Preview Newsletter
Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report - 3/1/18
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White House to host ‘opioids summit’ for survivors of epidemic
Mar 1, 2018 | The Washington Times
By Tom Howell Jr.
First lady Melania Trump and a sweeping roster of Cabinet members will gather Thursday for a White House summit designed to highlight President Trump’s efforts to tackle the opioids crisis. -
White House Convenes Summit On Opioids (Audio)
Mar 1, 2018 | NPR
By David Greene
NPR's David Greene talks to Jessica Hulsey Nickel, founder of the Addiction Policy Forum., and Surgeon General Jerome Adams about the Trump administration's strategy for fighting addiction in advance of the White House Opioid Summit on Thursday. Audio Link 1: https://www.npr.org/2018/03/01/589802149/white-house-convenes-summit-on-opioids Audio Link 2: https://www.npr.org/2018/03/01/589822041/president-trump-hosts-opioid-summit-at-the-white-house -
Is Attorney General Jeff Sessions really going to war against Big Pharma? Not likely say experts.
Mar 1, 2018 | NBC News
By Corky Siemaszko
When Attorney General Jeff Sessions appears Thursday at the White House Opioids Summit, skeptics are likely to hit him with this question: Was his “statement of interest” in support of local governments suing Big Pharma a declaration of war — or saber-rattling? -
Dem urges DEA to release data on opioid distributors
Feb 28, 2018 | The Hill
By Rachel Roubein
A Democratic lawmaker is urging the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to release data on the distribution of opioids across the country to those involved in hundreds of lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors. -
Opioids Won't Solve the World's Chronic Pain. This Idea Might
Feb 28, 2018 | National Geographic
By Christina Nunez
Albert Lin has made a career of using technology to fuel big new discoveries. He employed satellites and radar to seek Genghis Khan's tomb. And he recently helped discover the remnants of an ancient Maya megalopolis in the Guatemalan jungle using aerial scanning technology called LiDAR. -
Open Letter to Senator McCaskill From A Chronic Pain Patient (Opinion)
Mar 1, 2018 | National Pain Report
By Terri Longtin
Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill released a report this month alleging that from 2012 to 2017, leading manufacturers of opioids gave $9 million to pain treatment advocacy groups. At the end of our story on it, we asked readers what they would tell Senator McCaskill. We received many thoughtful responses, but this one from Terry Longtin, who lives just outside Detroit resonated. -
Worcester plans to sue manufacturers and distributors of opioid products to recover costs from opioid crisis
Mar 1, 2018 | MassLive (MA)
By Scott J. Croteau
The city of Worcester hired a national law firm to sue pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors of opioid products in order to seek money for all of the costs associated with the creation of prevention programs and the response to overdose calls. -
Worcester Retains Attorneys Scott + Scott in Opioid Lawsuit
Mar 1, 2018 | GoLocalWorcester (MA)
By Staff
The City of Worcester has retained attorneys Scott + Scott to file litigation against pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors of opioid products. -
Worcester files its own suit against opioid makers
Feb 28, 2018 | Telegram.com (MA)
By Nick Kotsopooulos
The city has retained a nationally-recognized law firm based in Connecticut to file litigation against pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors of opioid products. -
Worcester to file suit against opioid makers
Feb 28, 2018 | Worcester Business Journal (MA)
By Emily Micucci
The City of Worcester on Wednesday announced it will file a lawsuit against companies making and distributing opioids, seeking damages for the cost of opioid treatment and prevention in the city. -
Worcester joins lawsuit against opioid manufacturers
Feb 28, 2018 | Worcester Magazine (MA)
By Bill Shaner
Worcester officials announced they intend to join the statewide legal battle against pharmaceutical companies Wednesday morning. -
Lawyers vie to guide Jackson county through possible filing of opioid lawsuit
Mar 1, 2018 | Jackson County Floridian (FL)
By Deborah Buckhalter
A handful of lawyers visited Jackson County Commissioners this week in a special hour-long meeting before the board’s regular evening session Tuesday, encouraging the government officials to raft toward a ship that’s sailing now toward federal court, and asking the board members to let them steer that craft to the bigger vessel. -
Legal Firms Looking for Jackson Co. to Join Opioid Crisis Fight
Feb 28, 2018 | MyPanhandle (FL)
By Ashton Williams
The opioid crisis has hit Northwest Florida hard. Officials said the medications are easier to obtain than ever before in the state. -
Sumner County sues opioid manufacturers, distributors, joins many Tennessee communities
Feb 28, 2018 | Tennessean (TN)
By Jen Todd
Sumner County filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court against pharmaceutical companies in wake of the opioid epidemic, joining several Tennessee communities in this effort. -
Another county files opioid lawsuit
Feb 28, 2018 | Herald-Citizen (TN)
By Staff
Rutherford County is the latest to file suit against opioid manufacturers. -
Guilford County to Sue Drug Dealers: The Corporate Kind
Mar 1, 2018 | Rhino Times (NC)
By Elaine Hammer
The Guilford County Board of Commissioners is bringing a major civil lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and distributors over what county officials claim is the industry’s reckless disregard for the safety and well being of Guilford County citizens. The suit will name national and multinational companies as defendants. -
Russell County Commission to file opioid lawsuit against manufacturers
Mar 1, 2018 | WTVM (AL)
By Parker Branton
The Russell County Commission met Wednesday morning and heard from Rhon Jones of the Beasley Allen Law Firm about filing a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers -
County commission signs on for the opioid fight
Feb 28, 2018 | The Pocahontas Times (WV)
By Laura Dean Bennett
Stephen Skinner, of the Charles Town law firm of Skinner and Skinner, appeared before the Pocahontas County Commission at its February 19 meeting, to talk about legal action being taken by local government entities against opioid manufacturers. -
Lee Co. commissioners join class action lawsuit against opioid crisis
Feb 28, 2018 | WALB (GA)
By Whitney Shelton
Lee County commissioners voted Tuesday night to take part in the fight against the opioid epidemic by signing on to an existing lawsuit. -
La Porte County plans suit against drug companies, distributors
Mar 1, 2018 | Michigan City News-Dispatch (MI)
By Jon Gard
La Porte County will join other municipalities by filling a lawsuit of its own against prescriptions and distributors in the opioid crisis. -
WJCL 22 News at 5
Feb 28, 2018 | Savannah, GA
By WJCL (ABC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33123399?token=c316b473-16d6-47dd-bae2-eeecaf9e9ed2 -
Good Morning East Texas at 6 AM
Mar 1, 2018 | Tyler, TX
By KLTV (ABC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33123591?token=c316b473-16d6-47dd-bae2-eeecaf9e9ed2 -
News 3 This Morning 3
Mar 1, 2018 | Madison, WI
By WISC (CBS)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33123596?token=c316b473-16d6-47dd-bae2-eeecaf9e9ed2 -
News 12 This Morning at 5am
Mar 1, 2018 | Shreveport, LA
By KSLA (CBS)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33123597?token=c316b473-16d6-47dd-bae2-eeecaf9e9ed2 -
FOX8 News at 5:00P
Feb 28, 2018 | Greensboro, NC
By WGHP (Fox)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33123623?token=c316b473-16d6-47dd-bae2-eeecaf9e9ed2 -
WSFA 12 News at 4
Feb 28, 2018 | Montgomery, AL
By WSFA (NBC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33123631?token=c316b473-16d6-47dd-bae2-eeecaf9e9ed2 -
Good Day Atlanta 8:00am
Mar 1, 2018 | Atlanta, GA
By WAGA (Fox)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33123580?token=c316b473-16d6-47dd-bae2-eeecaf9e9ed2 -
Fox 43 News at 4pm
Feb 28, 2018 | Harrisburg, PA
By WPMT (Fox)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33123639?token=c316b473-16d6-47dd-bae2-eeecaf9e9ed2
Commentary and FYIs
DOJ PIL Task Force / Statement of Interest Cont'd
Northeast (MA)
Southeast (FL, TN, NC, AL, WV, GA)
Midwest (MI)
Broadcast Media Coverage
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White House to host ‘opioids summit’ for survivors of epidemic
Mar 1, 2018 | The Washington Times
By Tom Howell Jr.
First lady Melania Trump and a sweeping roster of Cabinet members will gather Thursday for a White House summit designed to highlight President Trump’s efforts to tackle the opioids crisis.
