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Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report - 2/5/18
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Philly DA Accuses Drugmakers Of Deceptive Opioid Marketing
Feb 2, 2018 | Law360
By Matt Fair
Philadelphia’s district attorney took aim at the pharmaceutical industry on Friday as his office launched a lawsuit accusing a slew of drugmakers, including Johnson & Johnson and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., of fueling the opioid crisis through deceptive marketing of painkillers. -
Federal Judge Seeks Settlement in Opioid Lawsuits Against Big Pharma
Feb 5, 2018 | Dallas Observer (TX)
By Christian McPhate
President Donald Trump spent about a minute highlighting the casualties and the heroes of the opioid epidemic in his first State of the Union address in late January. -
Albany County exec. travels for opioid lawsuit
Feb 2, 2018 | Albany Times Union (NY)
By Amanda Fries
Less than a month after Albany County filed a federal lawsuit against pharmaceutical manufacturers in response to the opioid epidemic, county Executive Daniel McCoy testified to the harm addictive prescription drugs have had on Albany. -
Haverhill joins national lawsuit against drugmakers
Feb 2, 2018 | Eagle-Tribune (MA)
By Peter France
The city is joining a federal lawsuit against several drug companies and distributors over the opioid epidemic. -
More Deaths Than Vietnam: Fiorentini Tells of Motivations Behind Drug Lawsuit
Feb 5, 2018 | WHAV (MA)
By Staff
City councilors will learn Tuesday night about Haverhill’s plans to sue the pharmaceutical industry for its role in the opioid crisis. -
Howard County looking to sue opioid manufacturers
Feb 5, 2018 | Howard County Times (MD)
By Kate Magill
Howard County this week will take its first steps toward filing a lawsuit against drug companies that make powerful painkillers that have been linked to tens of thousands of overdose deaths nationwide. -
Baltimore County Council to vote Monday on contract to join federal suit against opioid manufacturers
Feb 5, 2018 | The Baltimore Sun (MD)
By Pamela Wood
The Baltimore County Council is expected on Monday to approve the hiring of private attorneys to help the county government sue pharmaceutical companies that make opioid drugs. -
Pushing Back: Burke files lawsuit against opioid makers and distributors
Feb 4, 2018 | The News Herald (NC)
By Sharon McBrayer
Burke County joined other counties across the U.S. when it filed a lawsuit against numerous manufacturers and distributors of opioid painkillers on Wednesday in federal court. -
Cities, counties seek damages from big pharma
Feb 3, 2018 | The Sentinel - Record (AR)
By David Showers
The Association of Arkansas Counties, Arkansas Municipal League and Arkansas Public Entities Risk Management Association have hired attorneys to sue the pharmaceutical industry for costs cities and counties have borne as result of what's been called the opioid crisis. -
Tuscaloosa lawyer files dozens of lawsuits over opioid prescriptions
Feb 2, 2018 | WBRC (AL)
By Kelvin Reynolds
Thick, heavy and time consuming this lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Tuscaloosa mirrors the opioid crisis it's battling against. -
Marshall County sues pharmaceutical companies, blames them for role in opioid crisis
Feb 4, 2018 | South Bend Tribune (IN)
By Lincoln Wright
Marshall County is looking to hold numerous pharmaceutical manufacturers and medical distributors accountable, accusing the companies of deceptive practices that greatly contributed to the opioid crisis. -
Prosecutor Lindquist Files Lawsuit against Big Pharma
Feb 5, 2018 | Suburban Times (WA)
By Staff
Today, Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist filed a federal lawsuit against the three largest manufacturers and marketers of prescription opioids in the United States: Purdue, Endo, and Janssen. -
Pueblo County poised to join opioid lawsuit
Feb 3, 2018 | The Pueblo Chieftain (CO)
By Peter Roper
Pueblo County is likely to join Huerfano County and others nationally that are suing the major pharmaceutical companies for damages, arguing the over-prescribing of opioid prescription drugs contributed to the thousands of heroin overdose deaths and other damages from that drug. -
DOJ not cooperating with opioid investigation, House committee chairman says
Feb 3, 2018 | Charleston Gazette - Mail (WV)
By Jake Zuckerman
A congressional committee chairman investigating how drug companies dumped millions of painkillers into small-town pharmacies around the country said he’s facing resistance from within the executive branch. -
Oklahoma AG speaks about ongoing state legal issues
Feb 3, 2018 | The Norman Transcript (OK)
By Jacob McGuire
In an effort to raise awareness of the legal issues the state is facing, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter spoke at the Norman Rotary Club’s Thursday meeting. -
Opioids, childproof caps and a new version of an old idea (EDITORIAL)
Feb 2, 2018 | Contrariana
By Michael Leppert
How many of us have ever heard of a Canadian doctor named Henri J. Breault? -
Dauphin Co. commissioners made the right call with opioids lawsuit (EDITORIAL)
Feb 3, 2018 | PennLive
By Editorial Board
This week, the Dauphin County commissioners filed suit against 11 drug manufacturers and three doctors for ignoring the effects of prescription opioids and pursuing profits over patients. We support that litigation. -
Suing Big Pharma is no panacea in opioid crisis (EDITORIAL)
Feb 3, 2018 | Eagle-Tribue (MA)
By Staff
There’s a desperate need to better understand why and how often prescription painkillers are dispensed in this country, and how readily those scripts lead patients into a dark cycle of addiction. However, it’s uncertain that the latest legal fad, the municipal lawsuit against Big Pharma, will accomplish that. -
How Trump Can Keep His Vows on Opioids and Infrastructure (EDITORIAL)
Feb 3, 2018 | New York Times
By Editorial Board
President Trump has correctly identified two big challenges that Americans want him to tackle this year — the opioid epidemic and the country’s dilapidated and overstretched infrastructure. -
Drugmakers aren’t solely responsible (LETTER TO THE EDITOR)
Feb 2, 2018 | Kokomo Tribune (IN)
By Mike Moran
Opioids are a bane on our world. Like so many things, something that could help and do good is being misused. -
PoliticsNation
Feb 4, 2018 | MSNBC (MSNBC)
By National Programming
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32450904?token=455baff0-1d86-404f-b304-f2b025e4f239 -
WSBT News First Thing in the Morning
Feb 5, 2018 | WSBT (CBS)
By South Bend, IN
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32448348?token=455baff0-1d86-404f-b304-f2b025e4f239 -
ABC2 News Good Morning Maryland 5:30am
Feb 5, 2018 | WMAR (ABC)
By Baltimore, MD
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32449370?token=455baff0-1d86-404f-b304-f2b025e4f239 -
WECT News, Carolina in the Morning Early Edition
Feb 5, 2018 | WECT (NBC)
By Wilmington, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32448864?token=455baff0-1d86-404f-b304-f2b025e4f239 -
40/29 News at 10
Feb 4, 2018 | KHBS (ABC)
By Ft. Smith, AR
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32449878?token=455baff0-1d86-404f-b304-f2b025e4f239 -
FOX 24 News at 9
Feb 2, 2018 | KFTA (FOX)
By Fr. Smith, AR
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32451916?token=455baff0-1d86-404f-b304-f2b025e4f239
Phillidelphia, PA Suit
MDL
Northeast (MA, MD)
Southeast (NC, AR, AL)
Midwest (IN)
Northwest (WA)
West (CO)
Commentary and FYIs
Broadcast Media Coverage
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Philly DA Accuses Drugmakers Of Deceptive Opioid Marketing
Feb 2, 2018 | Law360
By Matt Fair
Philadelphia’s district attorney took aim at the pharmaceutical industry on Friday as his office launched a lawsuit accusing a slew of drugmakers, including Johnson & Johnson and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., of fueling the opioid crisis through deceptive marketing of painkillers.
The suit is the latest in a string of cases — the city of Philadelphia filed its own independent action in mid-January — being pursued around the country against major drugmakers for allegedly irresponsible promotion of addictive opioid medication for use treating long-term pain.
The complaint said that the drugmakers “engaged in massive, systemic, false and deceptive marketing aggressively promoting the prescription and use of prescription opioids to treat chronic pain.”
The marketing efforts, the complaint added, “succeeded in significantly modifying the prescribing practices of physicians around the country and in the Philadelphia area with respect to opioids, thereby dramatically increasing the legal prescription and use of opioids in the city, regionally and nationally.”
The complaint pointed to several settlements or guilty pleas on the part of several of the drugmakers in prior cases over marketing efforts for painkillers.
In one such case, the complaint said, Purdue Pharma LP and a group of executives pled guilty in Virginia in 2007 for promoting OxyContin as less addictive and less likely to cause tolerance and withdrawal than other pain medications.
In another example, it pointed to a settlement that Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., which sells the painkiller Opana ER, inked with New York’s attorney general in 2016 over its claims that health care providers agreed that individuals treated with prolonged opioid medicines “usually do not become addicted.”
The DA’s suit is the latest in a string of lawsuits both locally and nationally looking to hold drug companies liable for what they say are the increased health care and other costs of responding to increased rates of addiction and overdoses.
Several local governments in Pennsylvania, including Delaware County, Luzerne County and Bensalem Township outside Philadelphia, have also filed suit against drugmakers over their costs for responding to the opioid crisis.
Many of the firms working on the DA’s lawsuit are also involved in the city of Philadelphia’s suit.
The pharmaceutical companies targeted in the lawsuit did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
The state is represented by Bryan Hughes of the Philadelphia County Office of the District Attorney, Daniel Berg, Lawrence Lederer, Tyler Wren, Jon Lambrias, Sarah Schalman-Berger, Michaela Wallin and Neil Makhija of Berger & Montague PC, Thomas Biemer and Jerry DeSiderato of Dilworth Paxson LLP, Andrew Sacks and John Weston of Sacks Weston Diamond LLC, Stephen Sheller and Lauren Sheller of Sheller PC and David Kairys.
Counsel information for the defendants was not immediately available.
The case is Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Purdue Pharma LP et al., case number 180105594, in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. -
Federal Judge Seeks Settlement in Opioid Lawsuits Against Big Pharma
Feb 5, 2018 | Dallas Observer (TX)
By Christian McPhate
President Donald Trump spent about a minute highlighting the casualties and the heroes of the opioid epidemic in his first State of the Union address in late January.
“My administration is committed to fighting the drug epidemic and helping get treatment for those in need, for those who have been so terribly hurt,” he said. “The struggle will be long and it will be difficult — but, as Americans always do, in the end, we will succeed, we will prevail.”
The struggle to hold someone accountable has been going on a long time. In a 2003 story titled “The DEA’s War on Pain Doctors,” the Village Voicereported that some in the medical community called it “a government jihad” or “state-sponsored terrorism” with law enforcement agents dressed in SWAT-style gear storming clinics and hauling off doctors in handcuffs as if they were crack dealers peddling powder on the streets.
