takeback days. They’re also taking additional steps to help people keep tabs on and quickly dispose of their drugs, including passing out drug tracking cards and Deterra bags, which deactivate pills and offer a safe way to dispose of unused medications.
But there are still challenges for pill collections — most notably Nevada’s inability to get rid of them within state lines. Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt noted that the pills law enforcement gathers must be trucked to Utah or California because Nevada doesn’t have its own incinerators.
It’s also hard to accept syringes that could poke and infect the person collecting them, and groups collecting the pills must find secure locations to store them so they’re not stolen.
Laxalt has proposed buying five new drug incinerators with funds Nevada was awarded in a settlement with Volkswagen. The furnaces would go in Boulder City, Elko, Las Vegas and Reno or Lockwood and are pending approval from legislators on the Interim Finance Committee.
A sixth incinerator in Carson City, which has stood dormant because of environmental hurdles, is also coming online, Monroy said.
6. ROOTING OUT DRUG CRIME
Law enforcement agencies at the state, local and federal levels are working together to track down people who traffic illegal prescription drugs and run “pill mills.”
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Aug. 2 that he was launching an opioid fraud and detection unit that will station experienced assistant U.S. attorneys in 12 states, including Nevada, for a three-year term. The lead prosecutor in Nevada is Kilby McFadden, who said she would spend her time targeting high-volume criminals and bad actor pharmacies.
She collaborates with the FBI, which has congressionally funded special agents who are based in Reno and Las Vegas and have recently launched four new investigations. Already, the FBI played a key role in the Reno pill mill case that was linked to Yenick’s death.
The FBI is part of a health-care fraud task force that, pending legislative approval, will also include a new investigator funded by the Nevada attorney general’s office. Having a state employee on the task force will make it much easier for the group to access data on the heavily secured Prescription Monitoring Program database, FBI agent Christina Burt testified at the task force meeting.
The Drug Enforcement Agency, which says Nevada is a source state for drugs that end up elsewhere, is also involved. The agency said it has sponsored 122 hours of free training to law enforcement about opioids and diversion and has distributed overdose kits to the public.
At the state level, the Department of Public Safety helps licensing boards look into possible prescription fraud cases. Since 2015, it has received 94 referrals from the pharmacy board, about half of which have evolved into full-fledged investigations. It’s also initiated about 100 more probes based on other tips, according to Investigation Division Chief Patrick Conmay.
7. SUBPOENAING PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES
As the state continues the fight against opioid abuse on the ground level, a broad group of top prosecutors is trying to hit the issue at the source — drug companies.
Laxalt announced earlier this month that he’d joined a bipartisan coalition of 40 attorneys general to address the opioid crisis in Nevada and elsewhere. The prosecutors have served subpoenas on manufacturers of prescription opioids including Endo, Janssen, Teva/Cephalon, Allergan and Purdue Pharma.
They’re also demanding information from opioid distributors including AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson.
Laxalt says the information will help the coalition determine whether the pharmaceutical companies were breaking the law in their marketing, sale and distribution of opioids.

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As Overdoses Continue, Opioid Lawsuit Pending

