Preview Newsletter

Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report - 4/4/18

DOJ

DOJ Looks To Help Resolve Opioid MDL As Friend Of Court
Apr 3, 2018 | Law360
By Darcy Reddan

The U.S. Department of Justice sought Monday to step into multidistrict litigation alleging opioid manufacturers overstated the drugs' benefits and downplayed risks when marketing them to doctors, looking to help craft nonmonetary settlements to aid the public and reimburse the government for treatment of users.
Justice Department cites ‘substantial financial stake’; Wants role in opioid settlement talks
Apr 3, 2018 | Legal Newsline
By Daniel Fisher

The U.S. government wants a seat at the table as lawyers for hundreds of municipalities and other plaintiffs negotiate a potentially multibillion-dollar settlement of lawsuits over the opioid addiction crisis, citing its “substantial financial stake” in the matter and need to recover its own costs.
Justice Department Asks to Join Opioid Settlement Talks
Apr 3, 2018 | Wall Street Journal
By Sara Randazzo

The U.S. Justice Department is ramping up its efforts to curb the opioid epidemic, requesting to join settlement talks in sprawling litigation against the makers and distributors of prescription painkillers.
US Department of Justice bolsters legal action against opioid manufacturers
Apr 4, 2018 | The Pharma Letter
By Staff

The US Department of Justice is to weigh in on litigation against opioid manufacturers and distributors, with a motion to act as a ‘friend of the court’ in the ongoing settlement negotiations.

Commentary and FYIs

States are falling short in dealing with opioid crisis, report finds
Apr 3, 2018 | Consumer Affairs
By Mark Huffman

A new report from the National Safety Council finds most states have failed to implement effective policies to tackle the opioid addiction crisis in America.
Brawner: Opioid lawsuits: What to do with the millions/billions? (Opinion)
Apr 4, 2018 | SW Times Record (AR)
By Steve Brawner

State and local governments in Arkansas are suing opioid manufacturers for millions or billions. If they’re successful, what will they do with all that money?
The Opioid Crisis Is Not Just About Pain Medication (Opinion)
Apr 4, 2018 | Pain News Network
By Roger Chriss

The opioid crisis is no longer primarily about prescription opioids. Illicit fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and other black market drugs are now involved in more overdoses than pain medication.
To end the opioid epidemic, save lives, don’t take them (Opinion)
Apr 3, 2018 | The Hill
By Jasmine Tyler

Last week, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed U.S. attorneys to seek the death penalty for drug dealers in all “appropriate” cases. This flies in the face of a decade of bipartisan work in Congress to address the harm caused by drug addiction, and threatens to make federal drug enforcement efforts even more pointlessly cruel than they already are.
Ed Markey, Katherine Clark call for more federal action to combat opioid crisis at national summit
Apr 3, 2018 | MassLive (MA)
By Shannon Young

Massachusetts lawmakers urged Congress and the Trump administration Tuesday to take additional steps to end the opioid abuse epidemic, as well as called on federal officials to begin measuring the progress made thus far on the issue.
Schumer Urges Federal Government To Release Budget’s Opioid Funding
Apr 4, 2018 | WRVO (NY)
By Payne Horning

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) is calling on the federal government to release the funding that was included in Congress’ recently passed budget to battle the opioid epidemic.

Northeast (MA, ME, NY)

Danvers Joins 70 Other Towns To Sue Pharmaceutical Companies
Apr 4, 2018 | Danvers Patch (MA)
By Dave Copeland

Danvers selectmen voted to join 70 other towns and cities in Massachusetts against pharmaceutical companies that make prescription opioids, claiming that those companies knew risk of addiction for patients. Those companies, the towns and cities claim, pushed the costs of the opioid epidemic onto cities and towns like Danvers, which have been particularly hard hit by the opioid epidemic.
Danvers to join national lawsuit against drug makers
Apr 3, 2018 | Wicked Local Danvers (MA)
By Mary Byrne

Danvers plans to join as many 70 other Massachusetts communities in a national lawsuit aimed at drug companies and distributors for their alleged role in the opioid epidemic.
Danvers joins opioid lawsuit
Apr 4, 2018 | Salem News (MA)
By Ethan Forman

Selectmen voted Tuesday night to join an effort by 70 other Massachusetts communities to sue drug makers and distributors of opioid painkillers to recover costs due to the public health crisis.
Rockland weighs preliminary action toward municipal opioid lawsuit
Apr 3, 2018 | Penobbscot Bay Pilot (ME)
By Sarah Thompsno

As municipalities across the country join lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and wholesale distributors, City Councilor Amelia Magjik introduced an option for Rockland to explore if it should follow a similar path.
Augusta council to consider joining lawsuit against drug companies
Apr 3, 2018 | Central Maine (ME)
By Keith Edwards

Augusta city councilors on Thursday are expected to decide whether the city should join with other municipalities and counties in a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies over claims that information was withheld information about how addictive their drugs could be.
SUFFOLK COUNTY’S SUIT AGAINST BIG PHARM IS MOVING FORWARD. Decision Coming Soon
Apr 3, 2018 | The Independent (NY)
By Peggy Spellman Hoey

Suffolk County officials expect a judge overseeing their lawsuit against opioid drug manufacturers to rule on whether the legal action should be dismissed within the next two months.