Last year, county governments across the country tried a new tactic. They filed federal lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies in an attempt to recuperate some of the costs associated with the opioid epidemic. In Texas, Dallas-based litigation firm Simon Greenstone Panatier & Bartlett filed a lawsuit on behalf of Upshur County, about 120 miles east of Dallas. Soon, other East Texas counties, including Bowie and Titus, also filed federal lawsuits to hold drug manufacturers responsible.
“The goal is to try to recoup the cost of the opioid epidemic," Upshur County Judge Dean Fowler told the Longview News-Journal. “It costs our taxpayers to take care of people who are addicted to opioids, and the cost to the public is very high.”
Now, a federal judge in Ohio wants drugmakers, lawmakers and law enforcement agencies to forge a deal to settle the more than 250 state, county and municipal lawsuits. He plans to host a summit to hear from all parties. The first half of the meeting will be dedicated to finding information, including plans to keep painkillers away from abusers from the Federal Drug Administration and Drug Enforcement Acency. The second half will be dedicated to the settlement.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Daniel Polster summoned parties to the suits into his Cleveland courtroom to talk about his proposal for a settlement. "The problem is urgent, life threatening and ongoing," he told Bloomberg News. "I took this step because I thought it would be the most effective path."
It’s a path with no easy solution.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that opioids sold to pharmacies, hospitals and doctors’ offices quadrupled from 1999 to 2014. The federal lawsuits accuse Big Pharma companies like Purdue Pharma Inc. of using direct marketing and unbranded advertising “to spread false and deceptive statements about the risks and benefits of long-term opioid use.”
The lawsuits claim that this nefarious practice changed doctors’ views of opioids. The plaintiffs say Big Pharma found “key opinion leaders” within the medical community to support the message that opioids were OK for long-term use. “[They] convinced doctors that instead of being addictive and unsafe for long-term use in most circumstances, opioids were required in the compassionate treatment of chronic pain,” Dallas attorney Jeffrey B. Simon claimed in the Upshur County lawsuit.
Many chronic pain sufferers disagree and call the government crackdown “a war against pain patients.” After the Observer wrote about the Texas lawsuits, dozens of people from around the world shared their nightmares of trying to live normal lives when the government prevents pain doctors from treating their patients.
“It’s just like living in hell,” Scott Garrett, a chronic pain sufferer, told the Observer in early January. “It’s just hell. That’s exactly what it is.”
Like Garrett, some users experience chronic pain because of accidents or work-related injuries. For others, the pain stems from interstitial cystitis (a painful bladder syndrome), multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease and trigeminal neuralgia, which causes excruciating pain to sufferers' faces and is known as “the suicide disease.” A few had family members who also suffered from chronic pain.
“In my journey, I have seen many doctors and nurses scared to write a script for what they know is the only thing that will help,” wrote one chronic pain sufferer from Colorado. “I have seen many end their lives because they saw no hope of help. My own brother-in-law ended his life because of this, and I have considered this option myself.”
Nearly all point out that this response to the opioid epidemic is putting legitimate patients at risk, physically, emotionally and mentally. “We are facing a future without hope. ..." one person wrote. "We did not ask for this disease or seek opioids for recreational purposes. Please help us, we are desperate for proper pain control.”
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Albany County exec. travels for opioid lawsuit
Feb 2, 2018 | Albany Times Union (NY)
By Amanda Fries
Less than a month after Albany County filed a federal lawsuit against pharmaceutical manufacturers in response to the opioid epidemic, county Executive Daniel McCoy testified to the harm addictive prescription drugs have had on Albany.
McCoy was in federal court last week before Judge Daniel Polster in Cleveland, Ohio to testify to the ramifications opiates have had on Albany County residents and services. The county filed the lawsuit Jan. 5.
“The judge actually set the stage that the pharmaceutical companies were definitely open-minded to settlement,” McCoy said, adding that for some communities, money is needed. But that won’t address the root of the problem, he said. “If we don’t change the way that we’re doing business, nothing is going to change.”
Although Albany officials estimate taxpayers shell out well over $1 million annually dealing with drug overdoses, it’s not about the money, McCoy said.
The suit against several national drug manufacturers seeks to recoup some of the public costs associated with drug overdoses as well as change the way companies market their products. McCoy said taxpayers pick up the costs of social services, law enforcement and Medicaid linked to medication abuse.
Communities nationwide have begun filing their own lawsuits against drug manufacturers, who allege that for years the companies pushed doctors to prescribe opioid painkillers with the promise the drugs were safe and not addictive. Addiction to prescription painkillers has spiraled into a public health emergency that also involves the use and fatal overdose of heroin, what has become a cheaper opioid alternative.
Albany joined with about 200 similar lawsuits filed by other municipalities across the nation.
The federal judge has expressed urgency in resolving the matter, and ordered all parties into immediate settlement discussions this week, McCoy said.
Albany’s lawsuit lists the Purdue, Teva, Janssen and Endo pharmaceutical companies as defendants, and attempts to hold them responsible for health care and treatment costs related to opioid addiction, rising crime rates and escalating social issues across Albany County, Elizabeth Smith, attorney with the South Carolina-based Motley Rice law firm has said.
It further argues the companies knew the addictive nature of these drugs, but peddled them to doctors and patients anyway.
In 2014, opioids generated $11 billion in revenue for pharmaceutical companies, which officials say is a result of the companies' allegedly deceptive marketing.
Most of the defendants denied the allegations contained in the lawsuit, with a Janssen representative stating the allegations are "baseless and unsubstantiated." The company representatives said they looked forward to defending their respective companies.
Teva, Purdue and Endo representatives said they recognized the impact of illegal opioid abuse and are working with their partners to address the issue as well as educate the public.
“We are deeply troubled by the prescription and illicit opioid abuse crisis, and are dedicated to being part of the solution,” read a statement provided by a Purdue spokeperson Friday. “Although our products account for approximately 2 percent of the total opioid prescriptions, as a company, we’ve distributed the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, developed three of the first four FDA-approved opioid medications with abuse-deterrent properties and partner with law enforcement to ensure access to naloxone.”
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Haverhill joins national lawsuit against drugmakers
Feb 2, 2018 | Eagle-Tribune (MA)
By Peter France
The city is joining a federal lawsuit against several drug companies and distributors over the opioid epidemic.
Haverhill hopes to use the suit to recoup money the city has spent fighting opioid abuse, Mayor James Fiorentini said.
In a prepared statement released Friday morning, Fiorentini said he has signed an agreement with New York law firm Scott & Scott to join municipalities around the country, along with the city of Springfield, Massachusetts.
The suit accuses the manufacturers of a civil conspiracy, fraud, negligence and recklessness, public nuisance, and violation of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act.
The suit also accuses drug distributors of unlawfully disregarding their statutory obligation under federal law to maintain control over the dissemination of controlled substances and to stop any suspicious sales, thereby flooding communities with addictive drugs.
City Solicitor William Cox will attend the City Council's Feb. 6 meeting to brief councilors on the suit.
On Friday, Cox said the city has been approached for several months by a number of firms which are seeking to file similar lawsuits.
He said the city decided to join the Scott & Scott lawsuit because of the firm's "qualifications and experience in handling complex litigation."
"Most communities have been approached about joining these suits," said Cox. "There are a limited number of firms doing this."
Cox said the suit has already been filed in federal court and that the city is merely joining the effort. He added there could be even more Massachusetts communities involved in the suit.
"There could be thousands of cities and towns nationwide (involved with the suit), because of the number of communities that have been touched by this epidemic," said Cox.
According to a statement, the city is seeking money for services provided by the police and fire departments as well as ambulance, medical and counseling services, and education efforts.
Major distributors named in the suit include AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc., and the McKesson Corporation, which has a distribution center in Methuen.
Listed as potential defendants are Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceutical, Endo International, Allegan and GlaxoSmithKline.
In joining the Scott & Scott lawsuit, Haverhill becomes the second city in the region to sue the pharmaceutical industry, as Methuen joined a similar suit early last month filed in U.S. District Court in Boston by the Rodman, Rodman & Sandman law firm, based in Malden.
Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals are all listed as defendants in the Methuen lawsuit, along with Cephalon Inc. The McKesson Corporation, a drug distributor, is also named in the Methuen suit.
In addition to compensation for first responders, according to the Haverhill lawsuit, municipalities could also be reimbursed for expenses related to providing social services for addicts, training and providing the anti-overdose drug Narcan to emergency personnel, health care and worker's compensation for city employees and their families affected by addiction, and law enforcement costs due to additional prosecutions.
“The unlawful conduct of the manufacturers was essentially to lie about the safety of their product for long-term use,” reads, in part, an executive summary of the Scott & Scott complaint. “While knowing the highly addictive quality of opioids, they falsely promoted the drugs for long-term use of chronic pain, thereby increasing their sales exponentially and causing many citizens to become addicted, leaving municipal, county and state governments to bear the financial strain.”
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More Deaths Than Vietnam: Fiorentini Tells of Motivations Behind Drug Lawsuit
Feb 5, 2018 | WHAV (MA)
By Staff
City councilors will learn Tuesday night about Haverhill’s plans to sue the pharmaceutical industry for its role in the opioid crisis.
In 2016, the last full year for which state figures are available, Haverhill had 38 opioid-related deaths—up from 31 the year before. Additional deaths may be added upon confirmation by the state medical examiner In an interview with WHAV, Haverhill Mayor James J. Fiorentini explained the motivation behind his administration’s suit.
“We’ve now lost more people in Massachusetts to the opioid crisis than Massachusetts lost during the entire Vietnam war. We run the risk of losing an entire generation of young people. We have to do everything we possibly can in order to abate this crisis.”
Haverhill joins a growing number of communities suing the country’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributers to attempt to make them pay for, what the city calls, “their leading role in the opioid crisis,” the mayor said. Haverhill City Solicitor William D. Cox Jr. will tell city councilors the city is hiring the New York law firm Scott & Scott.
“So, we’ve signed on to this lawsuit. Bill Cox looked into a number of excellent firms that are handling lawsuits against big pharmaceutical companies and we chose this one and we’ll see what happens,” the mayor said.
Communities across the country, including Springfield in Massachusetts, have already joined Scott & Scott’s lawsuit, which accuses 10 drug companies and distributors of civil conspiracy, fraud, negligence and recklessness, public nuisance and violation of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act.
The council’s approval is not required, but members will have a chance to ask questions before the city joins the lawsuit.