The meet-up will serve as the public debut of Mr. Trump’s new drug czar, Jim Carroll, who’s been named acting secretary of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
More than 200 people affected by the prescription painkiller and heroin epidemic will get the chance to ask questions and interact with a who’s who of attendees from the administration, a White House official said.
Last fall, Mr. Trump challenged Congress and his team to treat the deadly opioids crisis as a public health emergency.
Thursday’s guest list is designed to highlight the scope of the challenge, from treatment reform under Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to drug-enforcement efforts under Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Sulkin, House and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson will also be on hand, along with Seema Verma, who runs Medicaid and Medicare, and a long line of deputies and officials from agencies that handle the U.S. mail and customs and immigration enforcement.
Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway will moderate the discussion.
Opioid-related overdoses killed 42,000 people in 2016 alone.
Estimates suggest the problem only got worse in 2017, as synthetic fentanyl filters through illicit heroin market.
A top official from the Drug Enforcement Administration told a House panel vetting bills to address the crisis that heroin users are playing “Russian Roulette” when they use, given the prevalence of deadly synthetic opioids.
Mr. Trump’s recent budget request calls for $13 billion in new funding to tackle the crisis — $3 billion this year and $10 billion in 2019.
However, Congress settled on a more limited price tag of $6 billion, to be split between the two years.
The White House plans to highlight changes it’s already made, from helping states waive certain rules that restrict addiction treatment to expanding the use of buprenorphine to wean people off opioids.
It will also point the the Justice Department’s efforts to crack down on drug traffickers and the Interdict Act, which provided new resources to border agents who root out illegally imported fentanyl.
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White House Convenes Summit On Opioids (Audio)
Mar 1, 2018 | NPR
By David Greene
NPR's David Greene talks to Jessica Hulsey Nickel, founder of the Addiction Policy Forum. She is attending the White House opioid summit on Thursday.
Audio Link 1: https://www.npr.org/2018/03/01/589802149/white-house-convenes-summit-on-opioids
Audio Link 2: https://www.npr.org/2018/03/01/589822041/president-trump-hosts-opioid-summit-at-the-white-house
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Is Attorney General Jeff Sessions really going to war against Big Pharma? Not likely say experts.
Mar 1, 2018 | NBC News
By Corky Siemaszko
When Attorney General Jeff Sessions appears Thursday at the White House Opioids Summit, skeptics are likely to hit him with this question: Was his “statement of interest” in support of local governments suing Big Pharma a declaration of war — or saber-rattling?
Defense attorneys who have crossed swords with the federal government before, and advocates who have been pushing the Trump administration to make good on the promise to end the opioid epidemic, say Sessions’ tough talk is likely more of the latter than the former.
“While it is difficult to assign motives to an act of the DOJ, this is a PR move not a sincere attempt to address the opioid crisis,” attorney David Cattie said.
The targeted drug makers and distributors most likely are already “preparing to offer compensation to resolve this litigation anyway,” Cattie said. “Is this the administration’s way of signaling to pharma that it wants the companies to settle these cases for some ‘big’ number so the administration can take credit for it? Perhaps.”
Trial lawyer Jesse Gessin said if the DOJ was serious about holding pharmaceutical company’s feet to the fire it would join the hundreds of cities, states and other local governments that have accused the companies of creating a crisis by fooling the public into thinking opioids were safe.
“The statement of interest does not make the government a party to the lawsuit,” said Gessin.
It also enables the Trump Administration to make it appear they are taking a hard line with an industry that has given millions in campaign contributions to Republicans and Democrats alike.
“The DEA has known for some time that the pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors were violating federal law, “ Gessin said. “If the government was going to bring a criminal case, they would have brought it. In fact, the government will not commit to joining the multi-district civil litigation, why should the companies be concerned about criminal liability?”
Greg Williams, co-founder and executive vice president of Facing Addiction, within the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Addiction, said in a statement they “applaud the Department of Justice for getting involved in this important litigation against opioids manufacturers and distributors.”
“They must be held accountable and must pay billions, not millions, in reparations to our communities and federal government," Williams said.
Williams also said he expects Sessions will be grilled about what exactly the DOJ will be doing in support of the hundreds of lawsuits that have already landed on the desk of U.S. District Court Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland federal court.
“The attorney general’s move is mostly symbolic,” said Daniel Raymond deputy director of policy and planning with the Harm Reduction Coalition. “For an administration that has been remarkably friendly to corporate interests, it does beg the question about the Justice Department’s appetite to more directly taking on those companies.”
The deadly opioid epidemic has been a public relations disaster for the drug companies and they have drawn bipartisan and national scorn.
Gessin said that if he was defending them the fact that Sessions has been talking tough would not cause him to rethink his legal strategy.
“I’d be more afraid of the big time plaintiff’s lawyer on the multi-district civil litigation than the government,” he said.
How would he defend the drug makers? Blame the distributors.
“That would be my strategy,” he said. “Blame it on them for not following federal law. That’s why they exist. What good is the distributor if they can’t distribute lawfully? This is really a distribution case, not a manufacturing case.”
Cattie said whatever happens the drug makers and distributors will wind up the winners.
“This is just the cost of doing business for opioid manufacturers and distributors,” he said. “If I told you that you could make billions of dollars selling a product but that one day the government would make you pay a fine or settlement or some small percentage of that, I am assuming you would sell the product anyway.”
What worries Cattie is what will happen to the doctors who prescribed the opioids.
“It is important to note that while opioids are abused, they are legitimate pain relievers,” Cattie said.
“Sessions is a 1980’s drug warrior and I can guarantee you he will be ramping up prosecution of physicians who specialize in pain management," he added. "For every ‘pill mill’ doctor, there are 100 other doctors whose only concern is the alleviation of human suffering. These doctors are already caught between their oath to their patients and fear that the DOJ will come after them.”
In fact, the DOJ’s new opioid fraud squad’s first indictment was handed down against a Pittsburgh-area doctor named Andrzej Kazimierz Zielke who allegedly prescribed addictive painkillers to patients and insisted on being paid in cash.
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Dem urges DEA to release data on opioid distributors
Feb 28, 2018 | The Hill
By Rachel Roubein
A Democratic lawmaker is urging the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to release data on the distribution of opioids across the country to those involved in hundreds of lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors.
“I would just encourage the DEA to be as responsive as possible,” Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) told a DEA official during a House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee hearing Wednesday.
“If there is a law that is preventing you from sharing certain data, the Congress needs to understand that," Castor said.
A Cleveland-based federal judge is overseeing various lawsuits from cities and municipalities against opioid manufacturers and distributors.
At a hearing Monday, U.S. District Judge Dan Polster told the DEA to inform him by next week if it will release some data showing transactions by opioid manufacturers and distributors, Cleveland.com reported.
The database shows how many drugs were sold, where they were sent and the pharmacies that purchased them. In early February, the judge ordered the plaintiffs and the DEA to come to an agreement on what part of the database the DEA would produce.
Absent an agreement, the judge could order the full release of the database, something the DEA opposes, according to Cleveland.com.
Castor questioned the DEA official Wednesday on if the agency would release the data, which Cleveland.com reports Polster suggested could be used in opioid settlement talks and indicated wouldn’t be public unless the lawsuits went to trial.
“I know personally and I’ve been part of the meetings that we’re working as much as we can with the coalitions, we understand their goals,” said Susan Gibson, deputy assistant administrator for the DEA’s Diversion Control Division.
Gibson said the agency is required to "protect business proprietary information." When pressed, she clarified that included the business information of drug manufacturers and distributors.
“Proprietary information, yes, and that’s statute, and that’s not something that I can choose to do,” Gibson said.
“I know we have moved forward with several states as far as giving them information — some states we have already, some states we’re still trying to work that out, so I would have to get back to you regarding exactly Ohio," she added later.
On Monday, the attorney representing local governments said they want the federal data to learn which companies sent opioids to specific areas.
The assistant U.S. attorney for the Department of Justice countered that releasing all the data could hurt ongoing investigations and put confidential data on display for drug companies that aren’t named in the lawsuits, Cleveland.com reported.
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Opioids Won't Solve the World's Chronic Pain. This Idea Might
Feb 28, 2018 | National Geographic
By Christina Nunez
Albert Lin has made a career of using technology to fuel big new discoveries. He employed satellites and radar to seek Genghis Khan's tomb. And he recently helped discover the remnants of an ancient Maya megalopolis in the Guatemalan jungle using aerial scanning technology called LiDAR.
