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Opioid Litigation Media Report 10/23/17
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Fulton County to file suit against opioid manufacturers, distributors
Oct 23, 2017 | Atlanta Journal Constitution
By Arielle Kass
Fulton County leaders plan to file suit Monday against companies that make and distribute opioids. The suit would be the first in the state, though the attorneys general for Ohio, Missouri and Oklahoma, as well as leaders of other counties and cities outside of Georgia, have filed suit. -
Tough fight ahead for Pennsylvania counties suing drugmakers over opioid crisis
Oct 21, 2017 | The Morning Call (PA)
By Peter Hall
As the medical profession turned increasingly toward opioid drugs to treat chronic pain in the last two decades, one headline surfaced again and again in journal articles and lectures: Addiction Rare in Patients Treated with Narcotics. Doctors and physician groups receiving the pharmaceutical industry’s support presented an article’s finding that “despite the widespread use of narcotic drugs in hospitals, the development of addiction is rare,” citing it more than 600 times since the 1990s, according to an analysis published in June. -
Washington, Greene counties should join pharma lawsuit (EDITORIAL)
Oct 21, 2017 | Observer-Reporter (PA)
A provocative column by The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof that appears on this page today argues that the biggest drug pushers out there aren’t the small-fry dealers who peddle their wares on street corners or out of their cars, but instead are the denizens of executive suites at mammoth drug companies. -
Columbia County joins potential lawsuit against pharmaceutical industry
Oct 20, 2017 | Portage Daily Register (WI)
By Lyn Jerde
By agreeing to join a potential lawsuit against the pharmaceutical industry, Columbia County officials are getting in on the ground floor of what could be a nationwide movement. -
Jones: Drug company greed kills
Oct 22, 2017 | MagicValley.com (ID)
By Jim Jones
CBS’ “60 Minutes” and the Washington Post are to be commended for derailing the president’s appointment of a shill for the drug industry as the nation’s drug czar. Rep. Tom Marino R-Penn., withdrew his nomination when it was revealed that he had engineered passage of a bill in 2016 that hamstrung the ability of the Drug Enforcement Administration to stop drug sales fueling the opioid epidemic. He had raked in about $100,000 from the pharmaceutical industry for his efforts. While a swamp creature bit the dust, there is more to the story of drug company greed. -
Attack opioid crisis from all angles (EDITORIAL)
Oct 21, 2017 | Journal News (USA Today Network)
National outrage over the opioid epidemic, which continues to take lives day after day, now has investigators correctly focusing more attention on the source of those millions of pain pills: pharmaceutical manufacturers and the powerful national distributors that push the pills. New Yorkers and all Americans must demand answers and accountability from the faceless corporate giants that make and distribute pills that have created a generation of addicts and revived heroin as a national scourge. -
Oklahoma AG wants to use anti-Mafia law against opioid companies
Oct 20, 2017 | NewsOK.com
By Justin Wingerter
Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter urged the federal government Friday to use the same law that brought down the Mafia to investigate opioid manufacturers and distributors. -
Oklahoma attorney general seeks federal opioid investigation
Oct 20, 2017 | Associated Press
Oklahoma’s attorney general says in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions that federal racketeering laws should be used to investigate the manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors of opioids. -
Oklahoma Attorney General Seeks Criminal Charges Against Opioid Industry (VIDEO)
Oct 20, 2017 | News9.com (OK)
By Jessi Mitchell
Oklahoma's Attorney General is now calling on the federal government to take action against opioid makers and suppliers. Mike Hunter wants to use the RICO Act to pursue criminal charges. View clip here: http://www.news9.com/story/36647573/oklahoma-attorney-general-seeks-criminal-charges-against-opioid-industry -
AG Asks Feds to Pursue Opioid Manufacturers
Oct 20, 2017 | KRMG (OK)
By April Hill
State Attorney General Mike Hunter sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions one day after Attorney General Sessions was in Oklahoma. -
Senators demand information on drug law affecting DEA
Oct 20, 2017 | Washington Post
By Lenny Bernstein and Scott Higham
More than 30 U.S. senators demanded information Friday on the 2016 law that stripped the Drug Enforcement Administration of its most potent weapon against companies suspected of spilling hundreds of millions of addictive painkillers onto the black market. -
Listen: Reveal podcast on the DEA and the opioid epidemic
Oct 21, 2017 | Washington Post
By Terri Rupar
Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting teamed up with The Washington Post and “60 Minutes” to dive into the story of how millions of pain pills swamped parts of the country during the opioid epidemic. Reporters Lenny Bernstein and Scott Higham, who wrote Sunday’s investigation, join Reveal to talk about what was uncovered. -
FT Health: The painkiller shortage hurting the poor
Oct 20, 2017 | Financial Times
By Andrew Jack and Darren Dodd
While the US suffers from a surfeit of mis-prescribed opioids causing unnecessary addiction and death, the bigger problem elsewhere is the lack of access to cheap drugs that would allow the sick to suffer less or die with dignity. -
Investor Sues McKesson Over Opioid Oversight Fines
Oct 20, 2017 | Law360
By Vince Sullivan
A shareholder of pharmaceutical company McKesson Corp. filed a derivative suit in Delaware recently saying the company’s board failed in its oversight of opioid sales even after incurring millions in fines for previous compliance failures. -
News 12 at 6
Oct 23, 2017 | KXII CBS Sherman-Ada, TX
View clip here: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30216002?token=9b7846f8-fab9-4732-83e2-db168b4c9e25 -
40/29 News Sunrise
Oct 22, 2017 | KHBS ABC Ft. Smith, AR
View clip here: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30215996?token=9b7846f8-fab9-4732-83e2-db168b4c9e25 -
News 9 at 4:00 PM
Oct 20, 2017 | KWTV CBS Oklahoma City, OK
View clip here: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30215552?token=9b7846f8-fab9-4732-83e2-db168b4c9e25 -
KIRO 7 News at 5AM
Oct 23, 2017 | KIRO CBS Seattle, WA
View clip here: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30215545?token=9b7846f8-fab9-4732-83e2-db168b4c9e25
Litigation/Pharmaceutical-Focused Coverage
Oklahoma Attorney General Announcement
Related Coverage
Broadcast Media Coverage
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Fulton County to file suit against opioid manufacturers, distributors
Oct 23, 2017 | Atlanta Journal Constitution
By Arielle Kass
Fulton County leaders plan to file suit Monday against companies that make and distribute opioids.