Southeast (AL, GA, WV, NC, FL)

City of LaFayette joins opioid lawsuit
Apr 3, 2018 | The LaFayette Sun (AL)
By Alton Mitchell

The city of LaFayette has agreed to join a growing class-action lawsuit being brought against the manufacturers of opioid related medications. The city of LaFayette is just the latest in growing list of hundreds of municipalities across the country to seek legal action against companies that produce and supply the highly addictive narcotics.
Dougherty Co. selects law firm group for opioid litigation
Apr 4, 2018 | WALB (GA)
By Ashley Bohle

As the opioid epidemic continues to spiral out of control, our Southwest Georgia leaders are working to fight this epidemic.
Williamstown council votes to join opioids suit
Apr 4, 2018 | Parkersburg News and Sentinel (WV)
By Jeffrey Saulton

In a unanimous vote Tuesday, Williamstown City Council became the latest government body to join the class action lawsuit to be filed against opioid manufacturers and distributors.
County joins lawsuit against opioid makers
Apr 4, 2018 | The Laurinburg Exchange (NC)
By Beth Lawrence

Scotland County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously this week to join a mass action lawsuit against manufacturers and distributors of opioids.
Florida mental health providers join crush of opioid lawsuits
Apr 4, 2018 | Tallahassee Democrat (FL)
By Jeffrey Schweers

Big Bend Community Based Care and six other state mental health agencies are joining a national legal action against some of the biggest drug manufacturers and distributors in the world to try to recover billions of tax dollars spent on the state’s opioid crisis.

Midwest (MI)

Kalamazoo County leaders move forward on lawsuit against opioid makers
Apr 4, 2018 | WWMT (MI)
By Anna Giles

Kalamazoo County Commissioners are preparing to join a statewide lawsuit against some of the biggest opioid manufacturers in the world.
Kalamazoo County Might Sue Opioid Drug Makers
Apr 3, 2018 | WMUK (MI)
By Sehvilla Mann

Kalamazoo County Board members have expressed interest in joining a lawsuit against manufacturers of opioid drugs. Local governments around the country are seeking damages for the costs of fighting the opioid epidemic. Those governments have also sought to change drug companies’ marketing of opioids.
Opioid lawsuit supported by majority of Kalamazoo County board
Apr 3, 2018 | Michigan Live (MI)
By Malachi Barett

A majority of Kalamazoo County commissioners support suing pharmaceutical companies for manufacturing addictive opiates, but more information is needed before formal action is taken.

Northwest (WA)

Clark County officially files federal opioid lawsuit
Apr 3, 2018 | The Reflector (WA)
By Staff

Last week Clark County officially filed a federal lawsuit against pharmaceutical manufacturers and wholesalers that make and sell opioids.

West (WY)

Northern Arapaho Tribe sues drug companies, citing opioid epidemic on central Wyoming reservation
Apr 3, 2018 | Casper Star Tribune (WY)
By Arno Rosenfield

The Northern Arapaho Tribe sued several opioid manufacturers and distributors in federal court Monday, claiming the companies knowingly caused a public health epidemic on the Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming by deceptively marketing and distributing the drugs.

Broadcast Media Coverage

FOX 17 Morning News
Apr 4, 2018 | Grand Rapids, MI
By WXMI (FOX)

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34014195?token=45f4cbc6-044d-4d0a-bdc4-13ef60daed73
WSBT 22 News on Fox
Apr 4, 2018 | South Bend, IN
By WSBTDT2 (Fox)

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34014281?token=45f4cbc6-044d-4d0a-bdc4-13ef60daed73
2 News at 4:30am
Apr 4, 2018 | Salt Lake City, UT
By KUTV (CBS)

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34014427?token=45f4cbc6-044d-4d0a-bdc4-13ef60daed73
Today in Georgia
Apr 4, 2018 | Albany, GA
By WALB (NBC)

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34014472?token=45f4cbc6-044d-4d0a-bdc4-13ef60daed73
News 8 Daybreak
Apr 4, 2018 | Grand Rapids, MI
By WOOD (NBC)

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34014501?token=45f4cbc6-044d-4d0a-bdc4-13ef60daed73
News Channel 3 at 4:30am
Apr 4, 2018 | Grand Rapids, MI
By WWMT (CBS)

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34014562?token=45f4cbc6-044d-4d0a-bdc4-13ef60daed73
24 Hour News 8 at 11p
Apr 3, 2018 | Grand Rapids, MI
By WOTV (ABC)

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34014616?token=45f4cbc6-044d-4d0a-bdc4-13ef60daed73
2 News at 6:00pm
Apr 3, 2018 | Salt Lake City, UT
By KUTV (CBS)

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34014751?token=45f4cbc6-044d-4d0a-bdc4-13ef60daed73