Sep 30, 2017 | The Greenville Sun

By Ken Little

More district attorneys general are expected to join a lawsuit filed in June by local state prosecutors against Purdue Pharma L.P., related companies and other defendants in an effort to curb the regional epidemic of addiction to prescription painkillers.
It could take years for a settlement in the civil action against the Indiana-based pharmaceutical maker of opioid pills, but 3rd District Attorney General Dan Armstrong said that the lawsuit could ultimately help curb availability of the highly addictive drugs.
The lawsuit, in conjunction with efforts of law enforcement and other agencies like the 3rd Judicial District Drug Task Force, along with prosecution of cases on the state and federal level, should help to impact the flow of opioids and equally dangerous drugs like methamphetamine into the region, Armstrong said.
The effort still doesn’t change troubling statistics ever-apparent to Armstrong and other prosecutors. Armstrong’s district includes Greene, Hancock, Hamblen and Hawkins counties.
DRUG OVERDOSES INCREASING
“I have had more drug overdoses come across my desk in the past three months than I can remember in a long time. It’s getting worse, it’s not getting better,” Armstrong said this week.
Drug overdose figures from Greene and the other counties in the 3rd Judicial District are sobering to consider. Figures for this year are not immediately available, but in 2016, there were 21 cases of autopsies of Greene County residents attributed to drug overdoses or listing drugs as a “significant factor” in the cause of death out of a total of 76 autopsies conducted. That means drugs are a direct or closely related factor in the death of more than 27 percent of all autopsies conducted.
Corresponding figures for 2015 in Greene County show drugs as a direct or closely related cause in about 22 percent of autopsies conducted, according to figures provided by Armstrong’s office.
Of 55 total autopsies conducted in 2015 on Greene County residents, 12 are attributable to drugs.
The vast majority of drug overdose deaths are opioid-related, officials have said.
Across the 3rd Judicial District, the trend is similar. Out of 175 total procedures in 2016, there were 42 drug-related autopsies, for a 24 percent drug overdose or contributing factor total.
In 2015, the total number of autopsies was 157, with 31 directly attributable to drugs or drug-related, for 19 percent of the total.
Many other deaths in the four-county area involving individuals who did not have autopsies performed were also attributable to drug overdoses, officials have said.
Numbers are up across the state, leading to more prosecutorial districts and government entities filing legal action against pharmaceutical companies that make opioids.
“More district attorneys will get involved,” Armstrong said. “Overdoses seem to be going up every day.”‘GROUND ZERO’
Armstrong, 2nd Judicial District Attorney General Barry Staubus and Tony Clark, 1st Judicial District attorney general in Washington and three surrounding counties, stood together in June at a news conference at Niswonger Children’s Hospital in Johnson City announcing the lawsuit with other law enforcement officials.
They jointly declared this area as “ground zero” in Tennessee’s opioid pill epidemic.
From central distribution hubs like Atlanta and Detroit, the deadly pills and meth are flooding into this region by criminals using increasingly sophisticated methods.
Ground zero is an apt characterization of the situation, Armstrong said.
“It is. We’ve got a generation now that is hooked on opioids and it’s going to take a long time to work through that, but hopefully we’ve started,” he said.
Meanwhile, police and other agencies continue their work with prosecutors.
“You will be hard-pressed to find a family in Greene County that’s not (been affected),” be it from an addicted relative or being a victim of theft or other crime, Greeneville police Chief Terry Cannon said after the news conference.FOUR PLAINTIFFS INVOLVED
The Nashville law firm of Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings PLLC, represents the attorneys general. The civil action was filed in Sullivan County Circuit Court in Kingsport on behalf of those it claims are victimized by “fraudulent market campaigns” that convince doctors that drugs like OxyContin are not highly addictive and a safe means of reducing pain.
The lawsuit alleges Purdue Pharma L.P., related companies, a Kingsport medical clinic and two private individuals convicted of pill sales all contribute to the epidemic that gives Tennessee the dubious distinction of having the second-highest rate of opioid addiction in the U.S. The total of any damages awarded resulting from the lawsuit would be determined by a judge, court officials said.
The civil action was jointly filed by Staubus, Armstrong and Clark. A fourth plaintiff, Baby Doe, through his Guardian AD Litem, was born addicted to opiates in 2015 at Holston Valley Regional Hospital.
Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome is an ever-growing problem that continues to worsen, Niswonger Children’s Hospital CEO Linda Carter said. The children’s hospital opened a ward specifically created to treat infants born with NAS because of mothers’ addictions to opiates.
Treating babies with NAS is 10 times more expensive than the amount it costs to care for a normal newborn, Carter said.
She said that since 2000, there has been a 10-fold increase in the number of babies born at the hospital with NAS.LAWSUIT DETAILS
The Tennessee Drug Dealer Liability Act passed in 2015 gives prosecutors what they believe is a solid legal basis for many of the claims made on behalf of plaintiffs like Baby Doe, whose “first days of life were spent in excruciating pain as doctors weaned him from his opioid addiction,” the complaint states.
His mother, called Mary Doe in the lawsuit, “did not start out as an addict.”
“As a result of defendants’ fraudulent scheme, Mary Doe’s community in the Appalachian region of Tennessee was awash in opioids, fueling a dramatic increase in those exposed to and addicted to OxyContin, Roxicodone, Opana and other opioids,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit claims it took a “concerted effort” by Purdue Pharma and other manufacturer defendants “to mislead doctors and the public about the need for, and the addictive nature of, opioid drugs.”
“When it became clear that entire regions of the country were being devastated by addiction to these drugs, the manufacturer defendants turned a blind eye to the problems and collected millions of dollars in ill-gotten profits,” the lawsuit claims.
Also listed as defendants are the Sullivan County-based Center Pointe Medical Clinic LLC, and two convicted opioid dealers, who “contributed to the opioid epidemic by diverting and illegally selling opioids in upper East Tennessee.”
In addition to Purdue Pharma, defendants characterized in the lawsuit as “related companies” include Mallinckrodt PLC and Endo Pharmaceuticals.
The lawsuit states that OxyContin is Purdue’s best-selling opioid, increasing from national sales of $800 million in 2006 to between $2.47 and $2.99 billion annually.
The lawsuit maintains that opioids “have never been proven appropriate for chronic pain and other non-acute medical problems” and carry “a high risk of addiction, serious medical problems and death.”
Unintentional overdose deaths “now account for more early deaths in Tennessee than automobile accidents, suicides or homicides,” the lawsuit states.
Statewide figures jumped from 342 overdose deaths in 1999 to 1,451 in 2015.
, the lawsuit seeks economic damages that include, but are not limited to, “the cost of treatment and rehabilitation, medical expenses, loss of economic and educational potential, loss of productivity, absenteeism, support expenses, accidents or injury, and any other pecuniary loss proximately caused by illegal drug use” described in the complaint.
Opioid epidemic-affected counties have additionally “incurred numerous structural costs” that include increased health care, police services and incarceration service expenses, the lawsuit states.
After the lawsuit was filed, Purdue Pharma issued a statement in response that is conciliatory in tone.
“While we vigorously deny the allegations in the complaint, we share public officials’ concerns about the opioid crisis and we are committed to working collaboratively to find solutions,” it states. “At Purdue, we have dedicated ourselves to working with policymakers, public health officials and law enforcement to address this public health crisis, which include developing abuse-deterrent technology, advocating for the use of prescription drug monitoring programs and supporting access to Naloxone.”
It adds that addiction and drug abuse “are multi-faceted problems that require multi-faceted solutions.”
“Pointing fingers will not solve the problem, nor will it help those who are suffering. We urge all stakeholders to seize the opportunity to work together so that collectively we can address this crisis,” the Purdue Pharma response concludes.LAWSUIT STATUS
Purdue Pharma and other lawsuit defendants have filed motions to have the case moved from state to federal court, citing a “diversity” issue that relates to the primary defendant being based in Indiana and the plaintiffs in Tennessee.
A response has been filed by the plaintiffs seeking to have the case continued in state court. A hearing in a federal courtroom may be the venue where the future of the lawsuit is decided. There is no set hearing date, court officials said.
“We are in a holding pattern as we wait to see which court will ultimately take up the case,” Tricia R. Herzfeld, a lawyer with Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings, said Friday in an email.
In addition to the Indiana-based pharmaceutical company, there are defendants, said Armstrong, who believes the lawsuit will ultimately be heard in state court.
“(The diversity argument) doesn’t give you the right to file a lawsuit in federal court,” he said.
Meanwhile, the struggle to get opioids off the streets continues in Northeast Tennessee. Any proceeds Armstrong would receive from a lawsuit judgment would be used in the 3rd Judicial District to combat the opioid epidemic.
“It’s a day-today battle. We’re in the trenches. We’re doing our best,” he said.