The suit would be the first in the state, though the attorneys general for Ohio, Missouri and Oklahoma, as well as leaders of other counties and cities outside of Georgia, have filed suit.
In a statement, a Fulton County spokesperson said use of opioids has used millions of dollars in public resources. It has been responsible for the addiction and death of hundreds of Fulton County residents.
In 2015, 104 people in Fulton County died of opioid overdoses.
Check back for updates.
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Tough fight ahead for Pennsylvania counties suing drugmakers over opioid crisis
Oct 21, 2017 | The Morning Call (PA)
By Peter Hall
As the medical profession turned increasingly toward opioid drugs to treat chronic pain in the last two decades, one headline surfaced again and again in journal articles and lectures: Addiction Rare in Patients Treated with Narcotics.
Doctors and physician groups receiving the pharmaceutical industry’s support presented an article’s finding that “despite the widespread use of narcotic drugs in hospitals, the development of addiction is rare,” citing it more than 600 times since the 1990s, according to an analysis published in June.
What they concealed, according to lawsuits by three Pennsylvania counties against opioid drugmakers and physicians who touted their products, is that the article published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1980 was not a peer-reviewed study, but actually a letter to the editor a scant 100 words long. It described a cursory review of records for patients who received small doses of narcotics at a Boston hospital, not back pain or arthritis sufferers being sent home with prescriptions for dozens of opioid pills, according to the suits.
The corruption of that letter, the lawsuits allege, was perhaps the most notable example of the distortion and misuse of scientific literature by opioid producers to change the public’s and the medical profession’s attitudes about the drugs, once considered too dangerous and addictive to prescribe outside a hospital setting.
Now, local governments and public watchdogs are taking legal action to recover damages for the social and economic impact of the opioid crisis that claimed an estimated 64,000 lives nationwide last year, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. They say it is a direct result of the drug companies’ deceptive marketing practices to expand the use of opioid painkillers in search of “blockbuster profits.”
“Marshaling help from consultants and public relations firms, defendants developed and executed a common strategy to reverse the long-settled understanding of the relative risks and benefits of chronic opioid therapy,” one of the suits says. “Rather than add to the collective body of medical knowledge concerning the best ways to treat pain and improve patient quality of life, defendants instead sought to distort medical and public perception of existing scientific data.”
They allegedly did so by spending vast sums to generate articles and courses through supportive doctors known as key opinion leaders, who were rewarded with money, prestige, recognition, research funding and publishing opportunities. The companies allegedly funded a network of front groups that appeared to be neutral patient advocacy organizations but that actually promoted opioid treatment, the suits say.
These doctors and organizations allegedly persuaded physicians that patients who demanded drugs by name or shopped around for doctors who would prescribe particular drugs were not exhibiting signs of addiction but of untreated pain. One front group, the Federation of State Medical Boards, allegedly published opioid prescribing guidelines conveying that under-treatment of pain could lead to official discipline, according to the suits.
“FSMB turned doctors’ fear of discipline on its head: Doctors, who used to believe they would be disciplined if their patients became addicted to opioids, were taught instead that they would be punished if they failed to prescribe opioids to their patients with chronic pain,” one lawsuit alleges.
Beaver, Delaware and Lackawanna are the first counties in Pennsylvania to sue. The complaints, which share many of the same allegations, were filed in the counties’ respective courts in the past two months. Bensalem Township in Bucks County also has indicated it intends to bring a lawsuit against opioid producers and distributors.
“This litigation is to not only help the counties for the economic loss, but also to put the pharmaceutical companies on notice that they have to take a different approach in consideration of the lives that have been lost and the families that have had to deal with these issues,” said Joseph Capelli of the New York firm Mark J. Bern and Partners, which represents Lackawanna and Beaver counties.
The counties are joining an increasingly crowded field in which at least two states and dozens of other counties, cities and municipalities across the country are suing opioid makers, which vehemently deny the allegations.
Capelli and Carmen Belefonte, whose Philadelphia firm Saltz Mongeluzzi Barrett and Bendesky represents Delaware County, said they expect dozens more Pennsylvania counties to follow.
Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin said he is considering similar legal action, but declined through a spokeswoman to provide details. Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said he has not considered such a lawsuit.
Lehigh and Northampton counties have been deeply affected by the crisis. In 2016, about 170 overdose deaths were reported in the two counties, most involving opioids, a Morning Call review of coroners’ records found. That amounted to a life lost nearly every other dayin the Lehigh Valley. And the deaths are only part of the story. There were still more overdoses that people survived, creating emergencies that taxed first responders and the medical system and upended families.
Experts in product liability litigation and public health policy say local governments face a difficult fight to hold the drug companies and others responsible for the harm their products have caused. Like the tobacco companies, which faced waves of lawsuits in the 1980s and 1990s, the pharmaceutical companies are likely to vigorously defend themselves and force plaintiffs to settle, said Richard Ausness, a University of KentuckyCollege of Law professor who studies legal claims against the drug industry.
The drugmakers have a number of strong defenses, Ausness said, noting that unlike cigarettes, opioid medicines have legitimate value when properly prescribed. And the companies have argued successfully in lawsuits by individuals that there are many other people who bear responsibility for opioid addiction and abuse including distributors, doctors and the users themselves.
“They’ll say, ‘You shouldn’t hold us liable when there are so many people who are so much closer to the problem than us,’” Ausness said.
But even if the lawsuits fail, they’re likely to have some effect in putting more of the blame upon the producers, said University of Georgia College of Law professor Timothy Lytton, who studies the impact of litigation on public policy.
“These lawsuits put the role of the industry in the opioid crisis higher on the public agenda,” he said, noting that such cases often change the way the public and policymakers think about a problem.
That’s what happened with lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church by people who had been sexually abused by priests, Lytton said. When the claims first surfaced more than a decade ago, the blame was pinned upon “bad apple” priests. But as civil and criminal investigations progressed, they identified overarching problems at the highest levels of the church.
“That’s true even though only a handful [of clergy abuse cases] ever went to juries and the vast majority were dismissed,” Lytton said.
Lessons from tobacco cases
Delaware and Lackawanna counties announced their suits last month, shortly after Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro identified five opioid drugmakers and three distributors as targets of a national investigation by 41 state attorneys general. Attorneys from the public protection division of his office are among those from six states leading the investigation, spokesman Joe Grace said.