The suit claims pharmaceutical companies lied about the long-term effects of its opioid-based products and failed to maintain control over drug distribution. Haverhill aims to recover money it has spent fighting the opioid crisis, including for services provided by the police and fire departments as well as ambulance, medical and counseling services, and education efforts, Fiorentini said.
According to the lawsuit, municipalities could also be reimbursed for expenses such as: providing social services for addicted persons, training and providing the anti-overdose drug Narcan to emergency personnel, healthcare and workers compensation for city employees and/or their families affected by the crisis and police costs due to additional prosecutions.
The lawsuit names such manufacturers as Purdue Pharma L.P., Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceutical, Endo International Plc., Allegan and GlaxoSmithKline, Inc. The major distributors named in the suit include McKesson Corporation, AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp. and Cardinal Health.
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Howard County looking to sue opioid manufacturers
Feb 5, 2018 | Howard County Times (MD)
By Kate Magill
Howard County this week will take its first steps toward filing a lawsuit against drug companies that make powerful painkillers that have been linked to tens of thousands of overdose deaths nationwide.
The county’s Office of Law will start interviewing law firms as part of a plan to seek monetary damages related to the “tremendous amount of resources that local jurisdictions have had to devote to the [opioid] crisis,” county spokeswoman Deidre McCabe said.
Decisions on which manufacturing companies the county will sue, as well as the amount of money the county is seeking, won’t be made until a firm has been selected, according to McCabe. The firm will also determine the court in which to pursue the county’s case; McCabe said it could be a state circuit court.
If it decides to take legal action, the county would join Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Harfordand Montgomery counties and Baltimore City in suing drug makers.
The county continues its battle against opioid overdoses, with 18 fatal and non-fatal overdoses in the county last month, compared to 10 in January 2017, according to police. In 2017, there were 228 fatal and non-fatal overdoses.
A representative for the national Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said the trade association does not comment on legal matters related to individual lawsuits, but that the association is “deeply committed” to combating the national opioid crisis.
Kathleen Hoke, a law professor at University of Maryland’s Francis King Carey School of Law and director of the Legal Resource Center for Public Health Policy, said that as more jurisdictions file sue manufacturers, common claims fall under consumer-protection law, including fraudulent misrepresentation from manufacturers to consumers.
“The theme being in some instances directly manipulating providers and patients into believing the drug would do things that it wouldn’t do, and more importantly not disclosing the potential and significant negative consequences of starting to use the drugs at all,” she said.
Hoke said some jurisdictions may also claim the opioid crisis has caused a public nuisance, but that this could be a tougher legal claim to uphold in court.
The next step for cases across the country, Hoke said, is the discovery phase, during which law firms will begin researching what manufacturers knew about the risks behind opioids and what they failed to disclose to the public.
“Preliminarily there is certainly sufficient evidence to bring these claims,” Hoke said. “The industry will fight this very hard.”
Hoke said it’s possible that counties could choose to file a class-action suit, consolidating individual lawsuits.
Some jurisdictions, including Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City, have also sued individual doctors ifor acting as “pill mills” to push large amounts of drugs onto consumers.
It’s too early in the litigation process, Hoke said, to know how many of the lawsuits across the country will go to trial. She said that many of the jurisdictions are looking to recoup costs including, emergency response to overdoses, supplies of the lifesaving drug Naloxone and substance abuse counseling.
“The local governments are going to stay in the game until they have to get out [because of dismissal] or they have a good reason to get because they’ve reached a settlement,” she said.
It’s unclear, if Howard County files a lawsuit, who would pay the attorneys and other costs.
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Feb 5, 2018 | The Baltimore Sun (MD)
By Pamela Wood
The Baltimore County Council is expected on Monday to approve the hiring of private attorneys to help the county government sue pharmaceutical companies that make opioid drugs.
Council members are scheduled to vote on a retainer agreement with Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, a firm with offices in 10 cities, and with Baltimore-based Silverman, Thompson, Slutkin & White, to represent the county.
Baltimore County is the latest local government moving to sue drug manufacturers amid the widening opioid addiction crisis. Last week, Baltimore filed a lawsuit in Circuit Courtagainst drug makers and prescribers. Anne Arundel County filed a similar case in its Circuit Court in September. Harford County is considering a lawsuit, and Howard County officials say they will interview law firms for a potential suit.
Representatives of drug firms cited in local lawsuits generally have denied any wrongdoing. They say they work to make sure the pills they make or distribute are used safely.
Baltimore County is looking to join federal litigation rather than file a local lawsuit. Dozens of lawsuits from state and local governments already are pending in federal court. More than 200 were recently consolidated before a federal judge in Ohio. The judge has urged the parties to settle, according to The Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland.
Michael Field, county attorney for Baltimore County, said that Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd is already involved in the litigation and is poised to take a lead role in the settlement of the case. That makes the firm a good choice for the county, he said.
“Were working with a firm that’s going to be a little closer to the decision-makers,” Field told council members last week.
Field said his office interviewed five firms before settling on Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd.
The county won’t have to pay money in advance to join the litigation, Field said. The firm will deduct its costs and a 25 percent contingency fee from any money that the court awards to the county.
Baltimore County’s Office of Law rarely hires outside attorneys, but officials say county staff attorneys don’t have the appropriate experience to handle an opioid lawsuit. Council members expressed support for joining the litigation during a hearing on the contract last week.
“We’re hearing over and over again how this opioid epidemic is just destroying families and people’s lives,” said Councilwoman Cathy Bevins, a Middle River Democrat.
Baltimore County suffered 336 overdose deaths in 2016, second only to the 694 deaths in Baltimore. Statewide, 89 percent of overdose deaths were related to opioids, including heroin, fentanyl and prescription drugs.
The litigation — proposed by County Executive Kevin Kamenetz — comes as council members have grown increasingly concerned about the effects of opioid and heroin addiction on the community.
The council passed a resolution in November ordering the county Department of Health and Human Services to perform a six-month review of all of the county’s opioid prevention, education and treatment programs. The council also directed the county to investigate copying Anne Arundel County’s “safe stations” program, which allows drug users to get connected to treatment at any police or fire station.
The Baltimore County Council meets at 6 p.m. Monday in the Historic Courthouse at 400 Washington Ave. in Towson.
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Pushing Back: Burke files lawsuit against opioid makers and distributors
Feb 4, 2018 | The News Herald (NC)
By Sharon McBrayer
Burke County joined other counties across the U.S. when it filed a lawsuit against numerous manufacturers and distributors of opioid painkillers on Wednesday in federal court.
The lawsuit claims negligence and negligent misrepresentation, civil conspiracy, fraud, violation of the North Carolina Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act and violations of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by the manufacturers and distributors and says they have created a public nuisance.
“The lawsuit will send a powerful message that the citizens of Burke County will not tolerate the actions and failures of the manufacturers and distributors of these addictive opioid narcotic drugs,” said Jeff Brittain, chairman of the Burke County Board of Commissioners.
Burke County officials and staff held a press conference on Thursday to announce the filing of the lawsuit.
Ed Powell, one of the attorneys representing Burke County in the federal lawsuit, said Thursday that manufacturers of the painkillers spun the tale that the drugs were safe and people could take them for things such as arthritis and other ailments. But the drugs turned out to be highly addictive, he said.
“We have a real crisis here and something needs to be done about it,” Powell said.
Opioid prescriptions v. people
In Burke County, there are more opioid prescriptions distributed than people. That was true in 2006 and the numbers have only increased.
In 2016, Burke County had the highest number of prescriptions written per 100 people in western North Carolina. But the cluster of Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Cleveland, Lincoln and Gaston counties all show more opioid prescriptions issued than there are people.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 123.6 opioid prescriptions per 100 people written in Burke County in 2006. By 2010, that number had grown to 146.5 opioid prescriptions per 100 people. And in 2016, that number had grown to 151.5 opioid prescriptions per 100 people written in the county, CDC statistics show.
By contrast, some of the largest counties in the state have the lowest rates of opioid prescribing per person. Wake County had 54.5 opioid prescriptions per 100 people, Durham County had 49.1 prescriptions per 100 people, Forsyth had 76 prescriptions per 100 people and Guilford County had 74.5 opioid prescriptions per 100 people in 2016, according to the CDC.
When it comes to opioid prescriptions, Burke County has had the highest number of prescriptions per person in the Unifour area — Burke, Catawba, Caldwell and Alexander counties.
The cost of abuse
While those addicted pay the biggest price — some lose their lives — taxpayers also have been on the losing end of the opioid epidemic because local governments are picking up the tab for the increased abuse.
Whether it’s in the form of social services, law enforcement, EMS or the health department, opioid abuse and overdoses are costing more each year.
Some of the manufacturers and distributors named as defendants in the lawsuit include AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, Cardinal Health Inc., McKesson Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, Purdue Pharma L.P., Purdue Pharma Inc., The Purdue Frederick Company Inc., Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Cephalon Inc. and Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals.
It is AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, Cardinal Health and McKesson Corporation that Powell says has an 85 percent share of the opioid drug market. The yearly combined revenue of the three companies is $450 billion, he has said.
Brittain said the abuse of opioid painkillers has created tremendous financial cost strains to all counties when it comes to law enforcement, increased court costs, social services and emergency medical services.
In foster care alone, Burke County has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars because of the dramatic increase of opioid abuse, Brittain said.
The lawsuit says the opioid epidemic is largely responsible for a 35.6 percent increase in the number of North Carolina children in foster care from fiscal year 2009-10 through 2015-16.
Last year, Dorraine Hernandez, Burke County Department of Social Services director, told The News Herald that 137 children were in custody in January 2015, up from 107 in 2014.
Kathy Craig with Burke County DSS was at the press conference Thursday and said in January 2016, the department had 160 children in foster care. By January 2017, that number had climbed to 216, she said.
As of Jan. 31, 245 children were in foster care in Burke County, Craig said.
Craig said many of the children that come into foster care test positive for opioids, or their parents test positive. It’s not clear how the drugs are getting into the children’s system but people at the state level are looking into that question, she said.
In 2017, of the 163 children who were screened for drugs in their system, 99 of them were 3 years old or younger, and 96 of those tested positive for substance, many including opioids, Craig said.
Burke County Sheriff Steve Whisenant said this week that almost all arrests for property crimes, such as breaking and entering and larcenies, are related to illegal drug activity. And all but one homicide in the past 6.5 years have been related to illegal drug activity in some manner, he said.
Powell said from 1999 to 2007, Burke County experienced 105 opioid-related deaths for an average of 11.7 deaths per year. From 2008 to 2016, the number increased to 174 deaths for an average of 19.3 deaths per year.