Along the way, he's pioneered new technologies in crowdsourcing and big data that have been used around the globe.
His work took a deeply personal turn when a vehicle accident resulted in a below-knee amputation in 2016. The research scientist and engineer became "partially bionic," he says, turning his attention to the frontiers of our minds and bodies.
Lin, a member of National Geographic's CHASING GENIUS Council, talked recently about where his experience has led him so far and where he'll go next.
You suffered intense pain following the amputation. What was that experience like, and how did you begin to look for brain-based solutions?
I literally could not function. The pain was so excruciating and constant that there was a point about a week or two weeks after the amputation where I remember thinking to myself, I would rather have died in the accident than have lived through it. They crazy thing was that I was feeling the pain in a part of my body that was no longer there. It's called “phantom pain.”
That's when I became very serious. I ended up meeting this world-famous neuroscientist, V.S. Ramachandran. We started working together on mirror therapy [which tricks the brain into seeing the missing limb in an attempt to remap the body in the mind]. It sort of worked, but then the effects would dissipate. I had to find some way of freeing my mind up so the remapping could hold. That's when we started doing all sorts of other things: kundalini yoga sessions, breathing meditations, sensory deprivation tanks, unstructured music, psychedelic therapy.
I was exploring these cultural “technologies” that transport us to these neuroplastic states. If I could do that in an intention-driven way, I could remap my brain and ultimately my perceptions of pain. There's many pathways to these states. In fact the greatest expressions of culture may have evolved out of a desire to chase those states, and tapping into that is where I believe you will find the essence of the “human potential.”
You describe using flow states in your research. Talk more about that?
My interpretation of "flow," a term first described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is when your ego drops away and you're completely in the moment. The reason why I think that's so important is because whatever happens in that moment, I've found, is when I'm the most neuroplastic. My brain is able to let go of its map or construct of the world and reorient itself to some new reality. I've often found that when I'm truly in flow, I come out of it and it feels like I just went through some deep meditation.
Cultures have always created these things where we're trying to basically remap realities within our minds because that's essentially how the world was invented. The world was invented first in the mind, and then it becomes real. So out of the necessity for relief from constant and debilitating pain, I took this approach with my experience of having a phantom limb.
It's not going to be fixed by opioids or anything else like that, because I am feeling pain where there is no longer biology. It's going to be fixed by some more basic understanding of my mind and then using things like mirror therapy to sort of trick my mind into another arena.
And if it worked with something like pain, why can’t it work in other aspects of my world? It's been one of the most powerful experiences of my life. So now I'm trying to lab-ify it, to see just how far it can go.
How does that relate to the Center for Human Frontiers, the research center you founded at University of California San Diego?
What I'm trying to do with the Center for Human Frontiers is to work with cognitive scientists, visual artists, anthropologists, and engineers to quantify that and then apply it to how we actually look at a lot of these things. We need to rethink the way we look at the power of the mind, or the idea of placebo. That placebo is actually a really good thing—maybe it's the most important thing of all.
If somebody feels like they're actually getting completely healed by, I don't know, some energy work [for example], then thats a real thing, because it's in their mind and its believed. And if “flow states” allow us to get to that place where our minds can be plastic enough to retune to new perspectives then we should look at how we get to flow.
Flow's not new. In fact, maybe it’s the motivation behind why we have come up with things like ceremonies or temple. What we plan to do now is go into the world looking for the type of practices or “technologies” that have been developed throughout cultures in our human attempt to achieve flow, learn from those, and then try to experiment with ways to bring that into how we design our future.
What opportunities do you see with our current technology?
What we can do with the technology angle is measure certain markers of this, like your brain state or your heart rate variability, then create these virtual reality augmentations that amplify that experience. I am lucky to be working with some incredible people on this now—folks like Sheldon Brown, who directs the Clarke Center for Human Imagination, and Ramesh Rao, whose work on “bliss buzzers” really inspired me. I am also working with some unbelievable musicians, “explorers of flow.” We can basically start to experiment with culture and the mind through a new age of sensors and augmented mediums.
I feel like we're inventing the world as we speak. Our world as it exists today is at a transitional moment. It's this weird blend where our minds aren't really in our bodies, they're sort of beyond our bodies. Our minds extend into both the analog and the digital world. So much of your mind might exist in the device in your hands. We fear things like AI taking over the world or the loss of humanity. Instead of trying to stop the progress of technology, it may be more useful for us to try to figure out how to use those tools to amplify our humanity.
You're also looking at how technology can help people get access to prosthetics. Tell me more about that.
I hike through the jungles of Guatemala. I climb mountains. I surf. Every time I see somebody with the same ailment, I realize how privileged I am to have access to the leg I have built for me. I feel both gratitude and an immense responsibility to do something. How can we use our connectivity to change the model of how we access care?
If I need to have a teleportation of my body to a prosthetist so they can fit my limb correctly to a mold, then that exists in our cyber world. In archaeology, we're using all these things like photogrammetry or other tools where you're trying to take low-cost camera gear and create 3D models of artifacts in these harsh environments.
Now, even with cell phones, you can make these 3D models of pretty much any object. There's 40 million amputees in the world, the majority of which don't live in an area of the world where the amputee population is well funded. Why don't we just turn their phones into the portal that allows them to travel to an expert who can then have something printed out [on a 3D printer] and sent to them? You can't expect to help 40 million people if you're telling them all to go to a super-expensive prosthetist.
What's the status of your pain now?
It still comes back after a super long day here and there, but my mental state of being, which I think really controls my physical state of being, is one where I feel like, man—I just got out of the surf, right? So it's been a really positive experience, learning that the power of my mind is so much bigger than I realized before.
What I learned in my physical experience is that so much of my reality is defined entirely in my mind, from that phantom limb pain to whether or not this is a big catastrophe in my life to whether or not it's one of the greatest gifts in my life.
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Open Letter to Senator McCaskill From A Chronic Pain Patient (Opinion)
Mar 1, 2018 | National Pain Report
By Terri Longtin
Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill released a report this month alleging that from 2012 to 2017, leading manufacturers of opioids gave $9 million to pain treatment advocacy groups. At the end of our story on it, we asked readers what they would tell Senator McCaskill. We received many thoughtful responses, but this one from Terry Longtin, who lives just outside Detroit resonated.
Dear Senator McCaskill,
I have had chronic, widespread pain for over ten years. I saw every kind of doctor imaginable, looking for answers as to why I feel so horrible 24 hours per day. I had never requested any kind of pain medication because I never wanted to take any pills, I was anti-medication you might say.
Finally, it was suggested by my rheumatologist to see a pain management doctor, he also told me that more than likely I have an autoimmune disorder called CRPS, complex regional pain syndrome brought on by 18 major surgeries on my legs, a twice broken back, numerous broken arms, hands, fingers, toes, dislocations of the shoulder (multiple), dislocated elbow, lots of strained and sprained joints, a quad tendon rupture, broken ribs.
I also have degenerative disc disease, I have Raynaud’s disease, I have Morton’s neuromas, trigger fingers, tendinitis in my arm, and osteoarthritis in 90 % of my joints. I take Nifedipine for the Raynaud’s, which eliminated all of the symptoms, I take Symbyox and Wellbutrin for depression and anxiety, which works great, I take Ritalin for ADHD, which works well, I take Flomax at night for an enlarged prostate, I also take Lunesta (sleep aid), at night because pain keeps me awake.
My pain management doctor tried 4 separate back procedures which did nothing. Over a period of 10 years he prescribed many different types and quantities of pain medication, approximately 5 years ago my pain medication prescribed was five 15mg of oxycodone immediate release and three 40mg oxycontin extended release, so with all of the doctors and psychiatrists, they finally got all aspects of my life very successfully managed. My moods were good and consistent, no extreme highs or lows, my widespread body pain was mostly kept at a level of 4 on a scale from 1 to ten, which was great, I finally was a high functioning, happy person for the first time in my life.