DOJ

DOJ Looks To Help Resolve Opioid MDL As Friend Of Court

Apr 3, 2018 | Law360

By Darcy Reddan

The U.S. Department of Justice sought Monday to step into multidistrict litigation alleging opioid manufacturers overstated the drugs' benefits and downplayed risks when marketing them to doctors, looking to help craft nonmonetary settlements to aid the public and reimburse the government for treatment of users.
After signaling last month it was mulling whether to join the Ohio MDL, the DOJ on Monday requested permission to participate in the litigation as a friend of the court in order to provide the federal government's knowledge and perspective on the crisis, which involves hundreds of thousands of fatal overdoses in recent years from prescription painkillers, heroin and illicit fentanyl.
The department also wants to be involved in settlement discussions to ensure any resolution will serve the public interest. The DOJ said it would not be a direct party to the case.
“Today, we are taking a new step to help those who have suffered the consequences of the opioid epidemic by offering our assistance as friend of the Court in ongoing litigation against opioid manufacturers and distributors," U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement Monday. “We have already filed a statement of interest in this case, arguing that the taxpayer has paid a heavy price because of dishonest opioid marketing practices ... We are determined to see that justice is done in this case and that ultimately we end this nation’s unprecedented drug crisis.”
Manufacturers targeted in the case include Purdue Pharma LP, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., Allergan Inc. and Mallinckrodt LLC. Distributors targeted in the case include Cardinal Health Inc., AmerisourceBergen Corp. and McKesson Corp., which control most of the U.S. drug distribution market, as well as units of CVS Health Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
In its motion Monday, the DOJ said that in the litigation, the department can provide information that is “timely, useful, or otherwise necessary to the administration of justice,” coordinate information requests from the court with various agencies, and provide briefings on governing law and regulations.
The department can also promptly review any questions the court directs to it, “to the fullest extent permissible by law and consistent with protecting its interests in holding criminal actors accountable,” according to the motion.
As for settlement negotiations, the DOJ said it can offer a national perspective on the crisis and assist in crafting nonmonetary solutions that will help the nation.
“The United States has expertise and information that can assist the parties in carefully crafting non-monetary remedies that will effectively combat the opioid crisis on a nationwide basis, all in accordance with applicable law,” the motion stated.
The government said that its value to the litigation has already been demonstrated by information requests fulfilled by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA has presented its Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System, which contains information on controlled substances that manufacturers report, and provided the names and market-share percentages of the manufacturers and distributors comprising 95 percent of each state’s drug market to the DOJ.
On April 5, the DEA will also present deidentified transaction data from ARCOS for Jan. 1, 2012, through Dec. 31, 2013, that uses numerical identifiers for buyers and sellers for each state and Puerto Rico.
Some attorneys are not shocked by the DOJ’s move Monday.
“The motion suggests that the DOJ is effectively fence-sitting at this time; that is neither unsurprising nor unwanted,” Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC's Paul J. Hanly Jr., a lead plaintiffs attorney in the MDL, told Law360 by email.
Paul Geller of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP told Law360 that any additional assistance in handling the crisis is welcome.
"We’re dealing with a multifaceted problem whose tentacles reach far and wide, so the more data, knowledge, and informational perspective that can be brought to bear in tackling this epidemic through the MDL, the better," Geller said.
In an email Tuesday to Law360, Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. spokesperson Jessica Castles Smith said, "Opioid abuse and addiction are serious public health issues and finding solutions will require collaboration among many stakeholders."
Smith added that Janssen's marketing and promotion of opioids were "appropriate and responsible" and called the MDL allegations against the company "baseless and unsubstantiated," saying the risks and benefits of the drugs were labeled and that they "had some of the lowest rates of abuse among this class of medicines."
Counsel for other pharmaceutical companies declined to comment Tuesday.

The case is In re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation, case number 1:17-md-02804, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

Return to headline | Return to top
Justice Department cites ‘substantial financial stake’; Wants role in opioid settlement talks