Greg Curry, Burke County Emergency Medical Services manager, said the county has seen a significant increase in opioid overdoses. And the majority of the overdoses are prescriptions, said Maj. Jason Black, operations and training director for EMS. But heroin is making a comeback in the area, he said.
Curry said in 2016, EMS used 153 doses of an opioid reversal drug on calls. In 2017, it used 193 doses on calls. Some of the overdoses EMS has responded to have been repeat patients, he said. But there are not as many repeats as people may think, said Black.
Curry said EMS responders don’t use the reversal drug unless the patient presents a respiratory compromise. He said the drug is given a little bit at a time until a patient’s breathing improves.
When it comes to opioid overdoses, it cuts across all demographics, Curry and Black say. Curry said it goes from the young all the way up to the senior population.
And while opioid prescription abuse has climbed, so has the cost of the reversal drugs.
The cost has gone up 3,244 percent within 12 years, Curry said.
He said in 2005, the reversal drug Narcan was $1.10 per dose. In 2015, it had increased to just under $19 per dose, he said.
By 2017, the price had jumped to $36.79 per dose, Curry said.
Lawsuit
With the filing this week, Burke County joins other local governments in the country that filed lawsuits against manufacturers and distributors.
Brittain said the lawsuit lays out the facts and legal reasons why the recovery of damages and abatement of the problem for Burke County residents is of paramount importance.
“We’re pleased we have been able to move forward with this,” Brittain said Thursday. “We believe it’s the best thing for Burke County.”
The lawsuit says it is brought against the companies “to eliminate the hazard to public health and safety caused by the opioid epidemic, to abate the nuisance caused thereby and to recoup monies spent because of Defendants’ false, deceptive and unfair marketing and/or unlawful diversion of prescription opioids.”
The lawsuit goes on to say, “The manufacturers aggressively pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction. These pharmaceutical companies aggressively advertised to and persuaded doctors to prescribe highly addictive, dangerous opioids and turned patients into drug addicts for their own corporate profit. Such actions were intentional and/or unlawful.”
It says manufacturers and distributors intentionally failed in their legal duty to monitor, detect, investigate, refuse and report suspicious orders of prescription opiates.
The lawsuit says, “The data that reveals and/or confirms the identity of each wrongful opioid distributor is hidden from public view in the DEA’s confidential ARCOS database.”
It goes on to say that AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, Cardinal Health and McKesson Corporation has been investigated and/or fined by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration for the failure to report suspicious orders.
During the press conference on Thursday, Burke County Manager Bryan Steen talked about the alleged efforts of opioid manufacturers and distributors to mislead people about the nature of the drugs and the efforts of the manufacturers to increase sales.
“This almost sounds like the mafia on steroids,” Steen said. “It’s just incredible if you are able to read the full complaint, what is alleged that occurred over and over and over again.”
Johnnie Carswell, vice-chairman of the Burke County Board of Commissioners, said the lawsuit won’t cost taxpayers any money because the law firm is working on a contingent fee, meaning the attorneys won’t be compensated unless there is a monetary award.
To read the lawsuit, go to the Burke County website at www.burkenc.org and look under Special Notice and click on “Commissioners file lawsuit.”
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Cities, counties seek damages from big pharma
Feb 3, 2018 | The Sentinel - Record (AR)
By David Showers
The Association of Arkansas Counties, Arkansas Municipal League and Arkansas Public Entities Risk Management Association have hired attorneys to sue the pharmaceutical industry for costs cities and counties have borne as result of what's been called the opioid crisis.
The lobbying/advocacy groups for the state's cities and counties rarely align behind a common cause, but the urgency needed to address the scourge of opioid addiction has made peculiar bedfellows.
"What's really amazing is that these groups have decided this issue is so important that they need to work together," said Ralph Ohm, APERMA's general counsel. "Most of the time we're friendly competitors, but we all believe this is of such critical importance that we need to join up to deal with this issue."
The Garland County Quorum Court and Hot Springs Board of Directors adopted resolutions last year authorizing the county and city to join the litigation, which so far has garnered support from 69 counties and more than 150 cities statewide.
Ohm said the Cory Watson Attorneys law firm of Birmingham, Ala., has been hired to pursue claims alleging that four pharmaceutical companies acted fraudulently and defied federal regulations for prescription drug practices.
The Rainwater, Holt & Sexton law firm of Little Rock has also been retained. Ohm said he expects the case to be filed in either federal or state court in the next few weeks.
"These companies have failed to comply with federal regulations dealing with dispensing and accounting of medications," Ohm said. "Courts in other jurisdictions have concluded that these companies engaged in fraudulent activity in regards to dispensing these medications.
"This is not a new theory. Cities and counties in other states have pursued these claims and have been fairly successful."
Ohm said local governments have typically sought damages individually. He called the multi-jurisdictional lawsuit bringing together the state's political subdivisions a "new twist," one he expects local governments in other states to follow.
The AAC and AML have said local governments' proximity to the effects of opioid abuse gives them a stronger claim against the pharmaceutical industry than the states, which sued tobacco companies in the 1990s to recover tobacco-related Medicaid expenses. They're still benefiting from the resulting multibillion dollar settlement.
Ohm said a damage computation could be based on the percentage of local government budgets dedicated to confronting the opioid problem. Costs resulting from jail overcrowding, training law enforcement personnel to administer heroin overdose antidotes, opioid-related criminal cases interfering with the court system's case flow management and health care costs such as ambulance expenses for cities and counties with ambulance service could all factor into the calculation, he said.
"We'll be conservative with our estimates, but this has become such a huge problem that the numbers will still be overwhelming," he said.
The problem has particular relevancy in Arkansas, where, according to the resolutions the quorum court and city board adopted last year, the rate of opioid prescriptions is the second-highest in the country. The 114.6 prescriptions per 100 residents last year compared to a national ratio of 66.5 per 100 residents.
Ohm said he's seen the problem become more manifest in Division 2 of Garland County District Court, where he serves as a part-time judge.
"Where I sit I see a lot of DWIs from prescription medications," he said. "It's not really the case so much any more of a guy going to a bar and getting drunk. DWIs are no longer confined to alcohol or illegal drugs since prescription drug abuse has been on the rise."
The AAC filed a federal fraud claim against the pharmaceutical industry in December to recover money its health insurance fund paid for opioid prescriptions. Purdue Pharma, Cephalon, Inc., Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, are among the defendants.
The complaint alleges deceptive trade practices, such as paying doctors and advocacy groups to publicly support the use of opioids as a treatment for chronic pain, caused the AAC's health insurance fund to pay for medications that were over prescribed to beneficiaries. Adverse reactions and overdoses caused by the over prescribing led to further health care and administrative costs, according to the complaint.
The case was transferred to the U.S. District Court for Northern Ohio last month, joining multi-jurisdictional litigation that includes more than 40 political subdivisions in 16 states.
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Tuscaloosa lawyer files dozens of lawsuits over opioid prescriptions
Feb 2, 2018 | WBRC (AL)
By Kelvin Reynolds
Thick, heavy and time consuming this lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Tuscaloosa mirrors the opioid crisis it's battling against.
"It's an important day for Tuscaloosa County," Joshua Hayes told WBRC Friday.
Hayes, a partner with the Prince, Glover, Hayes law firm filed the lawsuit for Tuscaloosa County and several other municipalities.
They're suing more than dozen pharmaceutical companies they accuse of making dangerous drugs too easy for people to get their hands on.
"They over promoted, over marketed, negligently and recklessly marketed these products which were intended for end of life care. They're not supposed to be prescribed for everyday pain," Hayes explained.
The complaint called those marketing tactics "fraudulent misrepresentation and a drug related nuisance among other things."
It's part of a nationwide class-action lawsuit.
A victory in court or a settlement out of it could mean money for drug treatment or repayment for what it's cost municipalities to respond to opioid related crimes and medical emergencies.
"Almost every family has been impacted in some way because of addiction issues, crime issues, loss of productivity from a spouse or relative," Hayes said in closing.
The judge hearing the case wants attorney filing suit to work on a resolution.
If that doesn't work, the case would come back to Tuscaloosa for trial at some point. -
Marshall County sues pharmaceutical companies, blames them for role in opioid crisis
Feb 4, 2018 | South Bend Tribune (IN)
By Lincoln Wright
Marshall County is looking to hold numerous pharmaceutical manufacturers and medical distributors accountable, accusing the companies of deceptive practices that greatly contributed to the opioid crisis.
The county retained Indianapolis law firm Cohen & Malad and filed a roughly 165-page lawsuit in federal court last week against more than 20 companies.
Marshall County's three commissioners unanimously approved to hire the law firm this past fall.
"It's staring us in the face," Kurt Garner, a Marshall County commissioner, said of the crisis. "It was a pretty easy decision."
Garner said he couldn't comment further on the lawsuit.
Overdose deaths in Marshall County went from just one in 2015, to 13 in 2016 and 16 in 2017.
And Marshall County isn't the first to go after these companies.
In the past year, there has been a wave of cities and counties across the U.S. filing lawsuits against many of the same businesses. They are all claiming the pharmaceutical industry has its share of the blame in the country's opioid epidemic.
Cohen & Malad alone is representing more than 10 Indiana counties and cities in lawsuits and has more it won't publicly announce yet.
Indianapolis, Lafayette and Bloomington — as well as Marion, Monroe, Lake, Madison and Fayette counties — are just a few being represented by Cohen & Malad. Greenwood, Fort Wayne, Muncie, Kokomo, Terre Haute, Atlanta, Jennings County and Vigo County have also filed suits, but are represented by other law firms.
Cohen & Malad started the suits by contacting some of the first cities to file to tell them of their options, attorney Jeff Gibson, said. As those cases became public, many cities and counties started contacting the firm wanting to file their own lawsuits.
Cohen & Malad works on national and international cases too, Gibson said, but for the opioid lawsuits the firm is dedicating its resources only to Indiana.
While the companies named and the degree of impact the crisis has had on each area varies between the lawsuits, all the claims are the same, Lynn Toops, a Cohen & Malad attorney, said. Among many accusations, the Marshall County lawsuit accuses the named prescription opioid manufacturers of using deceptive marketing campaigns.
To create "blockbuster profits," the manufacturers created a false perception of the safety of opioids in the minds of medical professionals and members of the public, according to the suit.
"Manufacturer Defendants knew that to increase their profits from the sale of opioids they would need to convince doctors and patients that long-term opioid therapy was safe and effective," the suit reads.
The manufacturers did this by investing "vast sums of money" into generating articles, continuing medical education courses and other "educational" materials that created a new but fake "consensus" supporting long-term opioid use.