Now with all of the incorrect, skewed, one sided, paranoid statistics out there regarding the “so called” opioid epidemic, my pain management doctor has been lowering my pain medication every time I see him. He claims that the DEA is forcing him to lower everyone’s meds. So now I am not a high functioning, happy person. I feel pretty horrible 24 hours per day. It’s an absolute crime what’s going on in the chronic pain world and many, many people are really suffering needlessly. There is so much REAL information available if someone were to take the time to look. I belong to a forum called The National Pain Report and they are the greatest advocates out there, but it’s not even close to being helpful for chronic pain patients. We need support from senators and congressman, but somebody is going to go out on a limb and investigate the REAL statistics and the true story as to what is really happening. My pain management doctor told me there is only one exception to prescribing opioids for pain, and that is cancer.
Here’s the funny thing, there’s a chart that doctors use for rating pain called the McGill Pain index, the condition in the number one spot on the index, above cancer is CRPS, which, amongst all of my other miseries, is the condition I have been diagnosed with, there’s NO pain worse than this condition, even knowing and acknowledging my condition(s), he refuses to treat me in a manner that is apropos and my life is just squashed and there’s nothing I can do about it. Here’s a statistic for you, LESS than 1% of ALL opioid overdoses are from people with legitimate prescriptions for pain. I have a right to receive medical treatment for my condition(s), my rights as a citizen are being trampled. So please, be our voice, our advocate, take the time and investigate it yourself, you’ll see what I say is 100% truthful. Thank you for your time and please help us before suicide rates for chronic pain patients go through the roof.
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Mar 1, 2018 | MassLive (MA)
By Scott J. Croteau
The city of Worcester hired a national law firm to sue pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors of opioid products in order to seek money for all of the costs associated with the creation of prevention programs and the response to overdose calls.
The announcement by Worcester officials comes right after the U.S. Department of Justice said it will be filing what is called a statement of interest in a multi-district action regarding the hundreds of lawsuits against the opioid manufacturers and distributors.
Worcester hired the national laws firm Scott + Scott to file lawsuits in superior court against three major opioid distributors - AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, Cardinal Health, Inc. and McKesson Corporation.
The lawsuits will also include "opioid manufacturers who engaged in a multi-pronged and multi-million dollar campaign of deception regarding the safety and appropriate use of their prescription opioids," Worcester officials said in a news release.
The lawsuits will not be part of any class-action suit, but filed separately for Worcester, according to a city spokesman.
"Through the impending lawsuit to be filed in Superior Court, the City will seek reimbursement for potential damages including all costs of implementing opioid prevention and treatment programs; health insurance payments under the employee health plan for City of Worcester employees, retirees, and their families; the costs incurred by first responders in overdose calls; court and crime-related expenses and the overall social costs of addiction, including expenses for employee NARCAN training," the city said.
Worcester will also seek to recover additional costs that it has incurred or will incur in the future such as providing rehabilitation for persons with addiction and counseling services for their families.
Massachusetts Department of Public Health statistics show that there were 1,501 confirmed opioid-related deaths in the state last year.
"The human cost of the opioid epidemic both here in Worcester and throughout Massachusetts has been catastrophic," said City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. "This litigation is just one aspect of our continued commitment to do everything we can to save lives."
Scott + Scott already represents Springfield and Haverhill in similar actions along with cities and counties in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey and Florida.
The city chose the law firm after receiving several proposals from law firms. Worcester will not be responsible for any upfront attorneys' fees or expenses in connection with the lawsuits. Scott+Scott will prosecute claims on a contingency fee basis. The firm will be paid out of any money received through the litigation.
In a statement Tuesday, the Department of Justice said the government said the federal government through various health and law enforcement efforts has "borne substantial costs from the opioid epidemic and seeks reimbursement."
The federal government said the statement of interest includes several cities, communities and medical institutions.
"Opioid abuse is driving the deadliest drug crisis in American history," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. "It has cost this nation hundreds of thousands of precious lives. It has strained our public health and law enforcement resources and bankrupted countless families across this country."
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Worcester Retains Attorneys Scott + Scott in Opioid Lawsuit
Mar 1, 2018 | GoLocalWorcester (MA)
By Staff
The City of Worcester has retained attorneys Scott + Scott to file litigation against pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors of opioid products.
The defendants will include at least two sets of culpable parties: three major opioid distributors – AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, Cardinal Health, Inc. and McKesson Corporation as well as opioid manufacturers who engaged in a multi-pronged and multi-million dollar campaign of deception regarding the safety and appropriate use of their prescription opioids.
“The human cost of the opioid epidemic both here in Worcester and throughout Massachusetts has been catastrophic. This litigation is just one aspect of our continued commitment to do everything we can to save lives,” said City Manager Edward M. Augustus.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, there were 1,501 confirmed opioid-related deaths across the state in 2017.
The Lawsuit
Through the impending lawsuit the City will seek reimbursement for potential damages including all costs of implementing opioid prevention and treatment programs; health insurance payments under the employee health plan for City of Worcester employees, retirees, and their families; the costs incurred by first responders in overdose calls; court and crime-related expenses and the overall social costs of addiction, including expenses for employee NARCAN training.
Worcester is also looking to recover additional costs that it has incurred or will incur in the future.
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Worcester files its own suit against opioid makers
Feb 28, 2018 | Telegram.com (MA)
By Nick Kotsopooulos
The city has retained a nationally-recognized law firm based in Connecticut to file litigation against pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors of opioid products.
City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. announced Wednesday the hiring of Scott + Scott, Attorneys at Law LLP as part of the city’s efforts to combat the opioid epidemic.
He said the city will file a lawsuit in Superior Court that will include at least two sets of culpable parties.
They include three major opioid distributors - Amerisource Bergen Drug Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp. - as well as opioid manufacturers who engaged in a multipronged and multimillion-dollar campaign of deception regarding the safety and appropriate use of their prescription opioids.
Additional defendants may be named, the manager said.
In its lawsuit, Mr. Augustus said, the city will seek reimbursement for potential damages including all costs of implementing opioid prevention and treatment programs; health insurance payments under the employee health plan for city of Worcester employees, retirees and their families; the costs incurred by first responders in overdose calls; court and crime-related expenses and the overall social costs of addiction, including expenses for employee NARCAN training.
He said the city is also seeking to recover additional costs it has incurred or will incur in the future, that have historically not been considered traditional “municipal services,” such as providing rehabilitation for those with addiction and counseling services for their families.
“The human cost of the opioid epidemic both here in Worcester and throughout Massachusetts has been catastrophic,” Mr. Augustus said in a statement. “This litigation is just one aspect of our continued commitment to do everything we can to save lives.”
Mr. Augustus said the city will not be responsible for any up-front attorneys’ fees or expenses in connection with this litigation, as Scott+ Scott will prosecute claims on a contingency fee basis. Expenses and attorneys’ fees will be paid only out of any amounts obtained by the city through litigation.
With its action, the city becomes the latest in a growing list of Central Massachusetts communities suing pharmaceutical manufactures and opioid distributors, though it is separate from those joint efforts.
Auburn, Charlton, Dudley, Northbridge, Southbridge, Sturbridge, Sutton and Winchendon have already agreed to join other Massachusetts municipalities in a mass tort litigation being filed through the Massachusetts Litigation Attorneys, made up of a consortium of lawyers. Millbury and Webster have voted to join those efforts as well.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, there were 1,501 confirmed opioid-related deaths in the state in 2017.
Mr. Augustus said Scott + Scott, based in Colchester, Connecticut, was selected after the city considered proposals from several different law firms.
He said the firm represents cities and counties in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, Florida and Massachusetts, including the cities of Springfield and Haverhill.
Scott + Scott is one of the largest complex litigation law firms in the country, with offices in Connecticut, New York, Ohio, California and London, England.
On Monday, the U.S. Justice Department said it will support local officials in hundreds of lawsuits against manufacturers and distributors of opioid painkillers.
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Worcester to file suit against opioid makers
Feb 28, 2018 | Worcester Business Journal (MA)
By Emily Micucci
The City of Worcester on Wednesday announced it will file a lawsuit against companies making and distributing opioids, seeking damages for the cost of opioid treatment and prevention in the city.
The law firm Scott & Scott, Attorneys at Law LLP, which has an office in Colchester, Conn., as well as New York, Ohio and California, has been retained to file the lawsuit in Massachusetts Superior Court, according to a statement from City Manager Edward Augustus' office.