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Westchester to sue pharma companies tied to opioid, heroin crisis

Sep 30, 2017 | Lohud (USA Today Network)

By Mark Lungariello

Westchester County is set to join a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies linked to the opioid and heroin crisis that has left hundreds in the county dead.
County lawmakers unanimously voted Monday to join counties all over the country, including eight in New York, that are accusing the companies of deceptive marketing practices that have led to a nationwide addiction epidemic.
“All of us know somebody, all of us have heard the stories … you have drug overdoses crossing traffic accidents as the leading cause of preventable deaths in this country,” said Legislator Mary Jane Shimsky, the Hastings-on-Hudson Democrat who introduced the bill.
Opioids were involved in more than 33,000 deaths in 2015, quadruple the number from 1999, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control. In that same span, the amount of prescription opioids sold to pharmacies nearly quadrupled, despite no overall change in the amount of pain Americans reported, according to CDC figures.
Opioid-related deaths in Westchester jumped 200 percent from 2010 to 2015, from 27 to 83, according to the county. There were 334 deaths in that time. Those hooked on painkillers sometimes turn to heroin, chemically similar and cheaper to buy on the street.
The county will make a claim for losses, saying that it has spent money through social programs for addicts and also their family members who have been affected, said Democrat Lyndon Williams, chairman of the legislature’s litigation committee.
Legislator Sheila Marcotte, a Tuckahoe Republican and chairwoman of the budget and appropriations committee, said there was a great financial loss in addition to human loss.
“Being good stewards of taxpayer dollars doesn’t just mean finding ways to save, it also means availing ourselves to additional revenue opportunities to help defray expenses,” she said in a statement. “The proceeds from this lawsuit will go a long way in our fight against the opioid addiction epidemic.”
Dutchess, Rockland, Ulster, Nassau, Suffolk, Broome, Erie and Orange have already moved forward with the suit. Westchester lawmakers said they will choose between two specialized firms to represent the county in the suit.
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, a Republican, said the epidemic needs to be attacked from every front imaginable. The county recently launched Project WORTHY, a program focused on improving community outreach, addiction treatment and law enforcement efforts.
Astorino, in a statement to The Journal News/lohud, said the suit could be effective in stopping deaths when coupled with Project WORTHY, training for the opioid overdose medication narcan and stepped-up drug-trafficking investigations.
“If the drug companies have done wrong, then it must be rectified,” Astorino said. “If not, then we can be at the table to work with them to bring about positive change. Westchester communities deserve nothing less.”

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Nikki Sixx: Take it from a recovering addict, a lot more could be done to end the opioid crisis (OPINION)