The companies got around the Food and Drug Administration, according to the suit, by using unbranded marketing, which doesn't refer to a specific drug, but more generally to a disease or treatment. The FDA doesn't regulate unbranded marketing. These materials promoted opioid use but did not name a specific opioid medication.
The companies also disguised their roles in the deceptive marketing by working through third-party groups purporting to be patient advocacy and professional organizations. The manufacturers hid behind the assumed credibility of these organizations and relied on them to vouch for the accuracy and integrity of the "false and misleading statements" about opioid use.
The lawsuit also goes after multiple companies that distribute opioid prescriptions. Although many of the companies have claimed they are not at fault because they only distribute the orders, the lawsuit argues the companies are key gatekeepers and are required by law to report suspicious orders.
For some of the companies Marshall County is naming in its suit, it isn't the first time they been involved accused.
Stamford, Conn.-based Purdue Pharma was sued by West Virginia in 2001 for creating a "public nuisance." The company settled the case for $10 million.
Purude was sued again in 2007 by multiple states for deceptive marketing of OcyContin. Certain states settled their claims in a series of judgments that prohibited Purdue from making misrepresentations in the future. But by using unbranded marketing strategies, according to the suit, Purdue intentionally circumvented these restrictions.
That same year, Purdue and three of its executives pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges for misleading regulators, doctors, and patients about OxyContin’s risk of addiction and its potential to be abused.
In a statement to the Tribune, Purdue "vigorously" denied the allegations in Marshall County's lawsuit.
"We are deeply troubled by the prescription and illicit opioid abuse crisis, and are dedicated to being part of the solution," the statement read.
Dublin, Ohio,-based distributor Cardinal Health was fined $34 million in 2013 for failing to report suspicious orders, and Mallinckrodt was fined $35 million in 2017.
As the lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies and distributors stack up, comparisons to the big tobacco suits are being drawn.
In 1998, five of the largest cigarette makers paid out $248 billion to 46 states after being accused of creating a health crisis with the way products were marketed. It also led to many restrictions on how the tobacco industry can advertise and brand its products.
"We do see parallels with tobacco," Toops said. "But I don't think we've ever seen a national health crisis like this."
None of the cases filed in the past year have reached settlements and it's hard to say how long the suits could drag on, Toops and Gibson said. There have been several court rulings, though, allowing the cases to move forward. An important hurdle to get past, Toops said, because it shows the courts sees legitimate concerns in the cases.
And with so many cases and different law firms involved, Gibson said, they have been communicating with attorneys building similar cases.
"There's strength in numbers because we are going up against corporations with unlimited resources," he said. "There's no guarantees, but if we didn't think there was a good chance we wouldn't have put in the effort."
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Prosecutor Lindquist Files Lawsuit against Big Pharma
Feb 5, 2018 | Suburban Times (WA)
By Staff
Today, Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist filed a federal lawsuit against the three largest manufacturers and marketers of prescription opioids in the United States: Purdue, Endo, and Janssen.
Prescription opioids are a class of powerful pain relievers, including OxyContin. The chemical make-up of these prescription drugs is nearly identical to heroin.
Revenues for the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture these drugs have skyrocketed. Purdue has generated estimated sales of more than $35 billion from opioids since 1996.
The lawsuit contends the opioid crisis was created by the aggressive marketing practices of pharmaceutical companies that provided false and misleading information to doctors and patients. The companies claimed opioids were not addictive and were a safe way to treat long-term and chronic pain.
Opioid overdoses are the leading cause of death in the United States, surpassing fatal car accidents. In Pierce County, opioid use has reached crisis levels. From 2012 to 2016, the number of opioid-related deaths in Pierce County rose to 423. More than half of the local homeless population is reported to be addicted to opioids. Crime is also driven by opioid addiction.
“Where there is harm to the community, there should be accountability for the corporations,” said Prosecutor Lindquist. “I’m a career Prosecutor going on my ninth year as the elected Prosecutor and this is the first time I’ve asked the County Council to file a lawsuit. I’m confident we have a strong case.”
County Council Chair Doug Richardson said, “The opioids crisis has impacted nearly every department in our County. Whether it’s the Sheriff’s Office, emergency management, public health, or the court system, Pierce County has shouldered a heavy burden in dealing with this crisis.”
The rise of prescription opioids in Pierce County was followed closely by a dramatic rise in heroin use. For many, heroin replaced prescription opioids when they could no longer obtain these prescriptions.
The crisis has also dramatically impacted the youth population in Pierce County. From 2006-2014, five to ten percent of tenth graders in Pierce County reported using painkillers to get high.
“Opioid manufacturers profited from business practices that have done enormous damage to our community,” said County Council Member Derek Young.
The complaint alleges the defendants violated the Washington Consumer Protection Act and the federal RICO statute, and that their conduct constitutes a public nuisance, negligence, gross negligence, and unjust enrichment under Washington law. Pierce County has retained the law firm Keller Rohrback, experts in large scale litigation, as outside counsel on a contingency-fee basis in this case.
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Pueblo County poised to join opioid lawsuit
Feb 3, 2018 | The Pueblo Chieftain (CO)
By Peter Roper
Pueblo County is likely to join Huerfano County and others nationally that are suing the major pharmaceutical companies for damages, arguing the over-prescribing of opioid prescription drugs contributed to the thousands of heroin overdose deaths and other damages from that drug.
"Unless someone can show us strong reasons not to participate, I think we probably will take action and file suit," Commissioner Terry Hart said late last week. "We have ample evidence in our county of the damage and harm that's come from overdose deaths and other costs caused by the use of heroin and fentanyl."
Brian Cotter, the county coroner, has reported there were 12 heroin overdose deaths in 2016, plus another 15 overdoses from multiple drugs. There were another dozen heroin overdose fatalities in 2015.
Hart said commissioners expect to host a meeting with lawyers from the Colorado Attorney General's office this month to hear whether the state will join, as well. A dozen states -- including California, Kentucky and Ohio -- are suing major drug makers.
Huerfano County announced its decision to sue last week and filed a lawsuit in Denver district court that is part of a larger "multi-district" action being handled by Stephen Ochs, a Denver doctor and lawyer who now specializes in suing medical companies.
"For counties, this is a chance to not only recover the cost of past damages, but to obtain the money they will need to deal with this problem in the future," said Ochs, who is traveling the state and recruiting counties for the lawsuit.
Ochs says there isn't any risk for Pueblo or other plaintiffs because his firm is handling the lawsuits on a contingency basis -- meaning Ochs will get paid out of any settlement.
"These drug companies have made a lot of money off these drugs," Ochs said, saying participating plaintiffs, like Pueblo, could receive millions from the resulting settlement.
Ochs and his firm are just one of a number of law offices that are recruiting state and local governments in a major legal siege of the drug makers, such as McKesson Corp., Johnson & Johnson, Purdue Pharm, Jannsen Pharmaceuticals and others.
While Huerfano County filed suit in Denver federal court -- as would Pueblo and other Colorado governments -- the claims are likely to be consolidated into a major federal "multi-district" suit that is being heard in a federal court in Ohio.
Commissioner Garrison Ortiz confirmed several firms have contacted Pueblo County about joining in such an action. When Ochs was contacted last week, he was on the Western Slope, continuing his own campaign of recruiting county clients.
He noted the CBS news program "60 Minutes" included the San Luis Valley and Alamosa in its report on the over-use of opioid drugs.
"Counties are in a strong position because they have the data from their sheriffs, coroners and other sources about what they are spending and have spent dealing with this problem," Ortiz said.
Hart compared the looming legal fight to the many nationwide lawsuits against the tobacco companies in the 1990s. States, including Colorado, ultimately were able to get financial settlements from the cigarette makers based on their costs in paying for cancer and other medical care.
In those cases, the turning point came when plaintiffs could show that tobacco companies knew their products caused cancer and disease but still resisted telling consumers of the risks.
Hart said Ochs has been aggressive in reaching out to Front Range counties, but his firm is not the only one.
"One of the purposes of meeting with the state AG's office will be to hear what options are out there," Hart said. "If the county decides to move forward, we want to make sure we are getting the best representation we can."
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DOJ not cooperating with opioid investigation, House committee chairman says
Feb 3, 2018 | Charleston Gazette - Mail (WV)
By Jake Zuckerman
A congressional committee chairman investigating how drug companies dumped millions of painkillers into small-town pharmacies around the country said he’s facing resistance from within the executive branch.
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said Friday at a GOP congressional retreat at The Greenbrier resort that authorities like the Drug Enforcement Agency are not cooperating with his committee’s investigation.
“I’m very frustrated with the DEA, very frustrated with the Department of Justice,” he said. “I’ve threatened to issue subpoenas to get to the bottom of it. They’re cooperating more right now than they were prior to that threat. But we will not stop until we know what the heck is going on.”
The comments came in reference to reports from The Washington Post and CBS regarding the pharmaceutical industry’s influence in advancing favorable legislation in Congress and stifling lawsuits from the DEA.
A DOJ spokesman did not respond to an email and phone call regarding Walden’s remarks.
Walden is the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is investigating pill dumping into West Virginia. The committee recently sent a letter to drug wholesaler Miami-Luken, asking why the company didn’t flag shipments of nearly 21 million painkillers sent to Williamson, a town of 2,900 people, over 10 years.
The committee sent a similar letter to H.D. Smith regarding a “possible oversupply” of drugs into stores like Family Discount Pharmacy, in Mount Gay-Shamrock. Citing DEA data, the letter asked if the company internally investigated its disbursement of 1.1 million hydrocodone pills into the pharmacy, an 1,880 percent increase from the year prior, for a town of roughly 1,800 people.
Both letters cite an investigation from the Charleston Gazette-Mail regarding massive shipments of opioids into West Virginia and joint investigations between The Washington Post and “60 Minutes” on the pharmaceutical industry’s political influence.
In looking for a legislative fix to the substance abuse problem, Walden said he and other Congressmen have asked the DEA and the DOJ for guidance and have not been hearing back. He said he hopes the investigation prompts action to curb the flood of opioids infiltrating small towns.
“We have solicited information from the distributors; we are evaluating that information,” he said. “Suffice to say, when 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills come into West Virginia in six years, something is off the tracks, and people are dying as a result.”
Walden said, along with the investigation, the committee has been taking suggestions from its members for a piece of proposed legislation to handle the matter. The committee is scheduled to start drafting a bill in late February. He said there is also a possibility it would recommend criminal charges to the DOJ, if appropriate.
Though he hails a long way from Greenbrier County, Walden said the committee has taken a keen interest in West Virginia due the state’s legal history of prosecuting opioid wholesalers.