The defendants will include at least two sets of culpable parties, including three major opioid distributors – AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp., Cardinal Health, Inc. and McKesson Corp., as well as opioid manufacturers who the city said are "engaged in a multi-pronged and multi-million dollar campaign of deception regarding the safety and appropriate use of their prescription opioids."
Additional defendants may be named, according to the city, which did provide specific figures related to the cost of the opioid epidemic to the city. The costs include money spent on treatment and prevention programs; health insurance payments for City of Worcester employees, retirees and their family members who required treatments; costs incurred by first responders for overdose calls; court- and crime-related expenses; and other general expenses.
The city cited the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which reported 1,501 confirmed opioid-related deaths across the state in 2017.
"The human cost of the opioid epidemic both here in Worcester and throughout Massachusetts has been catastrophic," Augustus said Wednesday. "This litigation is just one aspect of our continued commitment to do everything we can to save lives."
Worcester joins more than 30 cities and towns across Massachusetts who have filed suit seeking damages related to the opioid epidemic, the Massachusetts Municipal Association said this month. Charlton voted to join a class-action lawsuit seeking compensation from drug companies for opioid-related costs, and other area towns are reportedly mulling suits as well.
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Worcester joins lawsuit against opioid manufacturers
Feb 28, 2018 | Worcester Magazine (MA)
By Bill Shaner
Worcester officials announced they intend to join the statewide legal battle against pharmaceutical companies Wednesday morning.
The city has retained the law firm Scott & Scott to file the lawsuit against opioid distributors and manufacturers, according to a spokesman.
“The human cost of the opioid epidemic both here in Worcester and throughout Massachusetts has been catastrophic,” said City Manager Ed Augustus Jr. “This litigation is just one aspect of our continued commitment to do everything we can to save lives.”
The defendants in the lawsuit are AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, Cardinal Health, Inc. and McKesson Corporation as well as other opioid manufacturers. The companies “engaged in a multi-pronged and multi-million dollar campaign of deception regarding the safety and appropriate use of their prescription opioids,” according to the spokesman.
The city, like dozens of other municipalities across the state, is seeking damages related to the costs of responding to the crisis, including rehab and counseling costs, as well as health insurance payments, treatment programs, first responder calls for overdoses and training in the overdose reversal drug Narcan.
The case comes at no immediate cost to the city as the law firm will take expenses and attorney fees out of money obtained by the city if they win.
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Lawyers vie to guide Jackson county through possible filing of opioid lawsuit
Mar 1, 2018 | Jackson County Floridian (FL)
By Deborah Buckhalter
A handful of lawyers visited Jackson County Commissioners this week in a special hour-long meeting before the board’s regular evening session Tuesday, encouraging the government officials to raft toward a ship that’s sailing now toward federal court, and asking the board members to let them steer that craft to the bigger vessel.
There’s a ship-load of lawsuits aimed at distributors and manufacturers of drugs now blamed for a widespread American opioid-dependency crisis. The lawyers who appeared Tuesday want a crack at filing and handling a lawsuit for Jackson County to go along with the rest to a federal judge who’ll be hearing all of them.
One presenter referred to a map of Florida that shows statistics gleaned from the records of the Centers for Disease Control. That federal agency keeps track of how many patients are prescribed opioids.
According to some presenters, Jackson County has one of the highest opioid prescription rates in the entire state of Florida.
The lawsuits aim for monetary awards, which could help the prevailing jurisdictions assist their affected citizens in recovery.
Jackson County Commissioners took no immediate action, but indicated another session may be held to consider the matter further.
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Legal Firms Looking for Jackson Co. to Join Opioid Crisis Fight
Feb 28, 2018 | MyPanhandle (FL)
By Ashton Williams
The opioid crisis has hit Northwest Florida hard. Officials said the medications are easier to obtain than ever before in the state.
"Those drugs were meant for end of life type things, for pain. But they're being prescribed for, you have back surgery? You're 30 years old? It's not unusual to be prescribed for that," Ernie Padgett, County Administrator.
The Jackson County Board of County Commissioners met with local legal firms to discuss the possibility of being represented to fight the manufacturers of the drugs.
Both Chris Young of Perry and Young Attorneys at Law and Cliff Higby of Bryant and Higby Attorneys at Law, presented facts about the opioid crisis and how they plan to help help the state overcome it.
Both firms have asked other local governments to join them in the fight.
"What you have now is a movement by some, whether the states looking at it, local governments are looking at it to see if they want to be a party to larger lawsuit that will go against these manufacturers and distributors of these opioids," Ernie Padgett, County Administrator.
If the Jackson County Board of Commissioners decides to be a part of that movement, they will have to choose which legal firm will represent the county.
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Sumner County sues opioid manufacturers, distributors, joins many Tennessee communities
Feb 28, 2018 | Tennessean (TN)
By Jen Todd
Sumner County filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court against pharmaceutical companies in wake of the opioid epidemic, joining several Tennessee communities in this effort.
Nashville, Rutherford County, Williamson County, Smith County and White County have filed their own federal suits.
The 79-page complaint alleges the drug manufacturers and distributors "conspired to manufacture and distribute millions of doses of highly addictive opioids, knowing that they were being trafficked and used for illicit purposes, and recklessly disregarded their devastating effect on the taxpayers and government of Sumner County."
The county is seeking damages for "not only the tragic loss of life of people who have overdosed, but the cost socially and monetarily to the tax payer," Sumner County Executive Anthony Holt told The Tennessean Sumner.
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Another county files opioid lawsuit
Feb 28, 2018 | Herald-Citizen (TN)
By Staff
Rutherford County is the latest to file suit against opioid manufacturers.
Smith County and the Metro Nashville government filed suit late last year.
The Rutherford County suit argues the opioid manufacturers committed racketeering, conspiracy, mail and wire fraud, and were a public nuisance, among other claims.
Rutherford County Mayor Ernest Burgess said the opioid epidemic has cost the county in many ways, including ambulance services, court system and recovery programs.
“It is our job to protect taxpayer money and address this horrible epidemic that is at our doorstep. This lawsuit is one of the many ways we intend to stand up for the residents of this county,” Rutherford County Mayor Ernest Burgess said,
Named Defendants include Purdue Pharma, Cephalon, Teva Pharmaceutical, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Noramco Inc., Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Endo Health Solutions, Mallinckrodt, Allergan, Actavis, Watson Pharmaceuticals, Insys Therapeutics, AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, Cardinal Health, McKesson Corporation, and additional affiliated businesses and entities.
Last year, the state of Ohio filed suit against five opioid manufacturers. That suit is still pending.
Earlier this week, Ohio filed suit against four drug distributors in the state. -
Guilford County to Sue Drug Dealers: The Corporate Kind
Mar 1, 2018 | Rhino Times (NC)
By Elaine Hammer
The Guilford County Board of Commissioners is bringing a major civil lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and distributors over what county officials claim is the industry’s reckless disregard for the safety and well being of Guilford County citizens. The suit will name national and multinational companies as defendants.
The lawsuit could mean millions of dollars for Guilford County that would be used to help cover the costs the county has absorbed in past years as a result of the opioid epidemic – one that the lawsuit claims is largely the fault of the opioid manufacturers and distributers. The money the county could receive in a court victory or legal settlement would also, county officials say, be put toward future programs meant to address opioid addiction in the community.
Guilford County commissioners, county legal and administrative staff and outside attorneys met behind the scenes late last year and in early 2018 to discuss the legal proceeding before Guilford County decided to file the suit against the companies in that multi-billion dollar industry.
Local governments across North Carolina and the country have filed similar lawsuits in recent months. Forsyth, Gaston, New Hanover and Orange counties are just some of the counties in the state that have filed lawsuits against the opioid producers and distributors in late 2017 or early 2018. The same is true in other parts of the country where opioid addiction has been a problem. For instance, in January, New York City filed a similar lawsuit.
The trend is reminiscent of the widespread state lawsuits against tobacco companies that went on for decades and led to big payouts for states – as well as for the attorneys and legal firms that represented those states.
Guilford County hasn’t yet released the names of the defendants, but Guilford County Attorney Mark Payne stated in an email to the Rhino Times that the list would include both opioid manufacturers and distributors, with most defendants based in the United States but two based in Ireland. Payne stated that all the companies have a significant North Carolina presence.
Three huge industry players that have been named in many, if not all, such suits brought by other local governments are AmerisourceBergen Corp., McKesson Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc.
