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Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report - 11/6/17
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Lewis County legislators to consider joining suit against opioid manufacturers
Nov 6, 2017 | Watertown Daily Times (NY)
By Steve Virkler
Lewis County legislators on Tuesday will consider whether to join a growing number of counties involved in a class-action lawsuit against the major manufacturers of opioid drugs. -
County mulls law firms for opioid lawsuit
Nov 3, 2017 | The Post Star (NY)
By Don Lehman
Warren County leaders heard from two more law firms this week who want to sue opioid drug makers on the county’s behalf, but supervisors have not yet decided whether to go forward with litigation. -
Tompkins considers joining litigation against opioid manufacturers
| The Ithaca Voice (NY)
Tompkins County is considering joining other New York counties in suing opioid manufacturers. Local officials say the action would be a way to recover damages from companies that contribute to local costs associated with drug addiction. -
Are Lawsuits the Solution to the Opioid Epidemic? (EDITORIAL)
Nov 3, 2017 | Observer Magazine
By Donald Scarinci
On Oct. 26, President Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. Several weeks earlier, New Jersey filed suit against opioid manufacturer Insys Therapeutics, which makes the powerful fentanyl-based drug Subsys, and this week it filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin. -
Ohio Attorney General Office Meets With DEA On Opioid Crisis
Nov 3, 2017 | Patch
By Staff
From the Ohio Attorney General: Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's Office is part of a multi-state group that met with top leaders from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in Washington, D.C. yesterday. -
U.S. opioid epidemic affects not only addicts but families and budgets (Editorial)
Nov 4, 2017 | CRUX
By Mark Pattison
President Trump's declaration of a national emergency lubricates some of government's gears for more decisive action on the opioid epidemic than what we've seen thus far, however, it does not bring automatic money to the anti-opioid effort. The estimate for what is needed is in the billions. -
Lawsuit seeks to hold medical leaders accountable (EDITORIAL)
Nov 6, 2017 | The Herald Dispatch (WV)
By Lori Wolfe
Many now agree that the medical community was hoodwinked by drug makers about the dangers of prescription opioids. -
Law360's Pro Say: Can Courts Curb The Opioid Crisis? (PODCAST)
Nov 6, 2017 | Law360
By Andrew Westney
Audio Link: https://www.law360.com/articles/980989/law360-s-pro-say-can-courts-curb-the-opioid-crisis- On the latest episode of Law360's Pro Say podcast, the team discusses cases relating to the opioid crisis hitting the courts; special counsel Robert Mueller's view of attorney-client privilege; a federal judge blocking the transgender military ban; and a New Jersey judge who was accused of fits of rage. -
Good Morning Memphis 6am LIVE
Nov 5, 2017 | WHBQ (FOX)
By Memphis, TN
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30524127?token=1ddede12-f3d0-4d74-9a06-f0bdaaf725e5 -
Fox 6 WakeUp News Saturday
Nov 4, 2017 | WITI (FOX)
By Milwaukee, WI
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30524302?token=1ddede12-f3d0-4d74-9a06-f0bdaaf725e5 -
WTOL 11 News Now This Morning
Nov 4, 2017 | WTOL (CBS)
By Toledo, OH
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30524361?token=1ddede12-f3d0-4d74-9a06-f0bdaaf725e5
Litigation Coverage
Commentary and FYIs
Broadcast Media Coverage
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Lewis County legislators to consider joining suit against opioid manufacturers
Nov 6, 2017 | Watertown Daily Times (NY)
By Steve Virkler
Lewis County legislators on Tuesday will consider whether to join a growing number of counties involved in a class-action lawsuit against the major manufacturers of opioid drugs.
And the chairman said he has mixed feelings about the matter.
County legislators at their regular meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Harrisville fire hall on Church Street are to consider a resolution to sign a contract with New York City law firm Simmons, Hanly, Conroy P.C., to join planned legal proceedings against manufacturers of prescription opiates. The firm won’t charge the counties any money unless the lawsuit results in a financial settlement from the companies.