Targeted with subpoenas from the attorneys general for documents and information are Purdue Pharma, the Connecticut maker of OxyContin; Chester County-based Endo Pharmaceuticals, which makes Percocet; Janssen Pharmaceuticals in New Jersey, which makes a fentanyl patch; Teva Pharmaceutical, a Chester County-based maker of generic opioids; and Allergan, an Irish maker of drugs including Kadian and generic opioids. The investigation also targets distributors McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen. Each company is also named as a defendant in at least one of the Pennsylvania counties’ lawsuits.
The pharmaceutical companies responded to requests for comment with statements denying the allegations or declining to discuss them and stating they are committed to preventing the abuse of their products while ensuring patients have access to pain medication.
“We do not have access to patient information, have no capability or desire to encourage prescribing or dispensing of pain medicines and are not qualified to interfere with clinical decisions between patients and their physicians,” AmerisourceBergen said in a statement, adding that it will vigorously defend itself.
The company added that it and other wholesale distributors play an active role in preventing the diversion of prescription drugs by reporting and stopping orders determined to be suspicious.
A Purdue spokesman noted the company, which produces about 2 percent of opioids prescribed, distributed a guide for prescribing opioids for chronic pain, developed the first four Food and Drug Administration-approved abuse-deterrant opioid drugs and works with law enforcement to ensure access to the overdose reversing drug naloxone.
The county lawsuits also name as defendants a number of physicians who allegedly developed misleading literature and medical seminars with the drug companies’ support. Only one, Dr. Lynn Webster of Salt Lake City, responded to requests for comment, saying he could not discuss the allegations.
Shapiro called the attorneys general probe “the only meaningful investigation into the manufacture, marketing and distribution of opioid painkillers.”
“This multistate group of attorneys general is the best public-interest law firm in America,” Shapiro said last month.
Morganelli agrees the state attorneys general are better equipped to handle such sweeping investigations and complicated litigation than private law firms working on behalf of governments.
“When you’re engaging these pharmaceutical companies, like the tobacco companies, it’s a big thing that’s going to be a long drawn out case,” Morganelli said.
It was a collaborative effort by 46 state attorneys general that led to a sweeping $206 billion settlement in 1998 with four large tobacco companies to pay for the public health costs of smoking. The companies also agreed to cease certain advertising practices, disband industry associations and pay for educational efforts to prevent youths from smoking.
Marc Bern, whose firm is representing Lackawanna and Beaver counties, said he has litigated against the pharmaceutical industry and investigated public health issues, including lead contaminated water in Flint, Mich., and gasoline additives in groundwater. That experience, he said, qualifies his firm to take claims against opioid makers to court.
Ausness, the University of Kentucky law professor, said lawsuits by smaller government bodies can tailor claims more specifically than a state or national suit could.
“A lot of these smaller communities have hospitals or police departments and drug treatment programs they have to support that are affected,” Ausness said.
Delaware County claims it has suffered millions of dollars in damages from the hundreds of overdose deaths there and the increased criminal activity opioid abuse brings. The losses include health care costs, economic impact from lost productivity and increased criminal justice costs. As an example, the suit notes three Delaware County men, including a pharmacist, were charged in June with running a $2.7 million opioid distribution ring. Two of the men also are charged with the murder of an alleged co-conspirator.
Lackawanna County claims a resident dies of an opioid overdose every four days, even though it has paid to equip police with the opioid-countering drug naloxone. In one year alone, the county spent nearly $2.8 million on substance abuse treatment, and 2 percent of all babies born in the county require treatment related to substance abuse, the suit claims.
Statewide, nearly 37 out of every 100,000 people died of a drug overdose last year, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. About 85 percent of thosePennsylvania deaths, the DEA noted, involved opioids.
DEVELOPMENTS
The lawsuits: Three Pennsylvania counties have sued manufacturers and distributors of opioid painkillers to recoup damages for the economic and social impacts of addiction and overdose deaths.
The allegations: The suits claim drug makers sought to expand the market for opioid painkillers by distorting scientific data to lead doctors to believe the risk of addiction was minor and encourage their use to treat chronic pain.
What’s next: Lawyers must persuade judges in three county courts that they should be allowed to demand documents and information from the drug companies. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, meanwhile, is among six state prosecutors leading an investigation of the industry’s practices. Lawyers for the counties say they expect dozens more local governments to file their own lawsuits.
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Washington, Greene counties should join pharma lawsuit (EDITORIAL)
Oct 21, 2017 | Observer-Reporter (PA)
A provocative column by The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof that appears on this page today argues that the biggest drug pushers out there aren’t the small-fry dealers who peddle their wares on street corners or out of their cars, but instead are the denizens of executive suites at mammoth drug companies.
In Kristof’s telling, they have inflicted much greater harm on the American public than all the petty criminals who sell illegal drugs because they sparked the opioid epidemic that has sickened and decimated communities across the country, with Western Pennsylvania being one of the hardest-hit regions.
And how can drug companies be brought to heel? After all, they seem to all but print cash, and they have powerful allies in statehouses and on Capitol Hill. What can individuals or municipalities really do?
For an answer, we could look to Beaver County.
Last week, it became the first county in this region to sue an assortment of manufacturers and sellers of prescription narcotics, arguing that they have engaged in, among other things, fraud, negligence, misrepresentation and deceptive acts. The defendants include the companies Johnson & Johnson, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Purdue Pharma.
Like other municipalities that have sued, Beaver County is asserting that it has spent millions of dollars confronting the opioid epidemic, whether through emergency calls, treatment and incarceration. And just like the lawsuits that were filed against tobacco companies two decades ago, the plaintiffs are asking the drug companies to foot the bill for these burdensome costs.
The attorney who has filed the suit, Robert Peirce Jr., has said he would like to get Washington and Greene counties on board, along with Lawrence and Fayette counties. They should, and there’s some indication that they will. Greene County Commission Chairman Blair Zimmerman told the Observer-Reporter last week, “Everyone agreed that we were open to what they were saying. I think it’s becoming a statewide and even national issue to go (after) these pharmaceutical companies for pushing these opioids onto the market. Doctors were getting kickbacks if they pushed, pushed, pushed.”