Apr 3, 2018 | Legal Newsline

By Daniel Fisher

The U.S. government wants a seat at the table as lawyers for hundreds of municipalities and other plaintiffs negotiate a potentially multibillion-dollar settlement of lawsuits over the opioid addiction crisis, citing its “substantial financial stake” in the matter and need to recover its own costs.
The Justice Department, in a filing late yesterday, said it wouldn’t be appropriate for the federal government to join the multidistrict litigation consolidated in federal court in Ohio, but that it wanted to participate as a so-called amicus or friend of the court. Justice already has agreed to cooperate in the MDL by providing data from its Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders Systems, or ARCOS, which details the path of every legally manufactured opioid pill through the system from factory floor to retail pharmacy.
More ominously for the municipal plaintiffs and their private lawyers, who hope to earn contingency fees as high as 30 percent or more on any financial recovery, the government reiterated the “numerous ways” it can “seek reimbursement for its direct and indirect costs of providing medical care to opioid users.”
In a statement of interest with the MDL court last month, Justice said it may seek recovery under federal laws covering Medicare and Veterans Administration benefits obtained through fraud. State attorneys general also may pursue their own recoveries, diminishing the pot of money left for municipal plaintiffs and potentially even eliminating their claims.
Yesterday’s filing in the court of U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster came a month after the judge asked the federal government to state whether it wanted to join the MDL. After evaluating its options and the potential for separate recovery of its costs, the government said, it would prefer to limit its role to participating in settlement discussions and “providing information to the Court and the parties to facilitate effective non-monetary remedies to address problems arising from the national opioid crisis.”
“Here, the United States has a unique interest and expertise regarding the subjects at issue in this litigation and can provide information and expertise to assist the parties and the Court in reaching a comprehensive and effective resolution of the issues in this case,” the Justice Department said in the five-page filing.
Settlement talks have been conducted largely out of public view after Judge Polster ordered the parties to maintain “strict confidentiality.”
The judge has made no secret of the fact he wants a prompt resolution that would “dramatically reduce” the number of overdose deaths in the country, preferably this year. He has already been forced to recognize the reality that defendants – the entire spectrum of the opioid distribution chain, from manufacturers to pharmacies and physicians – have little incentive to settle until thorny legal issues have been resolved including whether they will still be subject to lawsuits outside the MDL.
Early last month Judge Polster urged plaintiffs and defendants to prepare for bellwether trials, citing “various barriers to settlement.”
Typically in MDL litigation the parties tee up a few trials to see how judges and juries resolve disputed issues of fact and law. In this case that might include whether manufacturers like Purdue Pharma and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen unit can be held liable for the abuse of drugs that were sold only through a doctor’s prescription, and whether distributors like Cardinal Health and McKesson can be required to pay for shipments of pills to regions with suspiciously high levels of consumption. The distributors will likely argue only the Drug Enforcement Administration, through its ARCOS system, had a complete picture of how many pills were being shipped to specific stores or regions.
In an order last week with implications for a global settlement, Judge Polster authorized the distributor defendants to discuss their own methods for detecting suspicious orders, saying the sharing of proprietary data on this subject among competitors would not violate antitrust laws. In that order, the judge cited the need for “preventing further litigation by private parties or state attorneys general” by establishing “improvements in monitoring and/or reporting” of drug transactions.
The federal government, in yesterday’s filing, said its participation as an amicus “could help ensure that remedial action in the multi-district litigation is structured to serve the public interest.”

On April 5, it plans to supply redacted ARCOS data for 2012 and 2013 showing the number of pills distributed to each state with numerical identifiers for buyers and sellers. The DEA regulates the entire opioid distribution chain, dictating the number of pills that can be manufactured each year and tracking the movement of narcotics until they are in the hands of individual patients.

Return to headline | Return to top
Justice Department Asks to Join Opioid Settlement Talks

Apr 3, 2018 | Wall Street Journal

By Sara Randazzo

The U.S. Justice Department is ramping up its efforts to curb the opioid epidemic, requesting to join settlement talks in sprawling litigation against the makers and distributors of prescription painkillers.
The department said in a Monday filing in U.S. District Court in a Ohio federal court that the government’s “unique national perspective…could help ensure that remedial action in the multidistrict litigation is structured to serve the public interest.”
Fighting Back

Lawsuits brought by local and state municipalities and Native American tribes over opioids are mounting in places hit hard by the crisis.
Hundreds of lawsuits seeking to hold companies accountable for the opioid epidemic have been consolidated before U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland, who has pushed aggressively for a swift resolution. The suits, brought by local and state municipalities and Native American tribes, have piled up since last year, with at least 600 filed so far in state and federal courts.
Arkansas in late March became the 17th state to sue Purdue Pharma L.P. or other drugmakers, claiming their aggressive marketing of prescription painkillers has contributed to widespread drug abuse rates. Their suit follows similar actions by states including Alabama, Kentucky, Delaware, New Jersey and Ohio.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers have rushed to sign up cities and counties to file lawsuits of their own. Many also name major distributors of opioids, including AmerisourceBergen Corp. and McKesson Corp., claiming they didn’t do enough to stop the flow of drugs into communities. Some lawsuits also name pharmacies, pharmacy-benefit managers and individual doctors.
Purdue, which recently said it would stop promoting OxyContin and other opioids to doctors, has denied the allegations in the lawsuits and said it is dedicated to being part of the solution to opioid abuse. The distributors have said they are committed to maintaining strong programs designed to detect and prevent opioid diversion.
In its Monday filing, the Justice Department asked Judge Polster to let the government join settlement talks and serve as a “friend of the court” to provide data and information relevant to resolving the case.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions added in a statement that, “We are determined to see that justice is done in this case and that ultimately we end this nation’s unprecedented drug crisis.”
While the federal government won’t technically be a plaintiff, the move is aimed in part at securing some portion of any eventual settlement for the federal treasury, the Justice Department said.
The motion says DOJ’s involvement in settlement talks is one avenue for the government “to seek reimbursement for its direct and indirect costs of providing medical care to opioid users” and notes that the government’s “substantial financial stake” in combating the opioid epidemic “has implications for the proper allocation of any monetary settlement.”
The federal government has joined other so-called multidistrict litigation cases, including the 2016 case against Volkswagen over its diesel-engine emissions and tobacco litigation in the 1990s. But typically, the government has filed its own lawsuit, rather than asked to participate as a friend of the court, said Elizabeth Burch, a law professor at the University of Georgia who studies multidistrict litigation.
Paul Hanly, a New York lawyer with Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC who is one of the lead plaintiffs’ counsel in the case, called the Justice Department’s move “fence sitting” and said it is “neither unexpected nor unwanted.”
The Justice Department indicated last month to Judge Polster that it might get involved, detailing the cost of the crisis in a court filing, including an $82 million tab in calendar year 2017 for the Department of Defense’s costs related to opioid use, abuse and dependence.