Sep 29, 2017 | Los Angeles Times

By Nikki Six

Heroin nearly killed me. As a matter of fact, it did: For two minutes in 1987 I was pronounced clinically dead from an overdose.
I was at the Franklin Plaza Apartments in Hollywood, shooting up between snorts of cocaine and shots of booze. It was late December 1987. Mötley Crüe had just released our record “Girls Girls Girls” and we were about to tour the world. From the outside looking in, I was living the dream. But in reality, I was in the throes of a disease I couldn’t control, addicted to heroin.
I remember very little about that night, but I know someone called an ambulance and saved my life. Today I am 16 years sober and a decade into recovery advocacy.
What I’ve been through doesn’t make me a policy expert. But it qualifies me to judge the way the United States is handling its latest addiction crisis: Opioid abuse isn’t just making addicts sick, it’s making America sick.
The numbers are devastating. The government estimates that 142 people a day die of drug overdoses. ODs are killing more Americans than car crashes and gun homicides combined. Prescription opioids and heroin are the prime contributors to these statistics.
Once hooked on prescription painkillers, many users turn to heroin, often cut with more lethal drugs, because it’s cheaper and easier to get than another refill. In 2015 (the most recent year for which we have data), there were more than 30,000 opioid overdose deaths nationwide, and the rate is on the rise. Between 2002 and 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heroin use in the U.S. more than doubled, and heroin deaths more than quadrupled.
Now President Trump wants to slash the 2018 Medicaid budget. He’s suggesting deep cuts in funding for treatment, prevention and addiction research. And Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions wants to fill federal prisons with drug addicts instead of getting them help.
Trump makes a show of concern. He convened a commission in March charged with studying the problem, and he has promised to declare opioid addiction a national emergency, which would free up resources for the battle. But he has failed to file the proper paperwork.
Instead, he found time to do some name-calling (“I won New Hampshire,” he told Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, “because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den.”) He lies about the causes of the epidemic, blaming Mexico and China when in fact the responsibility belongs to U.S. drug manufacturers and overzealous doctors pushing prescription painkillers. And then there are those budget cuts.
Americans are dying. Entire towns are being destroyed. Local economies are crippled by addiction. Yet this epidemic can be stopped, it’s solvable.
Trump’s opioid commission quickly submitted an interim report that spells out the right approach: It emphasizes treatment, education about pain management for doctors, research and data collection, and rational “supply reduction.” It spells out policy goals based on facts and science. The president should listen to his own experts. Now.
Congress and the administration must approve a 2018 budget that provides sufficient funding for Medicaid. Of the 2 million Americans in treatment for opioid addiction, approximately 30% receive Medicaid. We must not make it harder for the most vulnerable addicts to obtain treatment.
Our representatives must guarantee that, in any healthcare reform, addiction will not be not classified as a pre-existing condition that could limit an addict’s ability to receive lifesaving care for this disease. The latest failed GOP attempt, the Graham-Cassidy bill, would have harmed those affected by the opioid epidemic through coverage cuts and “flexibility” in what can be covered.
Drug manufacturers have to be held accountable for how they market addictive drugs. Many states are trying. In August, South Carolina became the sixth state to sue Purdue Pharma over OxyContin; 41 states have demanded information on the sales practices of opioid makers and distributors. We can better restrain painkiller prescriptions. Pharmaceutical companies are greedy, and the regulations are too lax.
Naloxone, a medication that can block the effects of opioids and reverse an overdose in progress, should be widely available, yet — outrageously — a puritanical debate rages over whether access to such a “safety net” encourages drug use.
If we fail to take these necessary actions we are saying to addicts, “You aren’t worth saving.” I am here to tell you that all addicts are worth saving.
I am one of the lucky ones. And I know my continuing sobriety is not the result of my actions alone. I have a loving family and an extensive support network.. I have AA and the guidance of my sponsors. I have good health insurance. I have the money, time and resources to help me save myself.
So many people don’t have access to these resources. But they are no less deserving of help. No one is a junkie by choice. And no junkie is a lost cause.
Addiction cannot be solved behind closed doors. It’s a sickness, a systemic failure and a societal problem. Individuals are responsible for their own recovery, but too often, we struggle and suffer — as we sin — in secrecy and silence. Secrecy and silence do not lead to solutions.
So I am speaking out. And so should you. Because another 142 people are going to die today.
Nikki Sixx is the co-founder of the band Mötley Crüe. An updated, 10-year anniversary edition of his memoir and Sixx:A.M. soundtrack “The Heroin Diaries” will be released in October. His photo exhibition “Conversations with Angels” opens Oct. 4 at the Leica Gallery Los Angeles.

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Nikki Sixx Condemns Trump Administration in Opioid Addiction Op-Ed

Sep 29, 2017 | Rolling Stone

By Kory Grow

Nikki Sixx, who was once declared clinically dead after overdosing on heroin at the height of Mötley Crüe's fame, has penned an op-ed decrying the way the government is handling the United States' opioid crisis.
"Opioid abuse isn’t just making addicts sick, it’s making America sick," he wrote in Los Angeles Times. He then cited statistics that suggest more Americans die of overdoses than gun violence and vehicular crashes combined. He also points to data that suggest that heroin-related deaths more than quadrupled between 2002 and 2013.
"Now President Trump wants to slash the 2018 Medicaid budget," he wrote. "He’s suggesting deep cuts in funding for treatment, prevention and addiction research. And Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to fill federal prisons with drug addicts instead of getting them help.
"Trump makes a show of concern," Sixx continued. "He convened a commission in March charged with studying the problem, and he has promised to declare opioid addiction a national emergency, which would free up resources for the battle. But he has failed to file the proper paperwork."
The bassist further lambasted Trump for placing blame for the epidemic on China and Mexico rather than targeting American drug companies and "overzealous" American doctors.
Sixx suggests that Trump already knows the solution is through treatment, education, research and "supply reduction." The responsibility for these changes lie directly with the government, he says. "Congress and the administration must approve a 2018 budget that provides sufficient funding for Medicaid," Sixx wrote. "Of the 2 million Americans in treatment for opioid addiction, approximately 30 percent receive Medicaid. We must not make it harder for the most vulnerable addicts to obtain treatment."
Beyond this, he asks that the government not declare drug addiction a "preexisting condition" when rewriting healthcare laws and that drug manufacturers are held accountable for the way they market drugs. He'd also like to see Naloxone, a drug that can reverse an opioid overdose, be made widely available.
"Addiction cannot be solved behind closed doors," Sixx wrote. "It’s a sickness, a systemic failure and a societal problem. Individuals are responsible for their own recovery, but too often, we struggle and suffer – as we sin – in secrecy and silence. Secrecy and silence do not lead to solutions."
Sixx chronicled his own odyssey into drug addiction in his 2008 book, The Heroin Diaries, which contains writings from around the time he overdosed. He's reissuing the book on October 24th as The Heroin Diaries: Ten Year Anniversary Edition with new chapters.