“Part of why West Virginia is a focus, by the way, is not only the damage we’ve seen, but also because the court cases and convictions that have occurred here open a window into what really happened here, which helps us go look at Ohio or Oregon or elsewhere,” he said.
In 2012, then-Attorney General Darrell McGraw filed lawsuits against more than a dozen drug wholesalers, including Miami-Luken and H.D. Smith. The lawsuit alleged that the companies’ shipments helped fuel the prescription drug problem in West Virginia. The distributors settled the lawsuits for a combined $44 million during the past two years, while admitting no wrongdoing.
Reps. Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va., and David McKinley, R-W.Va., joined Walden for the conference Friday.
Jenkins cited the letters, which named small towns across his home district. He said he will offer any help he can from his seat on the House Appropriations Committee to help rein in the problem.
“One of the root causes is just the flood of the opioids, the oxycodones and the hydrocodones that flooded into the pharmacies,” he said. “There needs to be accountability. The wholesalers, the distributors, the manufacturers, the dispensers need to be held accountable. The numbers are stunning, and the numbers have to stop.”
McKinley, who sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee, spoke as well. He said a lot of the opioid crisis comes from a divide between rural America at large and Washington, D.C.
However, he said it’s important for the committee to keep finding facts and building a three-dimensional understanding of the issue, including its causes and its byproducts.
“We’ve got a plan. We’re following our lead; we’re following our process, as slow as, unfortunately, it may be sometimes. We follow the process. We’ll come out with a good result,” he said.
Mentioning the committee’s past success investigating corporate wrongdoing with Enron and others, Walden said the committee will get the job done, but it will take time.
“This is what we do,” he said. “But we do our investigation first. We get the facts, and then we make decisions, whether it goes to the Department of Justice or results in legislative change. But let there be no mistake about this: We are on this, and we will not stop until we get the facts.”
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Oklahoma AG speaks about ongoing state legal issues
Feb 3, 2018 | The Norman Transcript (OK)
By Jacob McGuire
In an effort to raise awareness of the legal issues the state is facing, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter spoke at the Norman Rotary Club’s Thursday meeting.
During the meeting, Hunter spoke about a lawsuit his office filed against four drug manufactures last year.
On June 30, Hunter filed a lawsuit claiming Purdue Pharma, Allergan, Teva, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and some of their subsidiaries misrepresented the addiction risks of their products.
“It’s a state, as well as a nationwide, epidemic,” Hunter said. “The drug manufacturers cooked up research and paid people to publish it.”
Hunter assured attendees at the meeting that the state will be well-represented. Helping Hunter represent the state will be the Whitten Burrage law firm, of Oklahoma City, as well as several other firms.
Heading the effort is Michael Burrage and his partner Reggie Whitten, whose families have been directly affected by opioid use.
“We hired two great attorneys who will pour their hearts out in this case,” Hunter said. “Burrage lost his niece to overdose, and Whitten’s son died after abusing prescription drugs.”
Hunter provided another example of the dangers prescription drugs pose with the story of former Oklahoma linebacker Austin Box.
In May 2011, Box was found unconscious in El Reno due to a suspected overdose. He later died at the hospital.
The State Medical Examiner’s Office later released a toxicology report that revealed Box had five prescription painkillers and an anti-anxiety drug in his system when he died.
In addition to the suit, Hunter spoke about his efforts in urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to take action at the wholesale level to ensure all possible corporate tax savings are captured, resulting in lower retail utility bills for customers.
“We are asking the commissioners at the FERC to stand behind the agency’s mission to assist consumers in obtaining reliable, sustainable energy at reasonable costs,” Hunter said. “The corporate tax cuts have created a dividend for major corporations that should be passed on to customers. We implore the commissioners to act quickly by doing their part at the wholesale level.”
Hunter said his office is still waiting to hear back from FERC.
Following Hunter’s presentation, attendees were allowed to ask him questions, and they didn’t hold back.
Former Norman Transcript editor Andy Rieger asked Hunter if a 1996 lawsuit filed by then state Attorney General Drew Edmondson against tobacco manufacturers and tobacco research groups played a role in the suit being filed in Cleveland County.
Hunter admitted that there was a strategic notion attached to the suit.
The 1996 case was set for trial in January 1999 in Cleveland County, but a national Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) was reached in November 1998.
The MSA between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories, the District of Columbia and the five largest tobacco companies required the tobacco industry to pay the settling states approximately $10 billion annually for the indefinite future. It also set standards for, and imposed restrictions on, the sale and marketing of cigarettes by participating cigarette manufacturers.
Oklahoma has received a total of $1.32 billion since 1999.
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Opioids, childproof caps and a new version of an old idea (EDITORIAL)
Feb 2, 2018 | Contrariana
By Michael Leppert
How many of us have ever heard of a Canadian doctor named Henri J. Breault?
Breault practiced medicine in Western Ontario and was the leader of a campaign to stop accidental childhood poisonings. Facing an epidemic of these poisonings, he first formed an alliance of physicians and pharmacists in the early 60’s to address the problem. By 1967, and with the help of Peter Hedgewick of ITL Industries, the “Palm N Turn” was developed.
The poisonings in the Windsor area immediately dropped by 91%. By 1974, the bottles became mandatory, and the other Canadian provinces and the United States followed suit.
Imagine. In my lifetime, there was a time when poisonous substances could be bought without even a thought of child resistant packaging. Aspirin was the big culprit then, not oxycodone or Percocet.
Remember the cyanide tampering with Tylenol in 80’s? Johnson & Johnson responded to that Chicago-based terrorism with reforms in packaging that are still praised as an exemplary public relations response to public health crises.
So, here we are in 2018 facing another drug scourge that is starting at the home medicine cabinet. And once again, modernizing our packaging is almost certainly part of the solution.
The modern opioid epidemic, heroin specifically, is growing from seeds planted by prescription drugs. Studies show that 70% of new heroin users started by pilfering through the medicine cabinet in their home or one of an acquaintance.
“Pilfering” is something we can do something about if we will just make the simple choice to do so.
State Sen. Jim Merritt has filed Senate Bill 339 in an attempt to make that choice. The bill is not all that complicated. It simply takes the undeniably successful idea that came from Breault over 50 years ago and translates it into modern use.The bill would require that when an Indiana pharmacist fills a Schedule 2 prescription, that he or she offer to the consumer the use of a locking prescription vial for the dispensing of the drug. The lids on these new vials have a combination lock on them that only the prescription holder will know.
Pretty simple.
But here’s the catch: the drug manufacturers have to pay for the vials. The standard prescription bottle with the combination lock on it goes for the offensive price of 83 cents. That’s less than the cost of one pill of generic Vicodin.
Can you believe that the drug companies don’t want to pay that freight? Why should they? It’s not as if they have played a role in the current scourge or profited from it in any way. Roughly $5.2 million dollars is what bottling an entire year’s worth of all of Indiana’s Schedule 2 drugs in a locking vial would cost. That is if every prescription for an entire year in the state were dispensed this way.
I wonder how that compares to what these companies are being sued for in 41 states and more than 100 cities.
Can you believe that pharmacists in Indiana don’t want their workflow disrupted by this? The professionals that dispense these drugs are more concerned with the flow of their day than the magnitude of this crisis apparently. This same workflow argument was made on pseudoephedrine a couple of years ago. The legislature ignored them. The result of controlling that substance by law has had a dramatic impact on the reduction of meth labs in Indiana.
The legislature is good at some things and at others, not so much. This is something these guys can do that could actually make a difference. What makes this idea so great is that it is so simple. It’s not even a new idea.
Opioids should be viewed as poison today. They have their place and they are good at their designed purpose, but they are destroying lives and even communities when misused. Pilfering is the stealing of something without the victim knowing they were stolen from. Locking prescription vials eliminate pilfering. They don’t eliminate theft, but they do eliminate pilfering.
Just like the Palm N Turn revolutionized the war against accidental poisonings in the 60’s and 70’s, locking prescription vials can do the same today for pilfering.
The legislature just has to have the courage to do it. It needs to look everyone involved with the manufacturing, prescribing, dispensing and buying of these drugs squarely in the eye and tell them Indiana is going to do something about this. Right now.
Or we could wait another year. We could spend more time arguing over who it is to blame.
The risk is trivial. Last year, the scourge cost Indiana $180 million. I think $5 million is worth risking this year.
This is something we can do right now. Haggling over the price is not a good reason to wait.
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Dauphin Co. commissioners made the right call with opioids lawsuit (EDITORIAL)
Feb 3, 2018 | PennLive
By Editorial Board
This week, the Dauphin County commissioners filed suit against 11 drug manufacturers and three doctors for ignoring the effects of prescription opioids and pursuing profits over patients. We support that litigation.
We acknowledge that the solution to the opioid crisis is complicated, and a lawsuit alone will not solve the crisis locally.
But it does help address an important question: "Did pharmaceutical companies knowingly disregard and actively downplay the addictive nature of prescription drugs in order to increase sales?"
The inclusion of specific doctors from Utah and California in this suit suggest an additional question: "Did influential doctors acting as complicit agents of the pharmaceutical companies help guide physicians to believe that prescribing higher doses of painkillers was the best course of treatment for patients showing signs of addiction?"
The goal of the lawsuit is twofold, says Commissioner Jeff Haste. First, "to save lives," and secondly, to plow any financial proceeds to off-setting the high cost of treatment and prevention programs.
Dauphin County spent $19.6 million to help over 2,500 people suffering from addiction in 2017.
But there is another welcome outcome: We're beginning to understand how primary care physicians freely prescribed these drugs. That is why doctors from the western United States are named in this suit.
Two of them, Drs. Perry Fine and Lynn Webster of Utah, are not named as defendants filed by the Ohio attorney general (as well as a suit by the city of Chicago), but are cited as being members of a "small circle of doctors" who supported chronic opioid therapy in a series of published books, speeches and seminars.
Both are past presidents of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. Both were supported by the industry financially because of their public views.
Both are known as "thought leaders" in pain management.
Dr. Webster is "credited" with a concept known as "pseudo-addiction." In essence, the concept he put forth is that if a patient being treated for pain with opioids starts asking for higher doses or showing signs of addiction, the most likely cause is that they are really in severe pain.
The first course of action, wrote Dr. Webster ... was to increase dosage.
Let that sink in.
A leading expert in pain management, supported by the industry, guided primary-care physicians to prescribe more addictive drugs to patients showing signs of addiction.
If the lawsuit filed by the commissioners can draw a straight line from Big Pharma to over-prescribing, this is a connector. It's as simple as the Watergate-era phrase "follow the money."
In fairness, it is one thing to observe a pattern and another thing to prove it (Dr. Webster has repeatedly stated he only had the welfare of patients in mind).