The department said this week its proposed involvement in the settlement talks comes on top of other initiatives aimed at ending the drug crisis, including criminal charges against more than 120 defendants related to prescribing or distributing opioids and narcotics, and the creation of a data-analytics program to help find evidence of overprescribing and opioid-related health-care fraud.

Return to headline | Return to top
US Department of Justice bolsters legal action against opioid manufacturers

Apr 4, 2018 | The Pharma Letter

By Staff

The US Department of Justice is to weigh in on litigation against opioid manufacturers and distributors, with a motion to act as a ‘friend of the court’ in the ongoing settlement negotiations.
Multiple lawsuits have in recent months been launched by US state and local government bodies against opioid manufacturers and distributors.
They allege that pharma companies are culpable for the ongoing opioid addiction crisis in the USA, which contributed to an estimated 59,000 deaths from overdose in 2016.
One such legal fight was launched earlier this year by New York City, in which the city’s Mayor Bill de Blasio announced action against drugmakers Allergan, Endo International, Johnson & Johnson, Purdue Pharma and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, in a bid to "hold manufacturers and distributors to account," for perceived malpractices.
As a 'friend of the court', the Department of Justice will be able to provide information and expertise that will guide the outcome of the proceedings.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said his agency had “vigorously fought the prescription opioid crisis, deploying new tools and resources to stop the traffickers and corrupt medical professionals who are profiting off of addiction.”
“Today, we are taking a new step to help those who have suffered the consequences of the opioid epidemic by offering our assistance as friend of the court in ongoing litigation against opioid manufacturers and distributors.”
“We have already filed a statement of interest in this case, arguing that the taxpayer has paid a heavy price because of dishonest opioid marketing practices, and deserves to be compensated. Now we are formally seeking to provide the federal government’s expertise and legal counsel to the court on a potential settlement.”

Return to headline | Return to top

Commentary and FYIs

States are falling short in dealing with opioid crisis, report finds

Apr 3, 2018 | Consumer Affairs

By Mark Huffman

A new report from the National Safety Council finds most states have failed to implement effective policies to tackle the opioid addiction crisis in America.
In fact, the Council said only 13 states -- Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Virginia, and West Virginia -- have improved their approach to the drug epidemic in the last year.
Eight states -- Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon and Wyoming -- received failing grades, having adopted just one or two out of six key actions recommended in the report.'Need to wake up'
"While we see some states improving, we still have too many that need to wake up to this crisis," said Deborah A.P. Hersman, the Council's CEO. "For the last five years, the Council has released Prescription Nation reports to provide a road map for saving lives across the country. We hope states adopt the recommended actions laid out here so we can eliminate preventable opioid deaths and stop an everyday killer."
The National Institute on Drug Abuse reported last month that opioid overdose -- which includes heroin as well as prescription painkillers -- kills an average of 115 Americans each day. Beside the toll in lives and health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates prescription opioid abuse is an $78.5 billion drain on the U.S. economy each year.
Some states where opioid abuse is particularly bad have a much bigger challenge. In February, Maine Attorney General Janet Mills reported 418 drug overdose deaths in the state in 2017, an 11 percent rise over 2016 -- when deaths surged 40 percent over 2015.Deadly rise of illegal fentanyl
The report said 85 percent of opioid-related deaths were caused by the victim taking one or more opioid drugs, with a 27 percent increase in deaths due to illegal fentanyl and fentanyl analogs. Heroin overdose deaths, meanwhile, declined.
Drug manufacturers have come under fire for allegedly assuring medical practitioners that these powerful prescription painkillers are not addictive. In February, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) released a report tracing payments from major opioid drug makers to third party advocacy groups that have promoted the use of painkillers.
McCaskill says her report describes how drug makers have invested heavily in third party organizations that serve as pro-opioid advocacy groups. The report says these groups have issued guidance that minimizes the risks of opioid addiction and endorses opioid use for the long-term treatment of chronic pain.

Return to headline | Return to top
Brawner: Opioid lawsuits: What to do with the millions/billions? (Opinion)

Apr 4, 2018 | SW Times Record (AR)