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Lawyers in Opioid Suits Aim for MDL to Handle Dozens of Cases

Sep 29, 2017 | The National Law Journal

By Amanda Bronstad

As more governments across the nation sue dozens of drug companies to claw back money spent battling opioid addiction, one lawyer has moved to transfer all the cases into a single federal court.
James Peterson of Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler in Charleston, West Virginia, moved on Sept. 25 to coordinate at least 66 cases brought by cities, counties and even two states — New Hampshire and West Virginia — into multidistrict litigation. Peterson represents 46 cities, counties and other government agencies with opioid suits.
Peterson favors Ohio or Illinois as venues for the proposed MDL.
"While the effects are felt in hard-hit local communities, evidence and facts proving how this happened and who to blame are in significant part uniform," he wrote in his motion. "Consolidation in a multidistrict litigation proceeding is necessary to prevent inconsistent rulings, including onDaubert motions, and to allow efficient and coordinated adjudication of the burgeoning number of cases."
Peterson did not return a call for comment.
At least half a dozen states have sued opioid manufacturers and distributors contending that the drug companies failed to disclose the prescription medications' addictive nature and have created a public health problem. Many states, like New Jersey, are considering filing suits, and a coalition of 41 state attorneys general has widened its investigation of several opioid manufacturers.
Many more cities and counties have brought cases, particularly in the past few months. Cities cited in Peterson's motion include Cincinnati; Birmingham, Alabama; Stockton, California; Tacoma, Washington; and Huntington, West Virginia. Governments in Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee also were cited in the motion.
Many of the government plaintiffs have retained outside counsel, like Motley Rice and New York's Simmons Hanly Conroy, to bring the lawsuits. In some cases, like New Hampshire's, the drug companies have unsuccessfully challenged those contingency fee arrangements.
The suits also name pharmacies and doctors as defendants.
Peterson's motion would only apply to those cases in federal court, not state courts. Many of the cases cited in the motion were recently removed to federal court.
"My cases in NY have no chance of ending up in the MDL because there is no federal diversity or subject matter jurisdiction," wrote Paul Hanly, a shareholder at Simmons Hanly. He is handling a case brought last month by Waterbury, Connecticut, as well as several on behalf of New York cities and counties.
He also is co-lead counsel with Paul Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik in a litigation proceeding created in July that coordinated all the cases brought by governments in New York. On Wednesday, New York Supreme Court Judge Jerry Garguilo named both Hanly and Napoli co-leads over about 16 cases brought by New York counties.
Napoli said he predicted dozens more to be filed.
"A lot of counties have decided they're going to be involved in the litigation but are interviewing firms to determine which firms will represent them in the litigation," he said.
The remainder of this article is under paywall: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202799291523/Lawyers-in-Opioid-Suits-Aim-for-MDL-to-Handle-Dozens-of-Cases?mcode=1202617074964&curindex=0&curpage=2

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Taking opioid companies to task (OPINION)

Sep 30, 2017 | Nevada Daily Mail (NV)

By Sen. Claire McCaskill

“Start them high and hope they don’t die,” is how an employee at Insys, a major U.S. opioid manufacturer, described one of his company’s unofficial slogans according to legal documents.
That’s horrifying. At a time when drug addictions and overdoses are skyrocketing and Missouri families in communities across our state are being ripped apart, I’m committed to getting to the bottom of what companies like Insys did to fuel this national epidemic and public health crisis.
Back in March, I launched an investigation into some of the top opioid manufacturers in our country. I requested information on their sales and marketing practices, how much money they’re giving to outside lobbying groups, internal estimates of the risk of addiction from their drugs, and more.
I recently released my first report from this investigation and it contains some shocking information.
In one instance, an Insys employee was trying to get approval for a woman named Sarah Fuller to get a powerful opioid. The Insys employee lied by saying she was “with the doctor’s office,” and implied that Sarah needed the opioid because she had extreme pain caused by cancer — the only symptom this drug was approved to treat.
In reality Sarah didn’t even have cancer. She eventually got the opioid prescription, and later died after an apparent overdose.
I asked Sarah’s mom to share her tragic story with a group of Senators this month. I also invited Jeffrey Buchalter, an Army veteran whose doctor was paid tens of thousands of dollars by Insys and far overprescribed opioids to Jeffrey. I was so proud of them for having the courage to share their harrowing stories. By shining a light on experiences like theirs and exposing the malicious — and perhaps illegal — actions of some of these companies, we can figure out what led to the opioid epidemic we have today and make sure that what happened to Sarah and Jeffrey doesn’t happen to other families in Missouri and across the country.
As I continue my investigation, I promise I will do everything I can to expose what companies are doing to fuel this crisis and hold them accountable — and I’ll be sure to keep you updated every step of the way.
U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill is a former Jackson County Prosecutor and Missouri State Auditor.