Two other Pennsylvania counties, Delaware and Lackawanna, have gone after pharmaceutical companies, as has Ohio. Along with recovering costs associated with the opioid crisis, we hope the eventual resolution of these lawsuits is something like the tobacco settlement – along with costs being recovered, limits should be placed on how powerful painkillers are marketed and sold.
Despite strenuous efforts by law enforcement, addiction counselors, family members and friends, the opioid epidemic promises to take as many lives this year as it did last year. Across the country, 64,000 people were claimed in 2016, more than died in the entirety of the Vietnam War. Some forecasters believe that 650,000 Americans could lose their lives to opioids over the next 10 years unless some kind of brake is applied to the epidemic. The lawsuits being filed against pharmaceutical companies don’t represent the total solution to this problem, but they are a step in the right direction.
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Columbia County joins potential lawsuit against pharmaceutical industry
Oct 20, 2017 | Portage Daily Register (WI)
By Lyn Jerde
By agreeing to join a potential lawsuit against the pharmaceutical industry, Columbia County officials are getting in on the ground floor of what could be a nationwide movement.
But nobody – least of all Corporation Counsel Joseph Ruf – is counting on the county getting a lot of money to offset taxpayers’ costs for addressing problems related to opiate addiction.
Wednesday’s unanimous vote by the Columbia County Board of Supervisors to approve a resolution to join the suit didn’t happen without extended discussion and numerous questions. (Supervisor Kevin Kessler of the town of West Point was absent.)
One of those questions, from Supervisor Mike Weyh of the town of Lewiston, concerned possible hidden costs of the suit.
Although no participating county is being asked for any up-front money, Weyh said he wondered whether the county would have to bear the costs of employees’ time, especially that of Ruf, in gathering and conveying information critical to the suit’s success.
Ruf replied it’s likely that he and other county officials will need to compute Columbia County’s costs for programs such as the new Drug Court and the Medication Assisted Treatment Program, and calculate the percentage of Columbia County Jail inmates whose incarceration is directly related to addiction to opium-based drugs.
Some of that information would be needed to establish “a good faith basis for filing a claim against the opioid manufacturers,” according to a letter of engagement that was included in the County Board’s information packet. The letter’s signers are attorneys Andrew Phillips with the Milwaukee-based firm von Briesen and Roper and Erin Dickinson with the Whitefish Bay-based firm of Crueger Dickinson.
The Wisconsin Counties Association is asking all 72 Wisconsin counties to participate in the suit.
There is no deadline to join the suit, Ruf said, but WCA is hoping for decisions from all counties no later than November.
In response to a question from Supervisor John Tramburg of Fall River, Ruf said WCA has not established a minimum number of participating counties to go ahead with the suit – because in all likelihood, the counties that do participate will be part of a widespread national effort, similar to the lawsuit against the tobacco industry 20 years ago.
Ruf recalled Monday’s meeting of the Intercounty Coordinating Committee, in which Columbia County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Michael Haverley pointed out that the United States, which has a little more than 4 percent of the world’s population, accounts for 90 percent of the world’s users of prescription opium-based painkillers.
Many people who become addicted to the illegal opioid heroin started by using legal, prescribed drugs with brand names like Vicodin and Percocet.
The letter of engagement for the WCA’s proposed lawsuit names several specific companies that are likely to be named as defendants, including Purdue Pharma (headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut), Ortho-McNeil-Janssen (headquartered in Raritan, New Jersey) and Johnson and Johnson (headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey).
According to the resolution that the County Board approved: The societal costs associated with the opioid epidemic are estimated, by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at $75 billion annually. The National Institute of Health has identified the manufacturers of certain opioid medications as being “directly responsible for the rapid rise of the opioid epidemic” by their aggressive marketing. Counties, including Columbia County, have “spent millions in unexpected and unbudgeted time and resources” on programs to address the consequences of opioid addiction.
This prompted Supervisor Barry Pufahl of Pardeeville to ask, “Do you think this will help us in facing the opiate issues in our county?”
Ruf replied, “If nothing else, it will bring it to people’s attention.”
As to whether Columbia County will get sufficient money to lessen the taxpayers’ burdens for funding services traceable to opioid addiction, that’s another question entirely.
According to the engagement letter, attorneys will get a fee amounting to 25 percent of whatever recovery may come from the suit, plus expenses. It could take years, even decades, for the case to be resolved, and the plaintiff may collect no money at all.
But if there is money left over after fees and expenses, Ruf said, the amount that would come to participating Wisconsin counties, and how it would be divided, remain to be determined.
There is a concern, he said, that urban counties would get the lion’s share of any settlement or judgment. But a case could be made that rural counties such as Columbia County deal with opioid-related problems that are more costly, per capita, than those of urban counties.
Asked by Pufahl about his general feelings about the proposed suit, Ruf said he is “cautiously optimistic. You don’t want to give anybody unrealistic expectations. We are not going to count on a big award. But we know we don’t stand to lose anything out of pocket by joining.”
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Jones: Drug company greed kills
Oct 22, 2017 | MagicValley.com (ID)
By Jim Jones
CBS’ “60 Minutes” and the Washington Post are to be commended for derailing the president’s appointment of a shill for the drug industry as the nation’s drug czar. Rep. Tom Marino R-Penn., withdrew his nomination when it was revealed that he had engineered passage of a bill in 2016 that hamstrung the ability of the Drug Enforcement Administration to stop drug sales fueling the opioid epidemic. He had raked in about $100,000 from the pharmaceutical industry for his efforts. While a swamp creature bit the dust, there is more to the story of drug company greed.
When I was Idaho attorney general in the late 1980s, it was known that hydrocodone and oxycodone were effective pain relievers, but highly addictive. At that time, the use of these opioids was generally limited to severe pain cases because of their addictive properties. However, in the 1990s some opioid makers saw gold in them thar hills and started aggressively marketing opioids, such as Purdue Pharma’s Oxycontin, as a general remedy for pain. Endo Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson joined in to peddle their opioids for wide use.