Legislature Chairman Michael A. Tabolt, R-Croghan, said the measure — which was brought to lawmakers’ attention by county attorney Joan E. McNichol — may get support because there is no cost to the county and “it would be nice to get some revenue back to combat the opioid crisis.”
On the other hand, Mr. Tabolt said, he is “not one to sue someone” and is a bit concerned it could be construed as removing personal responsibility from users. “It’s just another way of putting the blame on someone else,” he said.
The chairman said he also has learned that most drug addiction starts with alcohol addiction.
He expects a good discussion by the board.
“The opioid epidemic has grown considerably across the nation, causing local municipalities like Lewis County to invest significant resources to combat opioid abuse and addiction,” the proposed resolution states.
That affects numerous county offices, including sheriff, district attorney, probation, county attorney, social services, community services and public health, the resolution states.
St. Lawrence County lawmakers at a recent Services Committee meeting voted 10-3 in favor of joining the suit and will have a final vote on the matter at their meeting today.
Other counties expected to participate include Cayuga, Columbia, Fulton, Greene, Oswego, Rockland, Ulster, Wyoming, Broome, Dutchess, Erie, Orange, Schenectady, Seneca, Suffolk and Sullivan.
“Nationally, opioids have caused approximately 60 percent of overdoses in recent years,” the resolution states. “In Lewis County, emergency department visits with a diagnosis of opiate poisoning have more than doubled between 2010-2014 (from 15 to 32).”
While the county had four confirmed overdose deaths last year, there already have been 10 confirmed so far this year, according to Lewis County District Attorney Leanne K. Moser.
According to the resolution, “the intent of the County litigation against manufacturers of these addicting painkillers is to hold opioid manufacturers responsible for their fraudulent marketing tactics, declaring opioids safe for pain management, despite contrary medical statistics and studies. This deliberate and misleading marketing is a contributing cause to this crisis and the increased costs the County has incurred and continues to incur as a result of this crisis in our communities.”
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County mulls law firms for opioid lawsuit
Nov 3, 2017 | The Post Star (NY)
By Don Lehman
Warren County leaders heard from two more law firms this week who want to sue opioid drug makers on the county’s behalf, but supervisors have not yet decided whether to go forward with litigation.
Counties and municipalities around the country are suing the drugmakers, claiming deceptive marketing of painkiller pills like Oxycontin and hydrocodone helped spawn the national addiction crisis and that the government response has cost billions of dollars. Municipalities have sued for compensation of costs related to response to overdoses, police-related costs and social services costs, much like the litigation against tobacco companies years ago.
Saratoga and Essex counties have opted to join the litigation, hiring New York City firm Napoli Shkolnik PLLC, which is handling cases against drugmakers, distributors, “big box” pharmacies and physicians in New York and around the country.
Partners in that firm were among the two firms that pitched Warren County supervisors on Thursday about the merits of litigation, and their firms’ ability to handle it.
Hudson Falls lawyer William Nikas is working locally with Napoli Shkolnik. Nikas’ son, Luke, is a lawyer who has worked closely with Martin Napoli on a number of cases.
Napoli explained that his firm has handled large-scale lawsuits over illnesses from the 9/11 terror attack cleanup, against diet drug makers and on other pharmaceutical matters.
“Sixty-five percent of our practice is pharmaceutical cases,” he said. “We have the science experts. We know the defendants intimately. We know the defense attorneys intimately.”
The firm will not charge the county anything, only taking a percentage (a sliding scale of up to 25 percent) of whatever award the litigation brings.
Supervisors also heard from the Utica firm of Brindisi, Murad & Pearlman, which is representing some central New York counties, towns and villages. Partner Louis Brindisi said his firm has at this point not been suing doctors but the drugmakers for continued marketing of addictive opioids even when they knew of the danger.
“Here in Warren County you have had a lot of problems with opioids,” Brindisi said.
Supervisors in September met with Albany lawyer Donald Boyajian, who represents New York City firm Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC.
Queensbury at-Large Supervisor Matthew Sokol, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors Finance Committee, said the board will hold a special meeting Nov. 14 to make a decision on the issue.
“We have to figure out if we want to do it, and if so, with whom?” Sokol said.
Washington County supervisors are reviewing the issue as well, and may make a decision on litigation as soon as later this month.