If we ever get there, it will only be after every party has their day in court: The companies deserve their day in court and the doctors deserve their day in court.
Dauphin County residents deserve their day in court - as do the citizens of every community ravaged by this epidemic.
Admittedly, this epidemic is as complex as are the solutions for mitigating it. There is no one simple, solitary solution, nor it there one single cause. But understanding the root causes as specifically as possible leads to answers.
And if along the way it leads to accountability then so much the better.
The Dauphin County Commissioners were right to file this litigation. And we support their actions.
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Suing Big Pharma is no panacea in opioid crisis (EDITORIAL)
Feb 3, 2018 | Eagle-Tribue (MA)
By Staff
There’s a desperate need to better understand why and how often prescription painkillers are dispensed in this country, and how readily those scripts lead patients into a dark cycle of addiction. However, it’s uncertain that the latest legal fad, the municipal lawsuit against Big Pharma, will accomplish that.
Locally Haverhill and Methuen are among the latest cities to either initiate or sign onto lawsuits against drugmakers and drug distributors. The pharmaceutical industry was responsible for marketing its opioid-based treatments, particularly as long-term therapies, they argue, and didn’t do nearly enough to warn people of their addictive potential.
As a result, city halls and schools and police stations and courts have borne the costly weight of patients who’ve became addicted to painkillers, turned into addicts, and either died from overdoses or burdened their communities.
On Friday, Haverhill Mayor James Fiorentini announced his city has agreed to join a legal case organized by Scott & Scott of New York, which blames drugmakers for fraud, conspiracy, recklessness and creating a public nuisance, among other sins. Springfield is among the other cities putting its name to that suit.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Methuen officials announced similar plans. “I absolutely think it’s the right thing to do. Too many lives have been lost, too many people have suffered,” Mayor James Jajuga reasoned of his city’s lawsuit. “… It’s a big, big problem, and it calls out for a lawsuit of this magnitude.”
They aren’t the only municipal leaders to draw this conclusion. One estimate at the end of the year put the number of cities, towns, counties and other governments pressing these cases at nearly 200.
None of what these city leaders say is wrong. The wounds they describe are real, as this deadly opioid scourge has inflicted heavy damage to families and communities. Costs — of police and fire department response, social workers and the like — are deep. Yet the case they hope to make is fraught.
Unlike the wave of litigation against tobacco companies that crested in a $206 billion settlement with 46 states in the late ‘90s, theirs will have to account for the involvement of both the federal government in approving these drugs for use as pain treatment, as well as doctors and medical professionals in prescribing them.
Some have suggested these lawsuits against the pharmaceutical industry are a sideshow. A New York Times report about the trend in December quoted a law professor who suggested these cases allow elected officials to claim they’ve done something about the problem but don’t represent an earnest effort.
It’s a cynical interpretation, and there’s no reason to doubt the sincerity of Fiorentini, Jajuga or others in the Merrimack Valley who’ve confronted this deadly problem at home and are hopeful for a legal recourse.
But it’s worth noting they were recruited to the cause by attorneys looking to make the case. William Cox, city solicitor for Haverhill, acknowledged as much in speaking to reporter Peter Francis. “Most communities have been approached about joining these suits,” he said.
Did drugmakers break the law in selling their products? Perhaps. The more promising effort to get those answers quickly, however, is that of nearly 40 state attorneys general who’ve been investigating the marketing of opioids. Their work has already led to results. In Massachusetts, for example, Attorney General Maura Healey last fall reached a settlement with the manufacturer of a fentanyl spray who was accused of paying kickbacks to providers in hopes of getting them to write prescriptions.
Such activity is more easily proven, if it exists, than a sweeping conspiracy involving the entire pharmaceutical industry.
Then again, maybe these lawsuits, at least for those lawyers organizing them, aren’t about proving criminal conspiracy. Bending Big Pharma into a big-money settlement is a more likely goal.
Either way, we can hope the process proves educational, and sheds more light on how the industry developed these painkillers, which have proved a gateway to addiction for so many people, and how they brought them to market.
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How Trump Can Keep His Vows on Opioids and Infrastructure (EDITORIAL)
Feb 3, 2018 | New York Times
By Editorial Board
President Trump has correctly identified two big challenges that Americans want him to tackle this year — the opioid epidemic and the country’s dilapidated and overstretched infrastructure.
Mr. Trump promised to address these vexing issues last year, too, but made almost no progress. Perhaps this year he will take them seriously because he and his party want to impress voters ahead of the November elections. If so, there are many good ideas the White House and Congress ought to consider.
The Opioid Crisis
This is a daunting epidemic that has steadily gotten worse. Drug overdose deaths nearly doubled in 10 years, to more than 64,000 in 2016, a large majority of them from heroin and other opioids.
“My administration is committed to fighting the drug epidemic and helping get treatment for those in need, for those who have been so terribly hurt,” Mr. Trump said in his State of the Union address. “The struggle will be long, and it will be difficult — but, as Americans always do, in the end, we will succeed, we will prevail.”
Mr. Trump doesn’t have to look far to figure out what has to be done. His Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis released a detailed report in November on this very issue. One recommendation was for the government to increase access to substance abuse treatment. The administration could do so by demanding that health insurance companies cover such care. Federal law already requires insurers to cover addiction treatment and other mental health services, but many do not include those services in their networks of doctors and hospitals, according to a recent report. The commission said the administration and Congress should give the Department of Labor the authority to penalize insurance companies that do not adequately cover addiction treatment. The president should also ask Congress to dedicate more money for treatment. But that’s unlikely since the White House is reportedly considering slashing the budget of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which coordinates the federal government’s activities in this area.
The commission also called on the government and insurers to encourage greater use of opioid alternatives like physical therapy and nonaddictive painkillers. Some doctors and hospitals have been moving in this direction. But experts say many health care providers are still prescribing opioids when they ought to be using alternative treatments. That’s because government programs and private insurers do not cover these alternative services and drugs. Other areas the government ought to focus on include cracking down on drug trafficking and the delivery of potent opioids, like fentanyl, through the postal system.Continue reading the main storyRECENT COMMENTSChris Herbert 17 hours ago
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But will Mr. Trump pursue any of these ideas? His record gives little cause for optimism. One indication of how seriously the White House has taken this issue was its appointment last month of a 24-year-old campaign volunteer with no experience in drug policy as the deputy chief of staff of the drug policy office. Outrage followed, and his tenure was cut mercifully short.
Fixing Infrastructure
Most Americans agree that the United States needs to substantially increase investments in transportation, energy, water and other public works. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the country needs to increase infrastructure spending by $2 trillion to be globally competitive. In his State of the Union speech, Mr. Trump said he wanted to increase investment by $1.5 trillion. But leaked copies of the administration’s infrastructure proposal show that it will include only $200 billion in federal spending. And White House officials have said that this money could come from cutting existing infrastructure spending on things like public transit and Amtrak.
There is no dearth of important public works projects that could benefit from federal investment. At the top of the list is the plan to build new rail tunnels under the Hudson River. Known as the Gateway Program, this project would greatly expand capacity for commuter and long-distance trains on the East Coast. Highways, bridges and transit systems across the country desperately require repairs and upgrades to meet current and future needs. The lead crisis in Flint, Mich., has highlighted the sad state of water utilities.
Some Republican lawmakers are already arguing that the government cannot afford a big infrastructure package. It’s strange to hear them say that after they just passed a huge tax cut that will raise the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion over a decade. Congress could easily come up with money for transportation. Here are two suggestions: Raise the federal gas tax, which lawmakers last increased in 1993. Even the U.S. Chamber of Commercesupports raising this tax. Or Congress could enact a carbon tax, which would have the added benefit of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Administration officials appear to think they can fix America’s infrastructure by giving developers tax incentives, moving some money around and eliminating environmental regulations, a favorite target for Mr. Trump and his cronies. These changes, they argue, will be enough to encourage the private sector and state and local governments to do what needs to be done. This is not credible because many states and cities will find it impossible to raise revenue after the Republican tax cuts reduce the deductibility of state and local taxes on federal tax returns. As for the private sector, it’s only likely to invest in projects that come with a lucrative stream of revenue, like toll roads, which have not proved as successful as their promoters had hoped.
Mr. Trump has an opportunity to save and improve the lives of millions of people if he puts in place plans to end the opioid epidemic and upgrade the country’s infrastructure. He needs to start taking action, instead of talking about it.
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Drugmakers aren’t solely responsible (LETTER TO THE EDITOR)
Feb 2, 2018 | Kokomo Tribune (IN)
By Mike Moran
Opioids are a bane on our world. Like so many things, something that could help and do good is being misused.
One success out of all this is Howard County’s Drug Court. I hope with all the attention opioids are getting the court receives the additional staff needed.
Howard County’s participation in a lawsuit against drug companies could be useful, but only if any money gained totally goes to help fight this epidemic. If it is diverted elsewhere, that would be shameful.
What I also have issue with is the idea the epidemic is the fault solely of the manufacturers. Doctors prescribe the drugs and without prescriptions addiction couldn’t begin, in most cases. So go for the money grab, but look at the medical side if you really want to fight this.