By Steve Brawner

State and local governments in Arkansas are suing opioid manufacturers for millions or billions. If they’re successful, what will they do with all that money?
On March 21, the Association of Arkansas Counties and the Arkansas Municipal League announced that 72 counties — it’s now all 75 — and 210 cities together were suing 65 defendants in the opioid industry in Crittenden County Circuit Court. Both organizations were already part of a nationwide federal lawsuit. Then on March 29 Attorney General Leslie Rutledge announced her office is suing three of the largest opioid manufacturers.
Opioids are a class of drugs that traditionally have been used to reduce acute, short-term pain. Drugs include morphine, hydrocodone, fentanyl and others. Opioids also are sold illegally as heroin, opium and illicit forms of fentanyl.
The suits accuse the manufacturers and others of conspiring to misinform doctors about the risks of their drugs. As a result, highly addictive medication meant for short-term, searing pain instead was prescribed for long-term, chronic pain, such as back injuries.
The number of prescribed opioids exploded — and so did the number of addicts and the number of overdose deaths. Arkansas has the nation’s second highest opioid prescription rate — 114.6 for every 100 people. In 2016, 236 million opioid pills were sold here. The Arkansas Department of Health says 401 Arkansans died of a drug overdose that year. It’s hard to tell how many were caused by opioids. Multiple drugs often are involved. But opioids clearly were a major factor in many cases. In 1999, there were 113 drug overdose deaths.
Rutledge says the manufacturers violated the Arkansas Medicaid Fraud False Claims Act. The rationale is their marketing scheme caused the state to pay millions in Medicaid expenses. She says they also violated the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
The counties and cities say local governments bear much of the epidemic’s costs for first responders, law enforcement, jails, etc.
An obvious precedent may offer a glimpse of the future. In 1998, states sued the tobacco companies, which were also accused of scheming to market a product with known health risks.
The tobacco companies saw the writing on the wall and settled, paying $246 billion for 25 years and then additional money later.
What happened to that windfall? Nationwide, states have used it for many purposes, often having nothing to do with tobacco prevention or tobacco-related health care costs. According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, states will receive $27.5 billion in fiscal year 2018 from the settlement and tobacco taxes. Less than 3 percent, or about $722 million, will go to prevent young people from smoking and to help smokers kick the habit. At the same time, the tobacco companies spend 12 times as much, almost $9 billion, marketing their products.
And Arkansas? The state has received about $946 million since the settlement. It receives about $50 million annually now. In 2000, voters easily passed the Tobacco Settlement Proceeds Act. It created the Arkansas Tobacco Settlement Commission, which direct the funds to seven program areas, all related to health. Matt Gilmore, the executive director, said 27 percent of the annual tobacco payment goes to the Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program. Portions of the other programs also address tobacco — minority health, aging, UAMS research, etc., though it’s hard to say how much.
Last year, the Legislature and the governor moved more than $100 million of the settlement money out of health care and into the state’s long-term reserves in case there’s a budget crisis.
So what will happen if the state, counties and cities get millions or billions from the opioid manufacturers? The private law firms hired for the lawsuits will get their contingency fees — 21 percent in the county-city lawsuit in Crittenden County, according to a lawyer with one of the firms. There’s a formula based on the size of the award in the attorney general’s suit.
The rest of the money? Like the tobacco settlement, it could be another windfall for state and local governments. Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a press conference that the state has already spent money on the opioid epidemic, so this in a sense would be a reimbursement.
Another option is to use payments created as a result of the epidemic to stem the epidemic: for education, treatment, health care costs, law enforcement, etc.
How would you like to see it used?

Return to headline | Return to top
The Opioid Crisis Is Not Just About Pain Medication (Opinion)

Apr 4, 2018 | Pain News Network

By Roger Chriss

The opioid crisis is no longer primarily about prescription opioids. Illicit fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and other black market drugs are now involved in more overdoses than pain medication.
However, the current response to the overdose crisis is still focused primarily on opioid prescribing.Arizona just approved legislation to reduce opioid prescribing for injured workers. And President Trump has stated that he will push for a one-third reduction in opioid prescribing over the next three years.
The ongoing media narrative reinforces this view. The crisis is blamed on prescription opioids, combined with manipulative marketing by manufacturers, pharma funded advocacy groups, and poor prescribing practices by physicians. Although these factors may have played a role in the onset of the crisis 20 years ago, the “opioid epidemic” has evolved far beyond that.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse summarizes the origins of the crisis this way:
"In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers, and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates. This subsequently led to widespread diversion and misuse of these medications before it became clear that these medications could indeed be highly addictive."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there have been three “waves” to the crisis:
"The first wave of opioid overdose deaths began in the 1990s and included prescription opioid deaths. A second wave, which began in 2010, was characterized by heroin deaths. A third wave started in 2013, with deaths involving highly potent synthetic opioids, particularly IMF (illicitly manufactured fentanyl) and fentanyl analogs."
CDC researchers recently admitted that they significantly inflated the number of deaths involving prescription opioids for years. They also acknowledged in an “Annual Surveillance Report of Drug-Related Risks and Outcomes” that high dose opioid prescribing has been in decline for over a decade:
“Between 2006 and 2016, the annual prescribing rate per 100 persons for high-dosage opioid prescriptions (>90 morphine milligram equivalents (MME)/day) decreased from 11.5 to 6.1, an overall 46.8% reduction and an average annual percentage change of 6.6%. The rate leveled off between 2006 and 2009, then decreased 9.3% annually from 2009 to 2016.”
These trends are clearly visible at the state level. Maine’s Attorney General recently said “Fentanyl has invaded our state” and that most of the overdose deaths there were caused by multiple drugs. When pharmaceutical opioids were involved, most of the time they were “not prescribed for the decedent.”
FiveThirtyEight gave a detailed breakdown of drug deaths by state. In an article headlined “There Is More Than One Opioid Crisis,” Kentucky was actually found to have more overdoses involving gabapentin than oxycodone.
And in a recent Cleveland.com interview, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, refers to the crisis as shifting “from a prescription-pill problem to one centered around deadly street drugs.”