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Tompkins considers joining litigation against opioid manufacturers
| The Ithaca Voice (NY)
Tompkins County is considering joining other New York counties in suing opioid manufacturers. Local officials say the action would be a way to recover damages from companies that contribute to local costs associated with drug addiction.
A resolution discussed Wednesday at the Government Operations Committee places blame for the opioid epidemic on manufacturers, distributors and promoters because they have deliberately misled doctors and patients about the addictive nature of opioids and prescription painkillers, misrepresent the dangers of opioids and market them in a way that promotes addiction.
If the county was to pursue legal action against opioid manufacturers, it would have to prove financial damages suffered, county attorney Jonathan Wood said.
Tompkins would be one of several counties in New York joining in litigation against pharmaceutical companies.
In September, Nassau, Suffolk, Schenectady, Broome, Erie, Dutchess, Orange, Seneca and Sullivan counties began proceedings of a coordinated lawsuit against 19 companies. The counties are seeking damages for millions of dollars they say they spend each year to combat the opioid epidemic.
The local resolution proposed states the opioid epidemic has cost the county in the form of "increased social services, policing, treatment, incarceration and other expenditures."
At the meeting, Legislator Will Burbank asked if there was an estimate of the cost of the epidemic to the county, but Wood said they are not at a point to put a number on it.
Legislator Carol Chock said everyone at every level of government should participate in holding companies responsible for misleading the public, misrepresenting research and profiting off of those misrepresentations.
"Even if it costs us something, I would like to see us participate," Chock said. "If every level of government and every locality leaves this up to others to do ... then who starts it? Who steps up?"
Legislator Rich John said the more he reads about the misinformation provided to doctors about the safety of opioids, "the more I think we have to do something." John cited an article that ran in The New Yorker this week, "The Family That Built an Empire of Pain," which describes how aggressive marketing of painkillers has "generated billions of dollars—and millions of addicts."
"We're going to continue to see the damage from this for years to come, if not more than a decade if we can get it under control," John said. "The wrongness of what these pharmaceutical companies have done, it just seems obvious. I think we need to do something."
Members of the committee unanimously supported the resolution Wednesday. It will move on to the full Tompkins County Legislature and is on the agenda Nov. 9.
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Are Lawsuits the Solution to the Opioid Epidemic? (EDITORIAL)
Nov 3, 2017 | Observer Magazine
By Donald Scarinci
On Oct. 26, President Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. Several weeks earlier, New Jersey filed suit against opioid manufacturer Insys Therapeutics, which makes the powerful fentanyl-based drug Subsys, and this week it filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin.
The president’s declaration and the New Jersey lawsuits come as opioid-related deaths have skyrocketed in New Jersey. The confirmed heroin and opioid death toll in the state increased to more than 1,000 in the first half of 2016 alone, compared to 840 in all of 2010.
Drug overdose deaths involving opioids have surged across the country. Below are several statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that highlight the gravity of the problem:Every day, 91 Americans die from an opioid overdose.More people died from drug overdoses in 2014 than in any year on record. More than six out of 10 of the fatal overdoses involved an opioid.Since 1999, the rate of overdose deaths involving opioids — including prescription painkillers and heroin — has nearly quadrupled.From 2000 to 2015, more than 500,000 people died from drug overdoses.
Several factors have caused opioid-related overdoses to skyrocket, including an increase in prescriptions for the potent pain killers. Since 1999, the number of prescription opioids sold in the U.S. nearly quadrupled. However, there has not been a significant uptick in the amount of pain that Americans report.
In 2013, doctors wrote nearly a quarter of a billion opioid prescriptions, which is enough for every American adult to have his or her own bottle of pills. Opioids are also increasingly prescribed for chronic pain, even though they have not proven to be an effective long-term solution.
Role of Pharmaceutical Companies
According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, 80 percent of new heroin users began their addictions by misusing prescription pain medications. Subsequent investigations into why opioid drugs are so widely prescribed and misused have raised questions about the marketing tactics of pharmaceutical companies.