Those and other pharmaceutical companies that manufacture and distribute opioids have come under fire nationally for what many critics claim is the industry’s intentional profiteering from the widespread crisis of addiction those companies helped to create and continue to foster.
Though Guilford County has yet to put a number on its damages, officials hope to win enough money in the suit to cover expenses for Guilford County Emergency Services, the Sheriff’s Department and other county departments that have over the years been burdened by the opioid epidemic.
Guilford County officials are arguing that the large pharmaceutical companies – which of course have extremely deep pockets – are legally responsible for the wrongful distribution of prescription opiates that have hurt the county’s population as well as its finances. It’s possible Guilford County could win triple damages if the court finds the companies violated the law in some especially egregious ways.
Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Alan Branson said this week that the county commissioners have been in discussions regarding the court action for some time. He said that just the purchase and administration of the drug Narcan alone – a quick-acting medication that frequently saves the lives of people who have overdosed – has been costly.
But that’s just one expense the county has seen from the epidemic that’s led to the death of many citizens, been a big burden on emergency response teams and forced the county to divert resources to counter the problem.
Branson said he doesn’t know how much Guilford County will ask for in the suit.
“As for payment, I haven’t heard an exact amount,” he said, adding that he’s certain the litigation will not, under any circumstances, cost the county anything.
If Guilford County wins, payment of the legal fees will come from that pool of money, and, if the county loses, there will be no charge from the outside firms.
Guilford County has hired the McHugh Fuller Law Group to handle the litigation with the Guilford County’s attorney’s office. McHugh Fuller is a coalition of law firms with expertise and experience in pharmaceutical litigation. The Mississippi-based group has also handled a lot of cases involving improper care at nursing homes. McHugh Fuller will be the lead legal counsel for Forsyth County in its lawsuit against the opioid makers and also for some other counties in North Carolina in their suits.
Branson said that, in addition to the national firms that will work on Guilford County’s behalf on this suit, local attorneys Don Vaughan and Mike Fox will also play a role.
The McHugh Fuller Law Group and other attorneys working on the suit will get 25 percent of any amount Guilford County is awarded and will have that 25 percent to divide among themselves.
The attorneys involved could do extremely well for themselves if the local governments win the case or reach a settlement with a big payout. In the lawsuits brought in the ’90s against tobacco companies over the harm caused by smoking, the tobacco companies settled lawsuits with 46 states and agreed to pay those states about $206 billion over two decades. Those involved in the new opioid suits say a settlement or victory for the local governments could likewise result in those governments getting a great deal of money from the extremely lucrative industry.
Opioid addiction has been a rampant problem in the in the US snf Guilford County – especially in parts of High Point – for over a decade. Branson said that in recent years the number of addicts and overdoses has become even more alarming and the strain on county resources has been immense.
“There’s been a huge cost to keep these people alive over the last 24 to 36 months,” Branson said of opioid addicts. “EMS, the sheriff’s deputies – they respond to call after call after call on this.”
Branson said he and other commissioners listened to county staff, the outside attorneys and the Guilford County attorney before deciding to make the move. He said Commissioner Kay Cashion was very active in the decision since she’s the Board of Commissioners’ point person on drug abuse and mental health, as well as the board’s liaison to Sandhills Center – the local management entity (LME) that oversees the administration of mental health care in Guilford County.
“Kay has been interested in this for some time,” Branson said.
He added that the county attorney’s office was also clearly in favor of the move.
“Mark [Payne] kind of led the charge,” Branson said.
According to Branson, given the tremendous amount of resources Guilford County throws at the opioid problem each year, it makes sense to get “those responsible in the first place” to help bear the cost.
While everyone knows the wheels of justice turn slowly, several county officials say they expect to see this case wrapped up within a year or two.
Branson said, “My question was: ‘Is this a four- to five-year case?’”
He said the answer he heard was that it wouldn’t be.
In legal terminology, Guilford County is claiming major opiate manufacturers and distributors have “unlawfully contributed to a public nuisance” in Guilford County. The central argument is that the widespread availability of opiates along with the failure of the industry to control the distribution of the drug has created the current crisis that in many cases has led to the death of citizens. According to statistics provided by Guilford County, in 2017 there were 80 verified opioid or heroin overdose deaths and 700 opioid overdose reversals in the county.
Many heroin addicts got their start down that path with medically prescribed opioids before switching to heroin as their drug of choice because it was cheaper to buy from drug dealers. Payne said that’s something that makes the problem even more tragic – the fact that so many people who’ve become addicted to narcotics got that way through what at first was a legitimate medical use of opiates. A person may have severe back pain, he said, and been given a prescription, which then continues because the pain didn’t subside. In some cases, those back pain patients found themselves addicted to opioids and later heroin.
Guilford County Emergency Services Director Jim Albright said this week that, when it comes to overdose deaths and related emergency calls, most of the time those are the result of the use of illicit drugs such as heroin, but he added that many of those addicts got started down the path of addiction through prescription drug use.
Albright said that responding to calls related to overdose and treating the problem is expensive and added that his department spent $85,000 on Narcan last year. He also said there aren’t enough treatment centers in Guilford County to handle the number of addicts and added that, if the county wins the lawsuit, one thing he hopes to see is some of that money going toward increasing the availability of treatment in the county.
Guilford County’s suit isn’t a “class action” lawsuit in which the county enjoined with many other cities or counties; however, many local governments in North Carolina and other states have taken similar actions, and there will be some orchestration within the court system, which will treat some of these comparable lawsuits collectively in order to streamline the process.
Payne said some discovery and pretrial aspects of the case will be conducted through “multidistrict litigation,” an “MDL” – which is a process the court uses to speed up cases from multiple jurisdictions when there are common elements involving complex questions.
Payne said the opioid epidemic has cost Guilford County a “significant amount in money and resources” over the years and, while he didn’t name a specific amount of damages the county will ask for, others have said that it would take an award in the millions for Guilford County to be fairly compensated for the harm the opioid epidemic has caused.
Payne said there’s clear evidence that some markets have been flooded with opioid to a degree “way more than justified for any medical reason.”
He added that this isn’t at all like a case where a county might blame the makers of Twinkies for people in that county becoming overweight after a massive number of Twinkies were sold there. Payne said that in the case of opioid distribution – unlike Twinkies – federal law requires that makers and distributors track where their product goes to make sure it’s not getting in the wrong hands.
Payne said there are situations where it’s clear to any reasonable person that there’s an excess of opioids for a given area. He cited Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic, a 2015 book that helped open many eyes to America’s opioid problem.
News reports and government investigations have also revealed striking examples of apparent negligence by the drug companies, such as what happened in Williamson, West Virginia, a town with a population of less than 3,000. Between 2006 and 2016, pharmaceutical companies shipped over 20 million opioid painkillers to two pharmacies in that small town.
Payne said Guilford County has put a lot of effort into fighting the problem here.
“We’re doing a lot of things about opioids,” he said.
He added that this money would help cover expenses for answering these types of calls.
“We’re seeking to get costs and pay money that we’re out for responses,” he said, adding that other money was being sought to go toward new programs to help those affected.
Payne also explained why, even though the lawsuit has the full support of the Board of Commissioners, no public vote on the matter was taken at any meeting.
“A formal vote of the Board is not necessary,” Payne wrote in an email. “Counting Child Support and DSS [Division of Social Services] cases, the county enters into hundreds of lawsuits and defends dozens more every year, none getting or requiring a vote of the Board of Commissioners. Filing or defending a lawsuit is an administrative function; the Board of Commissioners is very involved in this litigation, as they are with many of our significant cases, but we handled it the same way we do all our litigation.”
In the meantime, Guilford County has been trying to fight the problem on its own. The county has begun an effort called GCSTOP, which stands for Guilford County Solution to the Opioid Problem. In that program, teams made up of members from several county departments help those with substance abuse problems through follow up visits after an overdose or other crisis.
Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes said his officers often go on calls with county medical staff since there can be a need for law enforcement at a drug overdose scene. He said even sometimes responders save an addict’s life and he or she gets upset and even violent over being saved.
“We may bring them back to life and they are pissed off that we got rid of their high,” Barnes said.
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Russell County Commission to file opioid lawsuit against manufacturers
Mar 1, 2018 | WTVM (AL)
By Parker Branton
The Russell County Commission met Wednesday morning and heard from Rhon Jones of the Beasley Allen Law Firm about filing a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers.