In other words, prescription opioids have become only a small part of a crisis that now includes heroin, illicit fentanyl, and an increasing number of non-opioid drugs. In fact, we are fast approaching what will become the fourth wave of the crisis, one involving poly-drug abuse and overdoses, that will further challenge first responders, emergency rooms and addiction treatment facilities.
But still the response to the crisis has been focused on opioid prescribing. This may have made some sense a decade ago, when surveillance of the crisis was just starting. It made for good optics, but it was bad policy. Curbing prescribing is wreaking havoc with pain management, not only for chronic, progressive and degenerative disorders but also cancer and hospice patients. And it is not helping people who suffer from opioid addiction.

As Drs. Stefan Kertesz and Sally Satel point out: “Too many health care providers have started to see their fierce commitment to dose reductions as a badge of good citizenship, without any effort to measure the human outcomes of their own policies.”

Pain management expert Dr. Lynn Webster wrote this about the recently announced Medicare plan to reduce high dose opioid prescribing: “Such actions will not reduce opioid deaths related to heroin and illicit fentanyl which is the source of most overdose deaths. In fact the opposite effect may occur."

The opioid crisis will not be solved by focusing on prescription opioids. It is too late for that. Failure to recognize the evolving nature of the crisis will simply risk more fatal overdoses.

Return to headline | Return to top
To end the opioid epidemic, save lives, don’t take them (Opinion)

Apr 3, 2018 | The Hill

By Jasmine Tyler

Last week, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed U.S. attorneys to seek the death penalty for drug dealers in all “appropriate” cases. This flies in the face of a decade of bipartisan work in Congress to address the harm caused by drug addiction, and threatens to make federal drug enforcement efforts even more pointlessly cruel than they already are.
Sessions has spent his first year as attorney general trying to turn back time by repealing significant Obama-era criminal justice reforms. He has moved to limit federal oversight of local law enforcement that was designed to reduce abuses and to encourage prosecutors to charge the most serious offenses possible.
The overdose crisis requires urgent action, but more harsh prosecutions won’t help. Instead of calling for the death penalty, the Trump administration should focus on supporting and implementing proven public health strategies that will save lives, not take them. The Trump planrelies on 20th century attempts to address the overdose problem, invoking concerns of more over-policing in communities of color, greater disproportionate sentencing, and harmful criminalization of drug possession for personal use.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated more than 66,000 died from a drug overdose in 2017. The United States can’t afford to waste its time on tough-on-crime posturing and, instead, needs to focus on measures that have been shown to work. And extensive research has shown that the death penalty does not deter crime.
The death penalty is inhumane, not least because it is inherently irreversible. Most U.S. experts and state governments have recognized that its application has been plagued with arbitrariness, racial disparities and error. The number of executions in the United States, in fact, has dropped to its lowest in 25 years, with fewer death sentences imposed last year than in any year since 1973.
People convicted of drug-related offenses in the United States already suffer massively disproportionate punishment — something President Trump and Attorney General Sessions seem not to appreciate as problematic. Disturbingly, Trump repeatedly has praised the Philippines’ war on drug users, a murderous government-sanctioned campaign that has resulted in more than 12,000 extrajudicial killings in the past two years. Only a few countries, Iran and Saudi Arabia among them, still impose the death penalty for drug crimes.
The U.S. government and many states had been moving in a more positive and forward-looking direction in recent years, adopting measures that have been shown to work on reducing the harm caused by drug use. Congress has passed a series of bipartisan criminal justice law reforms. The Second Chance Act of 2007 improved programming for prisoners’ re-entry into the community. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 reduced the sentencing disparity for the use of crack and powder cocaine, which had imposed disproportionately longer sentences on crack offenders and caused egregious racial disparities in the federal system.
The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 improved access to drug treatment and to naloxone, the opioid overdose antidote that has saved tens of thousands of lives. In 2016, Congress also modified the law to make front-line public health and harm reduction services such as syringe exchanges eligible to use federal HIV/hepatitis C prevention dollars.
And in February, the Senate Judiciary Committee, under Chairman Chuck Grassley’s leadership, reported the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, S. 1917 (SRCA), out of committee. The SRCA bill seeks to rein in federal mandatory minimum sentencing laws by increasing judicial discretion in sentencing and reducing some mandatory minimums for drug offenses, while also expanding prison reentry programs for eligible prisoners to qualify for early release.
The massive loss of life in the United States as a result of drug dependence requires a dramatic response. But instead of looking at solutions that have been shown to help, the Trump administration has chosen a response that is cruel and full of dangerously mindless drama — the kind that will make the crisis worse and kill more people in the process.