For instance, although Subsys is approved by the FDA to treat breakthrough pain experienced by cancer patients, the company widely marketed the powerful drug as a treatment for pain associated with a range of chronic conditions, including back and neck pain. States like New Jersey also maintain that doctors received financial incentives, such as expensive meals and sham speaking fees, for prescribing Subsys to non-cancer patients for off-label uses.
“The conduct alleged in our lawsuit is nothing short of evil,” New Jersey Attorney General Chris Porrino said in a statement announcing the Insys lawsuit. “Knowing full well it was putting lives in peril by pushing for broad based consumption of a highly-specialized and incredibly powerful prescription drug — a form of fentanyl approved only for treatment of pain-racked and opioid-tolerant cancer patients — Insys allegedly forged ahead and did it anyway.”
Overall, Insys turned a profit of $74.2 million from the sale of Subsys in New Jersey between 2012 and the third quarter of 2016, according to the attorney general. The complaint against Insys includes three counts alleging violation of New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act and one count alleging violation of the New Jersey False Claims Act. The suit seeks the maximum civil penalties for each violation of the Consumer Fraud Act, and seeks treble damages for violations of the False Claims Act.
“We contend that the company used every trick in the book, including sham speaking and consulting fees and other illegal kickbacks, in a callous campaign to boost profits from the sale of its marquee drug Subsys,” Porrino said.
Insys recently agreed to pay $4.45 million to resolve charges brought by the Illinois attorney general that it deceptively marketed its opioid pain medication. The U.S. Department of Justice is also conducting its own investigation.
Ultimately, the opioid epidemic is a complex issue that will require a number of different “solutions.” Lawsuits may not necessarily change the questionable business practices of big pharma, but they can generate large monetary damages that can then be used to provide addiction treatment and prevention efforts.
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Ohio Attorney General Office Meets With DEA On Opioid Crisis
Nov 3, 2017 | Patch
By Staff
From the Ohio Attorney General: Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's Office is part of a multi-state group that met with top leaders from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in Washington, D.C. yesterday.
The group convened to share ideas and data in the fight against the overuse of prescription opioids. The states and the DEA discussed opportunities for sharing data relating to drug manufacturers and distributors and how the state attorneys general and the DEA could work together to combat the opioid crisis. Jonathan Blanton, Chief of the Ohio Attorney General's Consumer Protection Section, was Ohio's representative.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine sued five of the nation's leading drug manufacturers in May on behalf of the state of Ohio. This week, the Attorney General released a 12-point emergency plan called "Recovery Ohio" and gave the drug manufacturers and distributors 30 days to come forward and begin serious discussions about paying their fair share.
"We have to fight the opioid epidemic with all of the creativity and urgency we can. We are in a public-health crisis that necessitates a response that matches the depth of this emergency," said Attorney General Mike DeWine. "I am pleased that the DEA is working with the state attorneys general to combat this crisis and ensure companies who violate the law are held accountable."
"The men and women of DEA are working alongside various states in our shared fight against those who have helped to facilitate our nations opioid epidemic," said DEA Acting Administrator Robert W. Patterson. "We have a responsibility to help the state attorneys general, and the DEA is working hard every day to ensure that manufacturers and distributors are operating within the law and are accountable for their actions."
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U.S. opioid epidemic affects not only addicts but families and budgets (Editorial)
Nov 4, 2017 | CRUX
By Mark Pattison
President Trump's declaration of a national emergency lubricates some of government's gears for more decisive action on the opioid epidemic than what we've seen thus far, however, it does not bring automatic money to the anti-opioid effort. The estimate for what is needed is in the billions.
The opioid crisis may have sneaked up on the United States, but few would dispute President Donald Trump’s assertion that it is now a national emergency.
Trump made the formal declaration Oct. 26. But much needs to be done before the emergency becomes manageable.
An estimated 200,000 Americans have died from opioid overdoses since the pharmaceutical opioid oxycodone was introduced in 1996. The numbers continue to climb, and the fatal overdose rate continues to soar.
West Virginia, at the heart of Appalachia, has the nation’s worst rate at 41.5 deaths per 100,000 each year, four times the national average.