Shortly after Jones' presentation, all commissioners approved a motion to move forward with the county filing a lawsuit against the opioid manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, L.P., one of the largest opioid manufacturers in the country.
"It's one of the biggest problems nationally and locally here in Russell County with opioid cases," Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor said.
In a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 110 opioids are prescribed per 100 people in the county.
"If you look at every city, every county in Alabama it's a little different," Jones said.
The lawsuit claims millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent on the epidemic and attorneys want to hold manufacturers responsible by having the money reimbursed.
"The cost that is being expended, healthcare, treatment, rehab, law enforcement, loss of productivity from workers," Jones said.
Former United States Senator of Alabama and current Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced within the last 24 hours a new opioid task force that will target drug manufacturers, distributors of what the Attorney General said is contributing to fatal overdoses.
Attorneys from the Beasley Allen Law Firm also filed a lawsuit against these manufacturers on the State of Alabama's behalf.
Attorneys presented at the Lee County Commission meeting within the last week in hopes a lawsuit will be filed in that county as well.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster is handling the case out of Cleveland, Ohio. There are talks of a settlement in this case, but Alabama attorneys believe a final say on this lawsuit will take anywhere from 18-24 months possibly longer.
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County commission signs on for the opioid fight
Feb 28, 2018 | The Pocahontas Times (WV)
By Laura Dean Bennett
Stephen Skinner, of the Charles Town law firm of Skinner and Skinner, appeared before the Pocahontas County Commission at its February 19 meeting, to talk about legal action being taken by local government entities against opioid manufacturers.
Commission president Bill Beard explained that several months ago, the commission had tasked its counsel, Bob Martin to research law firms in West Virginia who were filing suits against opioid distributors and manufacturers.
“There’s no attorney in West Virginia that I would recommend more highly to take on a case like this for us than Stephen Skinner,” Martin said
“It’s time Pocahontas County gets their name in the hat to work toward getting some money back from the people who caused the opioid crisis in our state and our county.”
Skinner made a compelling presentation about the scope of the problem, explaining that the opioid epidemic began in 1995 with the manufacture and large-scale distribution of oxycontin.
Oxycontin, known to be highly addictive, was originally developed for end of life, palliative care, not for routine pain management.
Skinner offered a detailed description of the chronology of the crisis of addiction caused by the irresponsible marketing, distribution and sale of the drug.
He shared shocking national, state and local statistics regarding the extent of the damage done to communities and the economy by the epidemic of addiction which has occurred in the ensuing years.
Recent studies show that West Virginia has the highest per capita opioid-related death rate in the nation.
In the last six years, there have been 780 million narcotic pills prescribed to patients in West Virginia – that equals 433 pills per person/per year.
Pocahontas County has not escaped the scourge of this epidemic of addiction.
Skinner urged the commission to consider joining with the approximately 3,300 other counties in the U.S. in suing the largest manufacturers and distributors of opioids.
He said that whatever money might be awarded or received in a settlement could be put toward defraying the burgeoning expenses the county is experiencing because of addiction.
Day Report Director Danny Arbogast and Sheriff Jeff Barlow agreed that the Day Report Program, emergency services, the hospital and law enforcement would all benefit by having a bigger budget with which to address the issue within the county.
Skinner proffered a contract offering to represent the county in this matter on a no-risk, contingency basis for a 25 percent fee. All expenses are to be paid by his law firm, and if the county does not see any award in the case, there will be no fee owed to him.
After some discussion and debate, during which Commissioner Jesse Groseclose said that he did not like to vote on something or sign a contract without first having sufficient time to read and consider it. Commissioner David McLaughlin made a motion to proceed with a resolution to take legal action against the opioid manufacturers and distributors and to sign a contract with Skinner and Skinner to represent the county in the matter.
The motion passed with commissioners McLaughlin and Beard voting in the affirmative and Groseclose abstaining.
Skinner said that he will update the commission throughout the entire legal process and expected that the lawsuit would be filed within the next three-to-four weeks.
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Lee Co. commissioners join class action lawsuit against opioid crisis
Feb 28, 2018 | WALB (GA)
By Whitney Shelton
Lee County commissioners voted Tuesday night to take part in the fight against the opioid epidemic by signing on to an existing lawsuit.
Commissioner Billy Mathis endorsed joining the class action lawsuit to the board after seeing many cities and even some whole states signing on to support the lawsuit.
Lee County recognizes that the opioid crisis is real and affecting the entire nation, with over 90 percent of opioids being sold in the United States.
This lawsuit will ask the manufacturers through court proceedings to not market and sell opioids the way they have been doing.
"The way that the manufacturers are marketing these things and, you might as well say it, pushing it on Americans, it's a real problem," said Mathis.
The board of commissioners voted 5 to 0 to join the lawsuit.
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La Porte County plans suit against drug companies, distributors
Mar 1, 2018 | Michigan City News-Dispatch (MI)
By Jon Gard
La Porte County will join other municipalities by filling a lawsuit of its own against prescriptions and distributors in the opioid crisis.
Like similar lawsuits, this one will accuse the drug companies of deceptive marketing practices that contributed to the epidemic and will seek reimbursement for the cost of increased public health and safety services.
The county’s Board of Commissioners approved an agreement Feb. 21 with the law firms of Cohen & Malad in Indianapolis and Friedman & Associates in La Porte for professional services related to the lawsuit.
Lynn A. Toops, an attorney with Cohen & Malad, said La Porte County was among more than 300 communities across the nation trying to recover damages caused by the epidemic, funds that can be used for addiction treatment, education and law enforcement.
“This lawsuit provides one more tool cities and counties have to address an opioid epidemic that is wreaking havoc in Indiana and across the country by obtaining funds from the parties responsible for creating this situation,” Toops said. “That’s the true goal of this lawsuit.”
Like similar lawsuits filed over the past three months, this one will contend the “dramatic increase” in painkiller use in La Porte County resulted from the defendants’ “deceptive marketing” of opioid drugs for financial gain and their “failure to identify, report and stop suspicious orders of opioids.”
“Opioids provide effective treatment for short-term post-surgical and trauma-related pain, and for palliative end-of-life care,” the lawsuits state. “Manufacturer defendants, however, have manufactured, promoted and marketed opioids for the management of other forms of pain by misleading consumers and medical providers through misrepresentations or omissions regarding the appropriate uses, risks and safety of opioids.”
Distributors named in the lawsuits are blamed for failing to report excessive orders of opioids to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency as required by law.
More than 128 opioid prescriptions per 100 residents were filled in La Porte County in 2012, Toops said, citing figures from the federal Centers for Disease Control. The number has declined to 108 but remains excessive, she said.
“It’s hard to wrap your head around those kinds of numbers,” Toops told the commissioners. “By definition, they represent suspicious orders and should have been stopped and reported.”
Toops said her firm represents several Indiana cities and counties in similar lawsuits against the same companies, including St. Joseph County, Lake County, Madison County, Scott County, Marshall County, Hammond, Lafayette and Indianapolis.
In a 162-page claim filed by Lake County in January, the plaintiff details the methods by which more than 20 defendants are alleged to have perpetrated their schemes in pursuit of riches. It requests creation of an abatement fund by defendants from which claims can be paid.
One of the defendants, Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, and three of its executives pleaded guilty in 2007 to federal criminal charges for misleading regulators, doctors and patients about the risk of addiction associated with their product and the drug’s potential to be misused.
Several drug manufacturers and distributors named in the lawsuits previously denied the allegations, according to news reports.
A federal judicial panel in December ruled the lawsuits should be consolidated and assigned to Judge Dan A. Polster of the U.S. District Court in Cleveland, who has assembled a team of magistrates and judicial assistants for the mass action.
Polster has indicated he is interested in finding an early resolution to the cases rather than engaging in lengthy litigation “because too many people are dying from opioid overdoses every day,” Toops said.
Cohen & Malad and Friedman & Associates agree to cover all litigation costs and expenses in prosecution of the county’s claim, according to the contract, and will be paid one-third of any settlement recovered on behalf of the county.
The county is not obligated to reimburse the legal firms if there is no recovery, the contract states.
“I don’t see a down side for the county,” board attorney Doug Biege told the commissioners.
La Porte attorney Shaw Friedman, who appeared before the commissioners with Toops on Wednesday, is the attorney for the La Porte County Council and is listed as the plaintiff’s attorney on similar opioid lawsuits.