Advertisements in reputable medical journals hyped the use of opioid products as safe and effective pain relievers. Pharmaceutical companies reached into continuing education courses for doctors and medical school curricula to promote the widespread use of opioids. Attractive drug representatives assured doctors there was no need to be concerned that patients would become addicted to opioids. Lobbyists were employed to smooth the way for marketing these addictive painkillers without regulatory interference.PauseCurrent Time0:00/Duration Time0:00Stream TypeLIVELoaded: 0%Progress: 0%0:00Fullscreen00:00Unmute
The drug companies obviously knew that these products were addictive and that many people who used them would become hooked, but the bright side was massive profits. The chances of being criminally prosecuted were remote, so they went full steam ahead.
As disclosed in the CBS/Post report, the major drug distributors got in on the act, making massive sales of opioid pills to pill-mill pharmacies that were obviously selling them to drug addicts. The DEA took note and began targeting suspicious drug shipments, which led to passage of the bill neutering the DEA’s enforcement effort. Rep. Marino was also able in the process to get rid of the DEA agent who was trying to stop the distributors’ drug trafficking. This occurred at the height of the opioid crisis when tens of thousands of Americans were dying of opioid overdoses each year (almost 65,000 in 2016). Nevertheless, both houses of Congress passed the Marino bill last year with nary a whimper. Talk about Congress being asleep at the switch. Perhaps some of the slumbers were aided by the millions of dollars of drug industry money pouring into congressional campaign coffers.
It seems to me that companies which sell a product, knowing that it is being abused and that it is killing people, should have to answer under the criminal law. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to prosecute low-level drug dealers and subject them to mandatory minimum sentences. Shouldn’t he focus some enforcement effort against high-level drug company executives whose greed drives them to carelessly pedal addiction and death to the public? The Idaho congressional delegation can help by working to overturn the 2016 legislation and demanding that the Justice Department go after the corporate drug pushers.
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Attack opioid crisis from all angles (EDITORIAL)
Oct 21, 2017 | Journal News (USA Today Network)
National outrage over the opioid epidemic, which continues to take lives day after day, now has investigators correctly focusing more attention on the source of those millions of pain pills: pharmaceutical manufacturers and the powerful national distributors that push the pills. New Yorkers and all Americans must demand answers and accountability from the faceless corporate giants that make and distribute pills that have created a generation of addicts and revived heroin as a national scourge.
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and a coalition of regional counties, including Westchester and Rockland, are among the many forces that are essentially "following the money" back to Big Pharma and a federal bureaucracy that may favor corporate dollars over protecting Americans from a deadly epidemic.
Many were disgusted by last week's "60 Minutes" report about how three national distributors of pharmaceuticals have ignored suspicious drug orders from pop-up "pain clinics" and over-prescribing doctors. The federal Drug Enforcement Agency was all over the distributors, nailing them with millions in fines, until the DEA started pulling back, according to former high-ranking DEA official and now whistleblower Joe Rannazzisi, as well as several of his former colleagues. Of course, a major problem is that dozens of former DEA officials have flipped to work for the drug industry, and now lobby their former colleagues to weaken federal enforcement powers.
The report explained how Congress quietly passed legislation last year, signed by President Obama, that made it far more difficult for the DEA to interfere with suspicious drug shipments. How could the whole thing become more outrageous? One of the chief sponsors of the legislation, Pennsylvania Congressman Tom Marino, was chosen by President Trump to be the nation's drug czar before the 60 Minutes report forced him to withdraw his name.
It's taken years for communities, counties and states to come to terms with the pain-pill epidemic — how easily people become addicted after ordinary injuries or surgeries and how maddeningly accessible pain pills, heroin and fentanyl are. Ultimately, public awareness has soared because so many people know of someone who has been directly hurt by the epidemic. About 60,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2016. Today, local communities, and communities across the country, are increasingly focused on prevention through awareness and education, improving access to treatment for addicts, and the cracking down on illegal distribution.
Still, beds are lacking and so is insurance coverage. President Trump's opioid commission met on Friday and addressed the health coverage hole left by insurers who limit addiction treatment. That finding aligns with a report issued last year by President Obama's opioid task force. Both panels' findings come despite the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 that requires health insurers to treat mental health and substance abuse disorders the same as any other disease, without additional limits, co-pays or deductibles.
But investigators must also go after the source. Schneiderman is among 41 attorneys general who have launched a multi-state investigation of drug manufacturers and distributors. They have served subpoenas on major manufacturers — Endo, Janssen, Teva, Allergan. And they're seeking documents from the three national distributors — AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson — that Schneiderman says control 90 percent of opioid distribution, a $500-billion-a-year industry. “Too often, prescription opioids are the on-ramp to addiction for millions of Americans. We’re committed to getting to the bottom of a broken system that has fueled the epidemic and taken far too many lives,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in announcing the jointly filed subpoenas.
Westchester, Rockland and Dutchess counties have also joined at least six other New York counties in suing pharmaceutical companies. They accuse the companies of using deceptive marketing practices to push their products. "So how did the most advanced country on the planet develop this problem like no other part of the entire planet?" Rockland DA Thomas Zugibe said in April. "Well, you can thank in large part profit motives that got us here, like many of the drug dealing that you see on an ongoing basis."
Zugibe also noted that "doctors drank the Kool-Aid and accepted it." Anyone who has seen pharmaceutical reps buzzing in and out of their doctor's offices knows how connected drug companies are to those who write out our prescriptions.
Thanks to a federal database called Open Payments, which was required by the Affordable Care Act, we know that New York doctors were paid $164 million last yearby pharmaceutical and medical-device companies, ostensibly for marketing and research. While there may be good reasons for relationships between drug companies and doctors — like to promote research and education on quality drugs and devices — the medical community must acknowledge that the opioid epidemic has raised legitimate and frightening questions about the power of Big Pharma's financial incentives.
According to The Journal News/lohud's David Robinson, who analyzed data from Open Payments: some New York doctors may not have disclosed payments from drug companies when speaking about their products and some doctors were quoted in the media praising drugs and devices made by companies that paid them. While we can't be sure that such actions were unethical, the opioid crisis shows that it's time for authorities to be far more vigilant about tracking these relationships.
Meanwhile, New York has taken key steps in curbing the opioid plague. Painkiller prescriptions are limited for acute treatment, cutting down on long-term use that can lead to addiction and curbing "leftover" medications sitting around that can feed an addiction. The state's I-STOP electronic prescribing laws, which mandate that doctors electronically order pain meds, are another way to cut down on prescription medications becoming street drugs.