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Opioids On Trial: Can Lawsuits Help Fix The Addiction Crisis? (AUDIO)

Oct 2, 2017 | Ohio Valley ReSource

By Aaron Payne

AUDIO LINK: https://wfpl.org/opioids-on-trial-can-lawsuits-help-fix-the-addiction-crisis/ (3:54)
When health care and law enforcement officials met recently at a health policy forum in Lexington, Kentucky, to share ideas about the opioid crisis, Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear listed some groups that have benefited from money won in a 2015 settlement with Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin.
“We had Freedom House in Louisville and Independence House in Corbin. We had the Chrysalis House in here in Lexington. Hope in the Mountains, that was going to have to shut down, in Prestonsburg,” he said.
Beshear doubled down on a commitment to sue other opioid manufacturers and distributors. He claims they owe the people affected by the addiction crisis.
“I’m not looking for punishment, I’m looking for responsibility,” he said. “And if those companies won’t take responsibility, then I’m going to see them in court.”
Beshear joins a trend of state, county and municipal government officials across the country considering or filing myriad lawsuits in the past year against opioid manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies and doctors they say should take partial responsibility for the addiction crisis.
The approximately 60 plaintiffs in the Ohio Valley range from the state of Ohio, population 11.6 million, to the town of Kermit, West Virginia, population 371.
The defendants range from large opioid wholesale distributors such as Cardinal Health Inc., AmerisourceBergen Corp., and McKesson Corp., to small-town pharmacies such as Larry’s Drive-In Pharmacy in Madison, West Virginia.
The officials bringing these suits say the money earned in court would be used to cover what governments have spent to keep up with the damage done by the proliferation of opioid pain pills, and to improve treatment options for those who became addicted. But there are questions about using the courts as a fix for the addiction crisis. Some experts warn that the lawsuits might not succeed and even if they do, they might not bring a remedy in time.The Strategy
Professor Richard Ausness researches product liability litigation at the University of Kentucky College of Law. He says the plaintiffs face a challenge in proving that the companies created a “public nuisance,” as many of the lawsuits allege.
“Historically, it has been concerned with activities on land,” he said. “A court would have to be willing to expand the traditional boundaries of public nuisance law.”
Another major hurdle will be to prove the companies bear direct responsibility. In similar cases the defense has argued that there are too many steps between selling or distributing a legal substance and the damages of the crisis.
“They clearly have a responsibility to the people they sold the drugs to. But this is a few steps removed from that,” Ausness said.
For example, as part of a lawsuit brought by the city of Huntington, West Virginia, Cardinal Health, a wholesale distributor of opioids, submitted a list of 2,000 organizations the company says could also be liable. This list was controversial because it included Lily’s Place, a treatment center for babies born dependent on drugs.
Ausness said he thinks this argument positions the defense for a chance at success, but it’s not a guarantee.
The plaintiffs, however, may not be looking for a successful ruling to achieve their goals.
“I’m not sure they expect to win or want to win,” Ausness said. “I think what they want to do is settle.”
The cost of litigation is expensive. And the theory is that if drug companies are hit with enough lawsuits, settlement will be a better financial decision than proceeding in court.
Settlements also allow defendants to seal potentially damaging information.
“That’s often the quid pro quo,” Ausness said. “They don’t want stuff getting out that could be used against them.”
A deposition of Purdue Pharma board member and former president Richard Sackler detailing the company’s marketing of OxyContin was put under seal in the Pike County Circuit Court as part of Kentucky’s settlement with the company.
This is believed to be the only time Sackler has spoken on record on the matter, according to STAT, which reports on the biomedical business world. The news organization is battling Purdue in court in an effort to unseal the deposition and other related records.Following Tobacco Road?
Ausness compares the recent wave of opioid lawsuits to the tobacco industry’s landmark settlement. Industry leaders agreed to pay $206 billion in 1998 after nearly every state sued to recover Medicaid dollars spent on tobacco-related disease.
“The tobacco companies eventually threw in the towel and finally said, ‘We’re getting killed here a little at a time,’” Ausness said.
Part of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement prohibited future litigation against the industry.
Ausness said pharmaceutical companies could reach a point where they will opt for that. But he said there are a few key differences with the opioid lawsuits.
Opioids are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration while tobacco was not. This supports the defense in that they were selling and distributing a legal substance. And Ausenss said there is not yet any “smoking gun” evidence as there was in the tobacco lawsuits.
“They got together and conspired through their trade associations to lie about the risk of addiction and the nicotine content. And they got caught red-handed,” Ausness said.
And if lawsuits succeed, there may not be enough money to go around. There could potentially be thousands of plaintiffs in the opioid litigation as more county and municipal governments file suit.
“I think what we may end up with is something akin to an Oklahoma Land Rush,” Ausness said. “Everybody starts piling on and the ones who manage to get judgments early in the process may end up being compensated while the other ones end up not being compensated if the companies go under.”A Timely Remedy?
The comparison to the tobacco lawsuits raises another thorny question: Would the money from opioid lawsuits really help those in need?
While smoking rates have dropped since the ’90s, critics of the tobacco settlement say much of the money promised to smoking prevention and education programs went instead into the states’ general budgets.
So far the opioid suits show mixed results in the region.
The Chrysalis House in Lexington is using some of the $24 million settlement from the 2015 agreement with Purdue Pharma to treat the alarming number of babies born drug-dependent.
“[The money is] providing necessary treatment and wrap-around services to the women and children that we serve,” Executive Director Lisa Minton said.
The $350,000 was awarded to Kentucky’s oldest and largest residential recovery program for women out of an $8 million pool through a grant process.
Minton said Chrysalis House will dedicate its share of the funds to hiring additional peer support staff, educational parenting programs and family services to the new mothers who come to one of their three facilities with their babies.
“Funding is always precarious,” Minton said. And grants like these help take some of the pressure off finding enough funding to keep up with the increase in demand for the services.
However, Kentucky’s Office of Drug Control Policy Executive Director Van Ingram cautions that even big money settlements take time to show effects on the ground.
The state’s suit against Purdue, for example, was filed in 2007, a settlement came in 2015, and organizations are just now receiving the money.
“It’ll be a decade before anything results out of these lawsuits, in my opinion,” Ingram said. “So, I don’t think it’s going to have any immediate impact.”One to Watch
Professor Ausness agrees that these types of cases take time. He points to Chicago’s lawsuit filed against five major opioid manufacturers several years ago.
“It’s still in the pretrial phase after all the back and forth,” he said.
Out of all the similar cases filed across the country, Chicago’s is the furthest along and could have major implications for lawsuits filed in the Ohio Valley.
This means it’s still far too early to tell how the litigation will shake out, and even harder to tell if the results will have an impact in time to keep pace with the opioid crisis.