The agreement with the county calls for Friedman & Associates to receive 20 percent of the recovery set aside for attorney fees while Cohen & Malad would receive 80 percent.
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Feb 28, 2018 | Savannah, GA
By WJCL (ABC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33123399?token=c316b473-16d6-47dd-bae2-eeecaf9e9ed2
Rough Transcript: support local lawsuits against manufacturers and distributors of powerful opioid painkillers. the opioid crisis -- claimed more than 64-thousand lives in 20-16. attorney general jeff sessions made the announcement tuesday. he says it's the first action by a newly formed task force that aims to target drug makers and distributors of the medications that are fueling the nation's drug-abuse epidemic. we are attacking this crisis at its root, the diversion and over prescription of opioid painkillers. i am announcing today that the department will file a statement of interest in a lawsuit against a number of opioid manufacturers and distributors for allegedly using false, deceptive and unfair marketing of opioid drugs. sessions says the drug crisis cost the federal government a lot of money.the justice department hopes to collect on any settlement payout that comes from the lawsuits. beaufort county is one of six counties in south carolina standing behind a lawsuit that claims prescription medicine caused two dozen people to get hooked on opioidsand eventually overdose.the suit claims the defendants were aware of the addictive nature of the medications ábut failed to warn doctors and patients. last year -- 24 beaufort county residents died because of drug overdoses.at least 17 of those were opioid related. there are more than 20 defendants listed on the lawsuit including drug manufacturing and distribution companies like johnson and johnson and perdue.there are also several local doctors and clinics being sued. wjcl's parent company -- "hearst television" -- is par of an on-going initiative to fight the nationwide opioid cris.
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Good Morning East Texas at 6 AM
Mar 1, 2018 | Tyler, TX
By KLTV (ABC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33123591?token=c316b473-16d6-47dd-bae2-eeecaf9e9ed2
Rough Transcript: lane a newly created opioid task force will review state and local lawsuits against opioid manufacturers in order to assist in the legal effort. upshur county is one of 10 east texas counties that joined a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers last fall. the petitioners are seeking to recover millions of dolars in costs associated with treatment and public safety. the opioid response is costing east texas taxpayers millions of dolars each year. county governments say the decision by the justice department is welcomed news. criminal attorney tod tefteller says a quarter of upshur county's budget goes to law enforcement and jails. "i've seen some figures that suggest that the damages in upshur county alone are between 5 and 9 million dolars, in the last 5 to 6 years." lane titus, rusk, harrison and smith counties are also part of the lawsuit.
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Mar 1, 2018 | Madison, WI
By WISC (CBS)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33123596?token=c316b473-16d6-47dd-bae2-eeecaf9e9ed2
Rough Transcript: as the opioid epidemic continues to grows... lawmakers, leaders, and lawyers are taking action. just this week... the attorney general said he would support local governments like dane county... that are suing major pharmaceutical companies. and yesterday on capitol hill... a house panel started talking about a new series of bills aimed at limiting opioid use and increasing access to treatment. news 3's brittany paris is live outside the dane county jail... with more on what law enforcement is doing to fight the trend. good morning, brittany. good morning. the opioid epidemic has gotten to the point where all dane county deputies now carry narcan, a drug which can reverse an overdose. just last week, deputies saved a 29-year-old inmate here at the jail after she was found unresponsive. they needed three doses to revive her and are now looking into how she got the drugs. madison police say already in 2018 they've responded to 38 opioid overdoses and five people have died. from 2016 to 2017, overdose deaths increased 240 percent. police are attributing the increase in death rates to fentanyl... an opiate that's 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine. they say their traditional dose of narcan isn't working... and they're having to use up to five doses before a person comes out of their overdose.
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Mar 1, 2018 | Shreveport, LA
By KSLA (CBS)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33123597?token=c316b473-16d6-47dd-bae2-eeecaf9e9ed2
Rough Transcript: a newly-created opioid task force in texas will review state and local lawsuits against opioid manufacturers in order to assist in the legal effort... upshur county is one of 10 east texas counties who joined a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers last fall. the petioners are seekingo recover millions of dollars in costs associated with treatment and public safety. the opioid response is costing east texas taxpayers millions of dollars each year. "i've seen some figures that suggest that the damages in upshur county alone are between 5 and 9 million dollars, in the last 5 to 6 years." titus, rusk, harrison and smith counties are also part of the lawsuit.
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Feb 28, 2018 | Greensboro, NC
By WGHP (Fox)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33123623?token=c316b473-16d6-47dd-bae2-eeecaf9e9ed2
Rough Transcript: attorney general jeff sessions says tackling the opioid crisis is a top priority for the trump administration. sessions is creating a 'pill' task force to examine the illegal activity by drug manufacturers. the panel will also recommend changes to existing laws. the attorney general says the justice department also plans to address lawsuits against opioid manufacturers being sued by states and minicipalities around the country -- including some counties right here in north carolina. "we will continue to work tirelessly to bring down the number of opioid prescriptions. we think there are just too many." according to the c-d-c, opioids contributed to nearly 65- thousand deaths in 2016.
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Feb 28, 2018 | Montgomery, AL
By WSFA (NBC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33123631?token=c316b473-16d6-47dd-bae2-eeecaf9e9ed2
Rough Transcript: rho jones with the beasley allen law firm out of montgomery met with lee county commissioners this morning. informing county leaders on why they should become the latest local government to file a lawsuit against one of the largest opioid manufacturers in the country, purdue pharma, l.p. rhon jones law firm "the cost that ar being expended, healthcare, treatment, rehab, law enforcement, loss of oductivity from workers," nes said. the potential wsuit russell county plans t file will mirror that of other suits across alabama, claiming millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent due to the epidemic and attorneys want to hold manufacturers responsible by having that money reimbursed. heath taylor sheriff "it's one of the bigges problems nationally and locally here in russell county with opioid cases," in a recen study by the centers for disease control and prevention, 110 opioids are prescribed per 100 people in russell county, just recently one traffic stop led to investigators uncovering about 500 opioid pills traveling through our area. this law firm russell county is hiring also fired a lawsuit on the state's behalf and potentially another lawsuit to be filed by lee county as well. "it's going t be a tough fight because this particular company is huge, it has tremendous resources, its politically active." u.s. district judge dan polster is handling the case out of cleveland, ohio. there are talks of a settlement in this case , but alabama attorneys believe a final say on this lawsuit will take anywhere from 18-24 months possibly longer.
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Mar 1, 2018 | Atlanta, GA
By WAGA (Fox)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33123580?token=c316b473-16d6-47dd-bae2-eeecaf9e9ed2
Rough Transcript: forsyth and fulton counties are part of a fwrogrowing effort to hold drug companies responsible in a lawsuit. a task force is looking into potential illegal activity by drug manufacturers.
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Feb 28, 2018 | Harrisburg, PA
By WPMT (Fox)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33123639?token=c316b473-16d6-47dd-bae2-eeecaf9e9ed2
Rough Transcript: in the fight against the opioid epidemic. there's now a task force in place to look into the national epidemic. the prescriptions interdiction and litigation unit -- will examine potentialy illegal activity by drug manufacturers - as wel as recommend changes to existing laws regarding opioid drugs. sessions says the trump administration will also go after companies that use deceptive advertising to market opioids -- and will look into lawsuits filed at the state and local levels. "i am ordering the task force 4:21 PMto examine existing state and local government lawsuits against opioidmanufacturers to determine where we can be of assistance." dauphin, cumberland, and york counties have all filed lawsuits against opioid drug manufacturers. here in pennsylvania -- the opioid operations comand center is providing an update on initiatives included in governor's opioiddisaster declaration. the collaboration has passed the halfway point of the 90-day disaster emergency period. among the accomplishments highlighted today, the rate of treatment at the commonwealths 45 centers of excellence -- has improved to 71- percent for medicaid patients. before the emergency declaration -- only 48-percent of those patients were receiving treatment. while we are pleased with the progress to date with these initial disaster initiatives, we're working to add initiatives and tools to measure progress during these 90 days. opioid addicition is a disease and not a moral failing. everyone deserves the opportunity to get into treatment and see the possibility that is recovery. the governor is expected to make a major announcement tomorrow - on additional measures to combat the opioid epidemic.
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