Appalachians were derided in the early years of the growing crisis for their growing dependence on prescription opioids, as the pills were called “hillbilly heroin.” Familiar drug brand names like OxyContin and Vicodin are in the same opioid class as heroin and fentanyl. More critically, the crisis has spread far beyond Appalachia.
Second to West Virginia among U.S. states is New Hampshire, according to 2014 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a Jan. 27 phone call to the president of Mexico about the need for a border wall to stop the drug flow, Trump called New Hampshire “a drug-infested den.”
The numbers cited by Kathryn Marchocki, communications manager for Catholic Charities of New Hampshire - the social service arm of the statewide Diocese of Manchester - hold scant promise for improvement any time soon.
The 2014 death toll from opioid overdoses was 332. It leapt to 439 in 2015, and jumped again to 485 in 2016 in a state with just under 1.35 million residents. “It does seem to be slowing down” this year, Marchocki said, with current overdose rates on a pace for 457 this year.
“Every one of these deaths require toxicology to determine absolute cause of death,” she said, a process that takes eight weeks. “There’s quite a lot of backlog,” she added in an interview with Catholic News Service.
New Hampshire is seeing an increasing number of deaths from fentanyl, another legal opioid but one which experts believe is being illegally made in and shipped from China. Marchocki said a fentanyl analog, carfentanyl - intended, she noted, as an elephant tranquilizer - is “many times more potent than fentanyl” and showing up in more toxicology reports in the state.
Some jurisdictions have begun suing drug manufacturers and distributors for the expenses incurred by their budget-battered governments for autopsies, treatment and crime-fighting.
Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which includes Cleveland, filed suit Oct. 27 against some of the biggest pharmaceutical firms in the country: Purdue Pharma, Teva, Cephalon, Janssen, McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen. It also named four doctors in the suit, saying they downplayed the addictive effects of opioids in studies funded by the drug makers.
The bipartisan President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis issued 56 recommendations Nov. 1. Among them: more drug courts; much greater access for providing treatment to addicts, including in jails; and better utilization of databases by physicians to prevent “doctor shopping” by addicts.
The commission, while it did not put a price tag on its findings, urged the government to use block grants to allow states to apply for just one grant to cover multiple initiatives. It also said the government should more closely track prevention, treatment and interdiction efforts. “We are operating blindly today,” its report said.
The White House said Oct. 26 that since April, more than $800 million has been distributed for prevention, treatment, first responders, prescription-drug monitoring programs, recovery and other care in communities, inpatient settings and correctional systems. Another $254 million has been awarded for high-risk communities, law enforcement and first-responder coordination.
The CDC also launched the Rx Awareness campaign, a multimedia awareness campaign featuring the real-life stories of people who have lost loved ones to prescription opioid overdose and people in recovery. At the same time, the Food and Drug Administration is imposing new requirements on the manufacturers of prescription opioids to help reverse the over-prescribing that fueled the crisis.
While Trump’s declaration of a national emergency lubricates some of government’s gears for more decisive action, it does not bring automatic money to the anti-opioid effort.
More funds to combat opioids had been in the Affordable Care Act repeal-and-replace bills earlier in the year. The figure had originally been $2 billion, but shot up to $45 billion after senators from states hard hit by the crisis urged more money. The $45 billion figure was reintroduced in a bill unveiled Oct. 25 by 14 Senate Democrats and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. By comparison, the Comprehensive Addictions Recovery Act passed by Congress last year authorized just $1 billion over two years.
The Affordable Care Act “has begun to integrate the treatment of substance-abuse disorders into health care, so we are paying close attention to make sure that any changes to our health care system do not negatively impact our families and patients that need treatment for addiction,” Jessica Nickel, president and CEO of the Addiction Policy Forum, said Oct. 26 in Washington after the declaration of a national emergency.
Trump’s declaration, promised over the summer, hit a significant roadblock along the way. Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pennsylvania, his pick for federal drug czar, had to withdraw from consideration. His decision came after a joint Washington Post-“60 Minutes” investigation found he had collected nearly $100,000 in campaign contributions from drug companies after getting a bill passed that critics said weakened the Drug Enforcement Agency’s oversight over opioids as the crisis kept mounting.