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FDA requires opioid makers to develop doctor training

Oct 2, 2017 | Associated Press

By Carla K. Johnson

The Food and Drug Administration is requiring manufacturers of the most widely prescribed painkillers to provide extensive training to doctors in an attempt to reduce the number of patients who become addicted, and stem the ongoing opioid crisis.
The agency notified 74 manufacturers of so-called immediate-release opioids this week that their drugs will now be subject to the tougher requirements, although doctors would not be compelled to take part in the training.
The medications, which include Vicodin and Percocet, often combine oxycodone or hydrocodone with less powerful painkillers like acetaminophen. They account for 90 percent of all opioid painkillers prescribed.
Manufacturers of long-acting opioids such as OxyContin, which release their doses over 12 hours or more, have been subject to the requirements since 2012.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb called the immediate-release versions a "potential gateway to addiction" in a blog post Thursday.
About 2 million Americans are addicted to prescription opioids, and more than 15,000 died from overdoses involving prescription opioids in 2015.
Dr. Andrew Kolodny, founder of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing and an advocate for opioid reform, said the details of the trainings will be important in determining whether they have the potential to make a difference, but said Gottlieb's choice of words is significant.
"To have the head of the FDA talk about addiction caused by medical treatment really suggests a change in what we hear about opioids," Kolodny said.
The prescriber training, which could take a year to organize and implement, must include consideration of non-opioid alternatives.
Gottlieb wrote in the blog post that the agency's new opioid policy steering committee is considering "whether there are circumstances when FDA should require some form of mandatory education for health care professionals, and how the agency would pursue such a goal."

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Broadcast Media Coverage

FOX 51 Good Day 7:30am

Oct 2, 2017 | KFXK (FOX)

By Tyler, TX

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29851265?token=573a9f84-684e-489a-ac1d-8be679ffbb57
Rough Transcript: after plaguing the community for years. "opioids have taken the live of some many east texans. which is why on friday, the upshur county commissioners court decided it's their time to fight back, approving the filing of a civil action lawsuit against big pharma." "motion to retain simon an greenstone for the opioid litigation, all in favor say i. "eye." there was litt hesitation in e courtroom as county commissioners decided to pursue legal action regarding opioid addiction. reid martin//martin and walker law firm "these pharm companies have created a public nuisances and the cdc documents it's here in upshur county. "kind of let us of the lease a little bit, we'll have a seat at the front table." a law firm from gilme will file suit against the pharmaceutical industry on behalf on the county... and will seek financial 8:34 AMrestitutions. statistics show three out of ever five overdose deaths in the country is caused by opioid use. seven of those deaths happen in upshur county. for those repeat offenders... their addictions falls on the tax payers. "we don't know how t treat the drug addicted. we have no facilities, they stay in our jails for 60 days... and you pay for it... and then we he don't support his children, they're down here on cps, you pay for that too." caroline hamilton: for the first time "opioids have take the lives of some many east texans. which is why on friday, the upshur county commissioners court decided it's their time to fight back, approving the filing of a civil action lawsuit against big pharma." "motion to retain simon an greenstone for the opioid litigation, all in favor say i. " "eye." there was lit hesitation in the courtroom as county commissioners decided to pursue legal action regarding opioid addiction. reid martin//martin and walker law firm "these pharma companie have created a public nuisances and the cdc documents it's here in upshur county. "kind of le us off the lease a little bit, we'll have a seat at the front table." a law firm from gilme will file suit against the pharmaceutical industry on behalf on the county... and will seek financial restitutions. statistics show three out of ever five overdose deaths in the country is caused by opioid use. seven of those deaths happen in upshur county. for those repeat offenders... their addictions falls on the tax payers. "we don't know ho to treat the drug addicted. we have no facilities, they stay in our jails for 60 days... and you pay for it... and then we he don't support his children, they're down here on cps, you pay for that too."