According to the Medical Society of the State of New York, incidents of doctor-shopping for prescriptions has dropped by 86 percent due to I-STOP's Prescription Monitoring Program. It mandates that physicians check a controlled substance registry before prescribing such drugs. New York also continues to expand programs that get lifesaving naloxone into the hands of anyone who may need it, no questions asked.
It is painfully obvious, though, that more needs to be done. One way to fast-track action would be for President Trump to fulfill his promise and declare the opioid crisis a national emergency, a pledge he first made two months ago and recently stated would occur next week. We await more action, and additional resources, to fight this epidemic.
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Oklahoma AG wants to use anti-Mafia law against opioid companies
Oct 20, 2017 | NewsOK.com
By Justin Wingerter
Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter urged the federal government Friday to use the same law that brought down the Mafia to investigate opioid manufacturers and distributors.
"From a law enforcement standpoint, I believe the most powerful tool we have to fight the opioid epidemic is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act," Hunter wrote in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
The 1970 law, commonly called RICO, allows for the prosecution of criminal syndicate leaders when they order others to commit crimes. It is best known for its use in dismantling the Mafia families of New York in the 1980s.
"On both the state and federal level, RICO should be utilized to pursue the continuing criminal enterprise perpetuated by the opioid manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors," Hunter wrote to Sessions, a day after the attorneys general met in Midwest City.
"For too long, the industry has been allowed to deceive medical providers and the public as to the efficacy and the addictive quality of opioids and has avoided meaningful regulatory enforcement in recent years," Hunter added. "They need to be held accountable."
Since taking office in February, the Republican has made opioids his cause célèbre, filing a lawsuit against more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies in late June. During a speech before the Oklahoma Sheriffs' Association on Thursday, he said drug companies owe the state billions of dollars for decades of defrauding residents.
"These lawyers are going to put their heart and soul into this case," he said of state lawyers in the lawsuit, both of whom lost a family member to overdoses. "They want to make their loved ones' lives mean something."
Hunter said Friday that the letter to Sessions aims to open dialogue between the state and federal government on how to tackle the prescription drug epidemic.
“For nearly two decades, these companies pursued profit at any cost and without a conscious for the more than 90 men, women and children who, on average, die each day from opioid overdoses," he said in a statement. "We need to start treating the industry from the top down like the criminal enterprises they are."
Hunter concluded his letter to Sessions by requesting a meeting between the two attorneys general in Washington.
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Oklahoma attorney general seeks federal opioid investigation
Oct 20, 2017 | Associated Press
Oklahoma’s attorney general says in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions that federal racketeering laws should be used to investigate the manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors of opioids.
State Attorney General Mike Hunter says in the letter dated Friday that the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, should be used to pursue the opioid industry.
Hunter also asks to meet with Sessions to discuss what he calls an opioid epidemic in Oklahoma.
In June, Hunter filed a lawsuit against about a dozen pharmaceutical companies, alleging deceptive marketing campaigns have led opioid addictions and deaths.Featured VideoSeattle's Poem (2:41)Most Read StoriesICE agents arrest man inside Oregon house without warrantInstant analysis: Three thoughts from the Seahawks' romp over the Giants at MetLife StadiumI-5’s Uncle Sam: 50 years and still ticked off near ChehalisSeahawks gain control of their emotions, and the ball, to finally break loose from Giants, 24-7Analysis | Three thoughts from No. 15 WSU's 28-0 win over ColoradoUnlimited Digital Access. $1 for 4 weeks.
The companies in September filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying it “misconstrues a complex public-health crisis” and that they’ve complied with federal requirements to warn the public about the dangers of the drugs.
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Oklahoma Attorney General Seeks Criminal Charges Against Opioid Industry (VIDEO)
Oct 20, 2017 | News9.com (OK)
By Jessi Mitchell
Oklahoma's Attorney General is now calling on the federal government to take action against opioid makers and suppliers. Mike Hunter wants to use the RICO Act to pursue criminal charges.
Hunter says the state is doing everything it can to curb the opioid epidemic, but he says it is time for the federal government to get involved, going after the drug manufacturers themselves. In a letter thanking Jeff Sessions for his visit to Oklahoma Thursday, Hunter is imploring the national Attorney General to do more to combat the national health epidemic caused by opioid addiction.
“When the 14 counties surrounding Tulsa are supplied enough pills for every man, woman and child last year to have 90 pills, that’s unacceptable,” Hunter tells News 9.
Hunter says drug manufacturers and the suppliers who distribute the pills have shown a “reckless disregard for human health”, which is why he wants them to be charged criminally, invoking the RICO Act. “The conduct of these drug manufacturers and distributors is a criminal enterprise,” he says, “and we need to treat it like that.”
Hunter says the RICO Act is the most powerful tool available to go after the industry, and he thinks it could really make an impact, saying, “You get into the middle of the organization. You get into their distributing. You get into stopping the oversupply.”
Hunter's office filed a lawsuit against more than a dozen pharmaceutical companiesthis summer, seeking damages to pay for addiction treatment statewide. Plus, he is heading up the state’s Commission on Opioid Abuse, which is working to get illegal suppliers off the street, but he says only a comprehensive effort from all sides will make change happen.
“Demand is an important part of this, getting people treatment, getting them help,” says Hunter. “Addiction is an illness. It’s not a sin, but the supply side, we’ve got to make it uneconomic for dealers.”
Hunter hopes to meet AG Sessions in Washington to further discuss a plan of attack.
View clip here: http://www.news9.com/story/36647573/oklahoma-attorney-general-seeks-criminal-charges-against-opioid-industry
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AG Asks Feds to Pursue Opioid Manufacturers
Oct 20, 2017 | KRMG (OK)
By April Hill
State Attorney General Mike Hunter sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions one day after Attorney General Sessions was in Oklahoma.
“We need to start treating the industry from the top down like the criminal enterprises they are,” said Hunter.
Attorney General Hunter said the letter’s intent is to open communications to develop a federal and state partnership to combat the opioid epidemic.
“There is clear evidence of these companies spending millions of dollars on lobbyists and fraudulent marketing campaigns in order to get these drugs into communities across the nation.”
Hunter says the feds could go after the manufacturers under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
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Senators demand information on drug law affecting DEA
Oct 20, 2017 | Washington Post
By Lenny Bernstein and Scott Higham
More than 30 U.S. senators demanded information Friday on the 2016 law that stripped the Drug Enforcement Administration of its most potent weapon against companies suspected of spilling hundreds of millions of addictive painkillers onto the black market.