Amid the crisis, Catholics are among those involved in anti-addiction initiatives, where the victories are hard-won.
Father Douglas McKay, founder and chaplain of Our House Ministries in Philadelphia for those suffering from addiction, emphasizes prayer, fellowship and the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist and confession. “They heal,” he told CatholicPhilly.com, the news website of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. “The divine physician is the doctor for the mind and the soul.”
The ministry’s recovery homes provide shelter and structure for residents, who must attend Sunday Mass and weekly gatherings of the Calix Society, an international Catholic lay organization for participants in 12-step programs, for which McKay is the national chaplain.
Catholic Charities of New Hampshire launched “Families Coping With the Opioid Crisis” for family members dealing with an addicted loved one. Father John J. Mahoney Jr., director of Catholic Charities’ counseling services, said that in “attempting to resolve the epidemic,” it needed to treat not only the addict but also to “treat the family as well.”
Mahoney added, “We employ the Gospel model. Jesus didn’t sit in a clinic somewhere waiting for the sick of Palestine to come to him. He brought bread to the communities. … Pope Francis said the church should be a field hospital.”
There’s been no study to detail its effectiveness, but anecdotal evidence indicates the program is making an impact. “A lot of it entails tough-love measures. But it works, and mothers tell the children how they are in recovery, or the states of recovery,” Mahoney told CNS.
The program may be beset by its own popularity, according to the priest: “We’ve had invitations to come out and speak from about 40 parishes.”
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Lawsuit seeks to hold medical leaders accountable (EDITORIAL)
Nov 6, 2017 | The Herald Dispatch (WV)
By Lori Wolfe
Many now agree that the medical community was hoodwinked by drug makers about the dangers of prescription opioids.
As the drugs became available in the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies saw a boom market, and their sales efforts minimized the addiction risks of opioids and exaggerated the benefits.
The drugs went from something used for palliative care and major surgeries to the "go-to" prescription for any kind of hurt, from ongoing back pain to pulling a wisdom tooth.
"For most of my surgical career, I gave out opioids like candy," Dr. Marty Makary, a professor of surgery and health policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, wrote in a USA Today op-ed this summer. "The medical community at that time ingrained in all of us that opioids were not addictive and urged liberal prescribing. So that's exactly what we did."
But who exactly were the people and institutions in the medical community who were pushing this misinformation?
Generally, the response has been, "not me." But a lawsuit filed this week by several West Virginia cities takes a bolder, "yeah you" approach.
The cities of Huntington, Charleston, Kenova and Ceredo joined in filing the suit against the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations and its international branch, Joint Commission International. The complaint maintains the group's pain management guidelines issued in 2001 encouraged the over-prescription of opioids.
For example, the lawsuit contends that Joint Commission documents stated "there is no evidence that addiction is a significant issue when persons are given opioids for pain control."
That, of course, turned out to be dead wrong. If the skyrocketing rates of addiction and overdose deaths were not evidence enough, a recent University of Michigan study shows one out of every 16 patients receiving opioid prescriptions becomes a chronic user. That is a high risk, by almost any standard. Moreover, the sheer volume of pills still being prescribed today contributes to misuse and the growing heroin problems in our communities.
"For too long, JCAHO has operated in concert with opioid producers to establish pain management guidelines that feature the use of opioids virtually without restriction," Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said last week. "The JCAHO standards are based on bad science, if they are based on any science at all."
We hope the action will push medical groups to adopt pain management approaches that use opioids as a last resort, as the Center for Disease Control has recommended, and curtail the over-prescribing practices still prevalent in our region.
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Law360's Pro Say: Can Courts Curb The Opioid Crisis? (PODCAST)
Nov 6, 2017 | Law360
By Andrew Westney
Audio Link: https://www.law360.com/articles/980989/law360-s-pro-say-can-courts-curb-the-opioid-crisis-
On the latest episode of Law360's Pro Say podcast, the team discusses cases relating to the opioid crisis hitting the courts; special counsel Robert Mueller's view of attorney-client privilege; a federal judge blocking the transgender military ban; and a New Jersey judge who was accused of fits of rage.