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Politics Now

Oct 2, 2017 | KLAS (CBS)

By Las Vegas, NV

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29851583?token=573a9f84-684e-489a-ac1d-8be679ffbb57
Rough Transcript: nevadans are dying at a rate of more than one a day. due to overdosing on opioids. governor brian sandoval has spearheaded a wide-ranging effort to combat opioid addiction here in the silver state. ((patrick walker) >> this week .. nevadans are dying at a rate of one a day due to opioid addiction. they went over the data trying to figure out what comes next. >> lives are being lost in record numbers. >> after a two-day summit on the state's opioiddrug cris. governor sandoval's opioid task force is looking for answers. >> we can never, never accept the status quo. >> the status quo right now, doctors are writing almost as many opioid pain prescriptions in a year as they are in the state. 8:43 PM15,000 were admitted to hospital due to opioidrelated disorders. the majority of all of that is here in clark county. >> it is so easy to break people, so easy to tell them that you will live with this the rest of your life. >> he struggled with addiction for years, and he beat it. others not so lucky. he didn't always get his pain killers from his doctor. >> i received it illegally and also received it diverted. >> the majority of abusers are over the age of 45. state senator patricia farley is among the lawmakers who are pushing prevention for the younger generation. >> we need data on what our youth is doing so we can assemble appropriate prevention programs. >> the state has secured $10 million in grants. plus the volkswagen settlement 8:44 PMwould go towards incinerators and other programs. >> people are talking about using marijuana, again, i think we have to get data on it. >> this meeting comes as 8 news now is embarking on a wide ranging investigation into the opioid problem here in the silver state. those who are addicted to it are one side of the story, of course. the other is the chronic pain patients who are having trouble getting medications. all working to bring you stories that you've never heard. >> a slew of new laws passed by the legislature. some of those deal with prescription drugs. senate bill 159 prohibits the sale of a drug to people who are under the age of 18. meantime senate bill 171 requires pharmacy to post or provide instructions for the safe disposal of unused drugs.

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Fox 13 News at 5pm

Oct 2, 2017 | WHBQ (FOX)

By Memphis, TN

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29851592?token=573a9f84-684e-489a-ac1d-8be679ffbb57
Rough Transcript: drug companies are asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of being responsible for the opioid epidemic. this suit talks about drug problems. and they cannot be held responsible for all opioid -related issues.

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FOX 61 The Real Story

Oct 1, 2017 | WTIC (FOX)

By Hartford, CT

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29851603?token=573a9f84-684e-489a-ac1d-8be679ffbb57
Rough Transcript: you've also taken action on the opioid issue. with respect to the drug companies. i know there are a lot of lawsuits going on about the way that the drug companies marketed these painkillers saying that you could take it over a long period of time with no ill effects, no adverse effects and that sort of thing. - connecticut has worked to build what is now a 39 state coalition to deal with the opioid crisis in two important respects. first is the manufacturers. did they start marketing to doctors around 2005 that opioids were safe for lower back pain as opposed to cancer. did they oversell the benefits and understate the risks? that is the core of that investigation. we are also looking at in connecticut as co-lead on this piece of the investigation the distributors. the wholesalers who are under federal law required to monitor drug sales to spot anomalies in the market. say a pharmacy in western pennsylvania that servicing an area that should have 100 prescriptions statistically over the course of a period of time and all of a sudden they're doing 1000. they're supposed to report that to the federal government, the justice department. so we are taking a hard look at the practices of these companies especially 2005 coming forward. they're doing a much better job today than they were. but we want to see where they just looking the other way or was it negligence or what was going on that they were not reporting those kind of abuses?

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KGW News at 10 on Portland's CW

Sep 29, 2017 | KRCW (CW)

By Portland, OR

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29851618?token=573a9f84-684e-489a-ac1d-8be679ffbb57
Rough Transcript: the state of washington suing a pharmaceutical company as part of the ongoing opioid crisis. the lawsuit is against perdue pharma which any fractures kasen and other drugs with opioids washington attorney general bob ferguson accuses the company of making billions from the states opioid problem. while deceiving doctors and patients about the risks of long-term opioid use. the city of seattle has also filed its own lawsuit against the company.

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News 9 at 6:00 PM

Sep 29, 2017 | KWTV (CBS)

By Oklahoma City, OK

Rough Transcript: drug companies are asking a cleveland county judge to dismiss the state attorney general's lawsuit accusing them of fueling the state's opioidepidemic through false marketing. attorney general mike hunter filed the lawsuit in june, claiming the dg companies misld doctors into believing opioids are not as addictive as they really are. over-prescription of the meds is believed to be the leading cause of the epidemic. the drug companies argue, 10-year old marketing can not be responsible for the misuse of the drugs today. hunter says he isn't surprised or concerned about the motion. "they're goin to do what they need to do to protect their market share and we're going to do what we need to do to protect the people of the state." hunter says the opioid epidemic in oklahoma has claimed 3-thousand lives in the past three years and cost the state billions of dollars.

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