Thirty-one Democrats and two independents noted that the same law required the DEA and the Department of Health and Human Services to compile a report for Congress on the law’s impact by April 16. Six months later, no report has been submitted.
They demanded an immediate update, saying they “want to ensure the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and other related agencies have all of the tools necessary to fight this epidemic.”
In a joint investigation, The Washington Post and “60 Minutes” reported Sunday that a small number of members of Congress, allied with parts of the drug industry, had pushed through a law that undermined DEA efforts against wholesale drug distributors that have allowed pain pills to get into the hands of users and dealers.
In the House, that effort was led by Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.), who overcame years of opposition from the DEA to win passage of a version of the law that would have hamstrung the agency even more severely. The legislation was slightly altered during negotiations with Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) before it cleared the Senate and was signed last year by President Barack Obama.
Marino was President Trump’s nominee to become the nation’s drug czar. He withdrew his name Tuesday in the wake of the reports. In a statement on his website, he blasted the reports and accused a former DEA official, Joseph T. Rannazzisi, of trying to deflect blame for a failure to stem the U.S. opioid crisis. For 10 years, Rannazzisi led the DEA’s crackdown on wholesale opioid distributors.
Hatch said on the floor of the Senate and wrote in an op-ed in The Post that he worked with the DEA and the Justice Department to craft the final language. Either department or any senator could have stopped the bill, he said. But The Post and “60 Minutes” reported that DEA officials accepted the language only after concluding it was the best deal they could get.
In Friday’s letter, the senators wrote that “as members of Congress from states severely affected by the nation’s addiction epidemic, we are concerned by these recent news reports and the issues they raise, and we write to request that you immediately provide Congress with an update on the law’s impact on the war against addiction.” The letter was addressed to acting HHS secretary Eric Hargan and acting DEA administrator Robert Patterson.
The effort was led by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who represent three states where the opioid epidemic is severe. About 200,000 people have died of overdoses of prescription opioids since 2000, and tens of thousands more have succumbed to heroin and fentanyl.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) has promised an oversight hearing soon on the law, titled the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2016. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein also promised a review of whether the law hurts DEA enforcement efforts.
Numerous lawmakers, most of them Democrats, have called for repeal or amendment of the law.
The DEA’s chief administrative law judge, John J. Mulrooney II, wrote in an upcoming law review articlethat because of the law it is now “all but logically impossible” for the DEA to suspend a drug company’s operations if it fails to report suspicious orders of narcotics. In the draft article for the Marquette Law Review, Mulrooney wrote that “at a time when, by all accounts, opioid abuse, addiction, and deaths were increasing markedly,” the new law “imposed a dramatic diminution of the Agency’s authority.”
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Listen: Reveal podcast on the DEA and the opioid epidemic
Oct 21, 2017 | Washington Post
By Terri Rupar
Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting teamed up with The Washington Post and “60 Minutes” to dive into the story of how millions of pain pills swamped parts of the country during the opioid epidemic. Reporters Lenny Bernstein and Scott Higham, who wrote Sunday’s investigation, join Reveal to talk about what was uncovered.
he investigation detailed how Congress passed a law that weakened the Drug Enforcement Administration’s ability to go after drug distributors. Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) was the law’s chief advocate; on Tuesday, President Trump said Marino was withdrawing from consideration for the job of drug czar.
Listen to the podcast and read the investigation here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/10/21/listen-reveal-podcast-on-the-dea-and-the-opioid-epidemic/?utm_term=.8fab690158c9
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FT Health: The painkiller shortage hurting the poor
Oct 20, 2017 | Financial Times
By Andrew Jack and Darren Dodd
While the US suffers from a surfeit of mis-prescribed opioids causing unnecessary addiction and death, the bigger problem elsewhere is the lack of access to cheap drugs that would allow the sick to suffer less or die with dignity.
The Lancet Commission on palliative care, which published its findings last week, showed that while the use of analgesics more than doubled over the past decade, there was almost no change outside North America and western and central Europe.
More than 5bn people had little or no access to drugs like codeine and morphine despite the growing burden of cancer and other conditions. In the US, opioid overdoses killed 67,000 in 2016-17, making their abuse the leading cause of mortality for people under 50.
This “pain divide” is caused by factors such as an absence of training and awareness in medical professionals; limited financial resources; international trade controls and onerous regulation, not to mention fears of criminal prosecution, addiction and diversion.
“We have to speak about two crises,” says Felicia Marie Knaul from the University of Miami, a leading researcher on the commission. “A neglected pain crisis that affects the poor much more than the rich, and a very serious issue in a small number of countries of an opioid crisis. Regulation has focused more on limiting misuse, and non-medical use than guaranteeing access to pain relief. We call for a balanced approach.”
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Investor Sues McKesson Over Opioid Oversight Fines
Oct 20, 2017 | Law360
By Vince Sullivan
A shareholder of pharmaceutical company McKesson Corp. filed a derivative suit in Delaware recently saying the company’s board failed in its oversight of opioid sales even after incurring millions in fines for previous compliance failures.
In a heavily redacted complaint unsealed in Delaware Chancery Court Friday, shareholder Chaile Steinberg said McKesson did not have proper oversight mechanisms in place to identify suspicious orders of the powerful opioid painkiller it sold even after entering into regulatory settlements with federal authorities in 2008.
Steinberg alleges that McKesson did not sufficiently alter its compliance monitoring programs, which require drug companies to report suspicious orders to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, following a series of settlements with the DEA and six U.S. attorney’s offices. As part of the settlements, McKesson paid $13.25 million in fines and agreed to enhance its monitoring programs.
“Despite the notice McKesson should have taken from the 2008 settlements, McKesson and its board failed to monitor and oversee the company’s efforts to comply with its obligations under the settlements and, more generally, with federal regulations governing the sale of controlled substances — even as the national opioid crisis became more dire and widespread,” the complaint alleges.
McKesson again became the target of federal investigations in 2014, culminating in a raid by DEA agents on the company’s distribution facility in Aurora, Colorado, according to the complaint. In the end, prosecutors from 12 federal jurisdictions were investigating the company.