Each week on Pro Say, Law360 staffers Amber McKinney, Bill Donahue and Alex Lawson bring you inside the newsroom and break down what you need to know about key legal developments
The opioid epidemic has recently been put in the spotlight by Washington policy makers, but that’s not the only venue where the issue is being tackled. Law360 senior reporter Andrew Westney joins us to walk us through a wave of lawsuitsfiled against drugmakers and retailers over their alleged role in fueling the crisis.
Also on this week’s show, we explore special counsel Robert Mueller’s willingness to push back against the attorney-client privilege and we discuss a D.C. federal judge blocking the Trump administration’s ban on transgender people serving in the military.
And at the end of the show, the story of a New Jersey state judge accused of “explosive fits of rage” and “extreme emotional immaturity.” -
Nov 5, 2017 | WHBQ (FOX)
By Memphis, TN
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30524127?token=1ddede12-f3d0-4d74-9a06-f0bdaaf725e5
Rough Transcript: shelby county leaders are trying to tackle the drug problem. not everyone can agree on the right approach. they are targeting pharmaceutical companies. they say addiction costs the county millions of dollars. >> he said he just learned about this lawsuit. he doesn't think the commissioners have an authority to create this lawsuit. >> it troubles me when we see an issue like this politicized. when you start to politicize this you minimize the pain and suffering of people in the opiate crisis. >> the mayor said the county is working on a plan to combat the opioid epidemic. the county commissioner said is taking too long to implement. >> >>> shelby county is ahead of the curve in protecting first responders from dangerous 7:34 AMdrugs. even touching a drug can be deadly. this week we are... sheriff's office needs more. >> we need about 300 more doses. you are looking at 18 thousand- $20,000 to supply this amount. >> the chief said he hopes the federal government will make this available now that the white house has given the opioid and fentanyl crisis national attention and concern. if not, the burden of protecting the officers and fighting the epidemic on the local level will be shouldered by the taxpayers. >> it will take additional funding to address this.>> one captain told fox13 he hoped the trump administration would include promises for funding because the training can get expensive.
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Nov 4, 2017 | WITI (FOX)
By Milwaukee, WI
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30524302?token=1ddede12-f3d0-4d74-9a06-f0bdaaf725e5
Rough Transcript: Governor scot walker signs a bill into law-- aimed at deadly opioids known as fentanyl analogs. the bil ads fentanyl analogs to the synthetic opiates category of controlled substances-- making it easier for prosecutors to go after manufacturers. posessing, manufacturing or dealing a fentanyl analog wil be a felony. this recent bill signing is just one part of a national efort to crack down on opioid abuse. health officials say deaths related to fentanyl are outpacing heroin deaths in our area.
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Nov 4, 2017 | WTOL (CBS)
By Toledo, OH
http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30524361?token=1ddede12-f3d0-4d74-9a06-f0bdaaf725e5
Rough Transcript: ohio attorney general mike dewine gave this staggering statistic during a 6:19 AMpress conference this week at the safety building. our malena caruso explains his proposed 12-step plan to battle the opioid and heroin epidemic in ohio. sot mike dewine/attorney general, ohio "every citizen in the state of ohio should be mad." using northwest ohio as his backdrop, attorney genernal mike wine made two big announcements at the toledo police headquarters. one... a 12-step plan to get ahead of the deadly heroin epidemic and two... explain the lawsuit he filed on behalf of the state of ohio against five large pharmaceutical companies. sot mike dewine/attorney general, ohio "so they misled doctors. they caused a lot of this problem and they failed to do anything to try to elevate the problem. very... very little of anything." dewine says suing the drug companies for damages would take the burden off of taxpayers to fight this epidemic. sot sheriff john tharp/lucas county "i see this as an opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to help us in enforcement, education and prevention. i think it's very important we move forward with that." several of the 12 action steps dewine outlined include: passing legislation that let's the governor of ohio declare a public health emergency statewide or in specific areas... create at least 60 more drug courts... and... to create a special position within the governor's office with the sole purpose of fighting the opioid epidemic. sot cheif george kral/toledo police department "the push to de- criminalize it was so that we can make sure we can somehow
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