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Feb 4, 2018 | MSNBC (MSNBC)
By National Programming
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32450904?token=455baff0-1d86-404f-b304-f2b025e4f239
Rough Transcript: my administration is committed to fighting the drug epidemic and helping get treatment for those in need, for those who have been so terribly hurt. these reforms will also support our response to the terrible crisis of opioid and drug addiction. never before has it been like it is now. it is terrible. >> never before has it been like it is now. yes, president trump paid less 8:36 AMthan a minute of lip service to the opioid epidemic during his state of the union speech. but in that time, his tone was sympathetic, emphasizing the need for treatment but also the severity of the crisis which he claimed to be unprecedented. once again vindicating those of us in the black community who have noted the sensitivity applied to the opioid crisis of today versus the exclusively punitive response to the crack epidemic of 30 years ago. an important point as a multi-billion-dollar collective lawsuit against the pharmaceutical industry made progress in federal court this week. joining me now is jay edelson, an attorney leading hundreds of lawsuits against pharmaceutical manufacturers over the opioid 8:37 AMcrisis and van newkirk, writer for "the atlantic. let me go to you first, attorney. you're suing, you're going after the pharmaceutical industry and companies. this is a serious problem and it also is something that you're trying to get people that have been damaged some kind of just treatment, and not just in areas that have long been ignored, because my concern here, and i wrote about it this week, is that the people most impacted may not be the people most rewarded. >> that's exactly right, reverend, and thank you so much for having me this morning. the opioid epidemic has really ravished communities throughout the country, and one of the big problems is that it's being seen as mostly a white world problem and sometimes white suburban problem, but the community 8:38 AMdoesn't back it up. the white community and all communities in america have been affected, and in certain cases disproportionately with regard to large metropolitan areas. we are actually not directly involved in the federal lawsuit, we are representing a number of cities and counties who are bringing state lawsuits to try to hold big pharma accountable. what our lawsuits allege is that this was not an epidemic in the sense that it just happened to america, this was an intentional conduct starting from the mid-'90s where a big farmer decided to lie to the american people, convinced them they were selling a new brand of opioid that was not addictive and it was exactly the same type. it got america hooked on painkillers and has cost communities literally hundreds of billions of dollars. >> but you would also concede that when it began to spill across the tracks and affect a 8:39 AMlot of white americans, it started to become more of a crisis, and the reaction was rather than lock them up, let's heal them. and what your lawsuits are doing in terms of working with cities and states, i'm told, is to make sure that those in all communities are considered in this and not just the suburban whites, as you referred to? >> you're exactly right, reverend. i'm from a criminal justice point of view. we're seeing such a different reaction, and it is much more em pathetic to the drug and crack cocaine users which is send them to prison for years and years. if we have communities buying into that, sometimes they think they don't want to actually be involved in these lawsuits. and these lawsuits, if they're successful, which i think they're going to be, they'll 8:40 AMhave the opportunity to bring in huge amounts of money to communities that frankly need it. in the tobacco litigation from the '90s, big to babacco is sti paying in lawsuits today. >> jay, you've written about this disparity and the difference in terms of the reaction. i know in the '80s they acted as if they didn't even know where crack was being sold. we started pointing out crack houses so every kid on the block knows. in the '80s it was ignored and then when it got to a certain level, it triggered these mandatory sentences that literally cost a large part of a generation being incarcerated. >> that's exactly right. i actually believe there is potential criminal conduct here, 8:41 AMbut the criminal conduct would be on behalf of big pharma. in my view, crack cocaine created a lot of victims. the drug users were major victims of it. here opioids, i don't think there is any reason for us not to feel sympathetic to these people that got hooked on opioids, but we have to understand that as we allege, i think we'll be able to play to a jury. this was intentional conduct by large pharmaceutical companies that made billions and billions of dollars, and they have to be held accountable. >> van, you've written about this and studied this. what are we looking at here? why are we looking at a whole generation of young black men having to serve mandatory sentences, and now we get all this empathy on opioid use where we really need it? i'm not against it, but it 8:42 AMwasn't that way in the '80s, as i said, when we were painting crack houses and they acted like they didn't know where it was coming from. you looked at this, you studied this, you wrote about it. >> empathy is a good thing, it's a big development. it's not quite where we need to be in terms of criminalization of drug policy. i think even now people -- even white folks who are hooked on opioids, they are likely to be criminalized. the rhetoric hasn't quite matched the policy yet. but you look back over the last three, now four decades, you have whole generations of black folks who are in prison, their families have been destroyed. we have young men and young women who are grown folks who have suffered through generations of dysfunction because they were targeted by drug policies, their families were broken up, they have people in prison. so i think if you look at a lawsuit now against the pharmaceutical companies, maybe that's an opening to start 8:43 AMthinking about looking back. who else might be liable for, really, half a century of awful drug policy in this country that has placed black communities, people of color, at a systemic disadvantage? so maybe you can start thinking about, okay, if pharmaceutical companies are liable, maybe you're talking about government policies that are liable. >> and van, if we look at also how, as these lawsuits are dealt with down through the courts, how we deal with the social setting, whether it was opioid use or, in the past, crack use, the social structures that we need to build support mechanisms in those communities and to make sure, as jay's point, that we in effect deal with the communities that need it the most. >> yeah. so if you look at it right now, president trump, he has had lots of, like you said, sort of compassionate language about drug users, about people who are on opioids, less so about people who are hooked on crack or cocaine or other things. but all that rhetoric and logic and nice speeches, none of it has been attached to any money. there's been no bills coming out of congress yet that have substantially increased the drug safety net, and we're also thinking about raiding things like the public health prevention fund which funds most of those. >> that is something we're going to continue to focus on in this show.
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WSBT News First Thing in the Morning
Feb 5, 2018 | WSBT (CBS)
By South Bend, IN
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32448348?token=455baff0-1d86-404f-b304-f2b025e4f239
Rough Transcript: happening right now... marshall county... joining in on a nationwide trend... by suing some manufacturers of opioids. that's according to our news gathering partners at the south bend tribune. lincoln wright with the tribune is reporting that the county has retained an indianapolis law firm... and has filed a 165 page lawsuit in federal court last week... against more than 20 companies. this happening after overdose deaths in marshall county went from just one in 2015 to 16 last year. marshall county's three commissioners unanimously approved the hiring of the law firm last fall. happening overnight...
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ABC2 News Good Morning Maryland 5:30am
Feb 5, 2018 | WMAR (ABC)
By Baltimore, MD
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32449370?token=455baff0-1d86-404f-b304-f2b025e4f239
Rough Transcript: the baltimore county council is set to hire private attorneys in lawsuits against companies making opioids. they're set to vote tonight on the agreement with two firms. just last week, baltimore city filed a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers.
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WECT News, Carolina in the Morning Early Edition
Feb 5, 2018 | WECT (NBC)
By Wilmington, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32448864?token=455baff0-1d86-404f-b304-f2b025e4f239
Rough Transcript: columbus county opioid litigation-ots vo a law firm wants to help local county leaders hold opioid manufacturers accountable for the ongoing drug epidemic... hutchens law firm plans to be at the columbus county commissioners meeting tonight. they want to handle the county's litigation against the drug manufacturers. county commissioners already heard a pitch from a different law firm last month. you're welcome to hear what the lawmakers have to say -- the meeting begins at 6:30.
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Feb 4, 2018 | KHBS (ABC)
By Ft. Smith, AR
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32449878?token=455baff0-1d86-404f-b304-f2b025e4f239
Rough Transcript: the city of fort smith joined the arkansas' municipal league defense program, meaning the city will have access to lawyers and dollars in a lawsuitagainst opioid manufacturers and distributors. 40/29's paul petitte sits down with a city leader to learn more. paul: buy a 6-1 vote, fort smith decided they were going to join in this lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and distributors. joing us as the vice mayor of the city of fort smith. thank you for being here. what was the main decision 11:44 PMbehind saying yes, we will join this lawsuit? >> arkansas having the second highest opioid crisis, 114 prescriptions are 100 citizens, we thought we need to join the lawsuit because of what is really going on in our community and region with the big epidemic we are having in sebastian county. we need to drive this epidemic into the light. with the president declaring an epidemic crisis in october, we see it is hurting our community and citizens in fort smith. paul: now the state is joing in. when asked earlier in the week that the attorney general will also be involved in the summer lawsuit. how does that work now? you have followed at the state attorney general's. >> our lawsuit is part of the multi jursdiction lawsuit that 11:45 PMwill have all counties, with the corporation of the workers comp fund, help fund, and the counties will all join, almost 500 cities as well as counties. you will have all of these cities, no other state is doing this, one big group. what the attorney general is doing will enhance what we are doing at the same time. we are hoping to drive these manufacturers and distributors to say there is an epidemic and we need some help on the local and state level. paul: do you feel that this was maliciously done by the manufacturers to get people hooked on what has become an epidemic? >> as much as you don't want to say that, i truly believe it is. if you look at what is happening in the community, it is easy prescribing. the numbers we have today is 38 kills -- 38 pills per person in the state of arkansas. i blame the manufacturers and distributors of the opioids, not the doctors, but the distributors. paul: how would you use the money, assuming you when? -- win? >> elysee for police, fire, emts, people who are taking care of our citizens. allison: cities and states often use the municipal league municipal defense program for larger lawsuits like this and the advantage here is that if they don't win the case, the law firms don't get paid. you don't meet many winter olympians in arkansas. we've got mountains and occasional snow, but not enough to chase down olympic dreams. but our mitch roberts brings us thet story of michael t. anderson from fayetteville. he's not letting geography get in the way of his long-term goals.
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Feb 2, 2018 | KFTA (FOX)
By Fr. Smith, AR
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32451916?token=455baff0-1d86-404f-b304-f2b025e4f239
Rough Transcript: nearly every county in arkansas is joining forces by filing a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and distributors. good evening -- i'm hilary hunt. fox 24's haley hughey -- live in studio -- to break down why local governments in our state believe they may be the key to helping end this cris. ((haley)) the lawsuit -- started by the association of arkansas counties -- is bringing together mayors, fire chiefs, sheriffs and county judges from all over to address the natural state's addiction to painkillers. those who've joined the lawsuit say pharmaceutical companies need to be held accountable. and this is the first big step to fixing the issue. kyle sylvester, washington county circuit clerk "the leaders of this state, and each county have gotten together and said this is national level big, and it could get national level big ght in our own backyard." ((haley)) it's no secret our country is in an opioid crisis. the epidemic has hit 10:01 PMarkansas hard. the natural state has one of the highest prescribing rates for painkillers in the country, according to the centers for disease control and prevention. kyle sylvester, washington county circuit clerk "we want to stop this cri as quickly as possible." ((haley)) as of right now, 69 of the 75 counties, and 100 cities in arkansas have put on a united front, and filed a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers. some of the counties in the suit include: washington, madison and sebastian county. hobe runion, chief deputy, sebastian county sheriff's office "we're all seeing the effects of these drugs and we're all paying a price for the effects of these drugs." ((haley)) sebastian county chief deputy-- hobe runion says painkillers have made an impact on crime in the area. hobe runion, chief deputy, sebastian county sheriff's office "when you combine the addictiveness of these opioids, you combine that with the mental health issues we're having, the homeless..they're all tied together. " ((haley)) runion says the lawsuit holds the pharmaceutical companies responsible for supplying the meds that caused the problem in the first place. hobe runion, chief deputy, sebastian county sheriff's office "we feel like it wa misrepresented, and they basically pushed this on the public." ((haley)) kyle sylvester -- washgton county circuit clerk -- says local governments desperately need nding to fight the issue. kyle sylvester, washington county circuit clerk "to be able to have rehablition facilities, to be able to put programs together to help combat the cris that we're in. and that takes a lot of money." ((haley)) sylvester says change can happen much quicker on a local level -- so to save thousands of lives, it's crucial to have the resources need to be effective. kyle sylvester, washington county circuit clerk "if we don't have the means to help people where they need help, to educate people where they need educated then it's just going to persist and continue to get worse." ## ((haley)) as of right now, benton county is not a part of the lawsuit. but the county says they'll be joining the litigation within the next week to ten days.
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