These new investigations led to a $150 million civil penalty for McKesson under a second settlement reached in January 2017 with the DEA, the U.S. Department of Justice and numerous U.S. attorneys, the complaint said. The company also agreed to enhance its compliance terms for a period of five years, including prearranged financial penalties for future compliance breaches and the engagement of an independent monitor to assess McKesson’s compliance.
Regulatory compliance is one of the largest risks faced by McKesson, the complaint said, and the board’s failure to implement a stringent reporting system even after being put on notice of deficiencies in the 2008 settlement constitutes a breach of their fiduciary duties.
Steinberg is seeking damages incurred by McKesson as a result of the alleged failures of the board and its executive officers to maintain a robust and functioning compliance system.
This is not the first suit targeting McKesson and its alleged effect on the worsening opioid crisis that has seen overdose deaths spike in the last decade. The company is facing claims from the state of West Virginia for its alleged practice of dumping painkillers into the state at a far greater rate than could be justified by its population. More than a dozen county and local jurisdictions have also lodged claims against the company in West Virginia alone, according to the complaint, with another seven jurisdictions in Ohio, California and New York making similar claims against the company.
Ten counties and cities in Ohio and Alabama launched Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization suits against McKesson and the other “Big Three” painkiller companies — AmeriSourceBergen Drug Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc. — in August, making similar allegations as Steinberg in the Delaware derivative complaint.
Representatives for Steinberg and McKesson could not immediately be reached late Friday for comment.
Steinberg is represented by Stuart M. Grant and Christine M. Mackintosh of Grant & Eisenhofer PA, Hung G. Ta, Joo Yun Kim and Natalia D. Williams of Hung G. Ta Esq PLLC and Peter Safirstein and Elizabeth S. Metcalf of Safirstein Metcalf LLP.
Counsel information for McKesson was not immediately available late Friday.
The case is Chaile Steinberg v. Andy D. Bryant, et al., case number 2017-0736, in the Court of Chancery for the State of Delaware. -
Oct 23, 2017 | KXII CBS Sherman-Ada, TX
View clip here: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30216002?token=9b7846f8-fab9-4732-83e2-db168b4c9e25
Rough transcript: oklahomas attorney general says in a letter to u.s. attorney general jeff sessions that federal racketeering laws should be used to investigate the manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors of opioids. state attorney general mike hunter says in the letter on friday that the racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations act, should be used to pursue the opioid industry. hunter also asks to meet with sessions to discuss what he calls an opioid epidemic in oklahoma. back in june, hunter filed a lawsuit against about a dozen pharmaceutical companies, alleging deceptive marketing campaigns have led opioid addictions and deaths. president trumps commission on combating drug addiction and the opioidcrisis met for the fourth time on friday. commissioners discussed insurance issues related to the opioid epidemic. the meeting comes after trump pledged a week ago to declare a national emergency to fight opioid overdoses. that would give state and federal agencies more resources. according to the c-d-c, the number of american deaths involving opioids has quadrupled since 19-99. the commission is scheduled to meet again on november first. it will discuss and vote on its final report.
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Oct 22, 2017 | KHBS ABC Ft. Smith, AR
View clip here: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30215996?token=9b7846f8-fab9-4732-83e2-db168b4c9e25
Rough transcript: joshua: in our continuing coverage of our state of addiction, oklahoma attorney general mike hunter wants to go after some opioid manufacturers, with the same law that brought down the mafia. he's asking the federal government to try them as a criminal enterprise, under the racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations act, better known as rico. >> the vast majority of doctors -- doctors, prescribers are doing exactly what they need to do to take care of their patients, but there's this minority within a minority that are pushing millions of pills. joshua: hunter says he's ready to work with drug enforcement and the justice department to combat the crisis. he's also filed a lawsuit on the state's behalf against top opioid manufacturers. this week, the white house could decide to declare a national emergency to fight the opioid epidemic. president trump's commission on combating drug addiction and the opioid crisis met for the 4th time friday, just days after trump announced he planned to make the emergency declaration. that would give state and federal agencies more resources. according to the cdc, the number of american deaths involving opioids has quadrupled since 1999. the commission is scheduled to meet again on november first. and don't forget that this saturday is arkansas' fall drug takeback day. the event gives you a chance to safely get rid of any old ad unused prescription drugs. experts say it's a key step you can take to help in the crisis. to find more information on the closest take back location to you, check out the state of addiction tab on 4029tv.com. if you have a story about the opioid epidemic you'd like to share with us, message us on facebook, just search 40/29 news.
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Oct 20, 2017 | KWTV CBS Oklahoma City, OK
View clip here: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30215552?token=9b7846f8-fab9-4732-83e2-db168b4c9e25
Rough transcript: oklahoma's attorney general mike hunter is fighting back against opioid manufacturers in a new plan announced today. >> he plans to target the industry through racketeering charges, and news 9's jessi mitchell tells us it's all in an effort to save lives. >> reporter: that's right. 3,000 people have died from opioid overdoses in the past three years here in oklahoma, so hunter is calling on national attorney general jeff sessions to go after drug manufacturers using the rico act. that would allow the prosecutors to treat the companies as criminal organizations. you'll remember hunter filed a lawsuit against more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies this summer, seeking damages that would be used for addiction treatment programs in the state. while that suit moves through the court system, hunter says he won't wait to see the outcome. instead, he wants to address the problem on all sides, and he insists the burden of the epidemic is the hands of the drug makers themselves. >> we have two decades of deaths and overdoses and billions of dollars the state has expended, and they need to be held accountable for it, and they need to quit oversupplying oklahoma and the rest of the united states with opioids.
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Oct 23, 2017 | KIRO CBS Seattle, WA
View clip here: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30215545?token=9b7846f8-fab9-4732-83e2-db168b4c9e25
Rough transcript:he maker of prescription opioids - like oxycontin - is trying to stop oregon from releasing records in a suit. multnomah county is suing purdue pharma to recover money spent on battling the opioid epidemic.and the portland tribune reports purdue is suing the oregon department of justice.the company wants to block the release of records detailing local marketing of opioids.purdue says they contain trade secrets and personal medical information. washington state, seattle, tacoma and everett are all suing purdue pharma as well. they claim purdue pushed drugs to doctors and patients and misled the public about the dangers.purdue argued the company sells to a wholesaler -- not to doctors or patients. the company said its federally- approved products accounted for just 2 percent of opioid prescriptions.
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