Return to headline | Return to top
Ed Markey, Katherine Clark call for more federal action to combat opioid crisis at national summit

Apr 3, 2018 | MassLive (MA)

By Shannon Young

Massachusetts lawmakers urged Congress and the Trump administration Tuesday to take additional steps to end the opioid abuse epidemic, as well as called on federal officials to begin measuring the progress made thus far on the issue.
Although U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark touted bills federal lawmakers have passed to expand access to addiction treatment and crack down on fentanyl trafficking, the Massachusetts Democrats told National RX Drug Abuse and Heroin Summitattendees that more must be done to reduce opioid-related deaths.
Markey, who previously addressed the summit in 2017, praised Republicans and Democrats for coming together on legislation that required a surgeon general's report on opioid abuse, made medication-assisted treatments more widely available and enhanced border agents' ability to detect drug smuggling.
He argued that such bipartisanship is needed if the United States is serious about ending the opioid crisis.
The senator, however, took issue with the Trump administration's approach to the issue, particularly the president's call to stop drug trafficking by building a wall along the United State's southern border with Mexico, temporary designation of opioid abuse as a "public health emergency" and plan to seek the death penalty against some drug dealers.
Contending that "more than 50,000 people have died from prescription drug, heroin and fentanyl overdoses since President (Donald) Trump took office," Markey called on the Republican to focus on ensuring providers receive proper prescribing education, dedicating more funding and resources to treatment and investing in "21st Century" border surveillance technologies.
"It's time for this and all future administrations to be held accountable for addressing the opioid crisis," he said.
Markey further told summit attendees he will offer legislation that represents "a national strategy to end the opioid epidemic in America."
The senator said the measure will require the federal government to set tangible benchmarks for how the U.S. addresses the opioid crisis. It also looks to measure progress on key objectives, like reducing overdose deaths, expanding treatment availability, increasing the number of people in sustained recovery and decreasing emergency room visits for overdoses.
"We need to start measuring our progress or we will continue to fight the same battle over and over again," he said.
Like Markey, Clark agreed that federal lawmakers "have much work to do" when it comes to combatting opioid abuse.
The Melrose Democrat said she's committed to pushing legislation that aims to reduce the number of opioid-related deaths, like the "YOUTH Act," which calls for expanding access to evidence-based, medication-assisted treatment for adolescents and young adults, and the "Prescriber Support Act," which would help doctors and nurses make decisions about prescribing opioids.
Clark added that she and Congressman Hal Rogers, R-Kentucky, have further offered a measure that would create a student loan repayment program for those in the substance use disorder treatment field.
"All of these proposals are just incremental steps. But, when we put another treatment professional to work in the field, or we effectively communicate safe prescribing guidelines to health care providers on the ground, those steps forward create future steps forward," she told summit attendees. "The only way we can fully address the crisis is by working together to find every creative, practical tool we can to chip away at it."
Contending that funding plays an important part in achieving that goal, Clark called on Congress to appropriate the money needed to crack down on opioid abuse.
Markey and Clark were among six congressional lawmakers who spoke at the summit held in Atlanta, Georgia.
The annual conference, which runs through April 5, brings together local, state and federal officials, as well as treatment providers, business leaders and educators to discuss and work on solutions to ending drug abuse.

Return to headline | Return to top
Schumer Urges Federal Government To Release Budget’s Opioid Funding

Apr 4, 2018 | WRVO (NY)

By Payne Horning

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) is calling on the federal government to release the funding that was included in Congress’ recently passed budget to battle the opioid epidemic.
Lawmakers approved 6 billion over the next two years to help pay for prevention, treatment and law enforcement efforts to fight the drug epidemic.
During a stop at a substance abuse and treatment clinic in Fulton Tuesday, Schumer said the funding has not yet made it to the local level.
“For several years we have heard pronouncements from the federal government and no help. And for the first time, we have real help,” Schumer said. “We need the people in charge in Washington to get the money here ASAP to central New York immediately.”
Farnham Family Services, a substance abuse and behavioral health clinic headquartered in Oswego, opened Oswego County’s first medically assisted treatment center to help wean addicts off of opioids last year. And the demand has been high. Due to limited resources, some are waiting up to four weeks for the treatment. Schumer said wait times at these facilities could be reduced with the new federal funding.
“Farnham can’t wait another year. Neither can families,” Schumer said. “There’s nothing more that Congress can do, but the people who are head of HHS (Health and Human Services) and head of the Department of Justice can demand that it get here very, very fast.”
Schumer says bureaucracy can often slow the release of federal funds, but time is of the essence in the opioid battle. According to the Centers for Disease Control, nearly 1,400 people died of opioid overdoses in upstate in 2016 – including 242 in central New York.
During the visit, Schumer endorsed New York’s new fee on opioid manufacturers and distributors that was passed in the state’s budget. It’s intended to help the state keep up with the growing drug crisis.
“The doctors, the pharmacists and above all else the manufacturers had a responsibility and the fact that there is a levy on the production of these drugs – as long as it goes to the right place like Farnham – I’m all for it,” Schumer said.

Return to headline | Return to top

Northeast (MA, ME, NY)

Danvers Joins 70 Other Towns To Sue Pharmaceutical Companies

Apr 4, 2018 | Danvers Patch (MA)

By Dave Copeland

Danvers selectmen voted to join 70 other towns and cities in Massachusetts against pharmaceutical companies that make prescription opioids, claiming that those companies knew risk of addiction for patients. Those companies, the towns and cities claim, pushed the costs of the opioid epidemic onto cities and towns like Danvers, which have been particularly hard hit by the opioid epidemic.
The lawsuit is being led by KP Law, the Boston-based law firm that represents more than a third of the municipalities in Massachusetts. Jonathan Silverstein of KP Law will file the lawsuit in federal court and seek to recover damages to reimburse towns for the increased costs, including higher insurance premiums, more fire and police personnel and treatment costs. KP Law and the other firms working on the case will only collect a fee if the lawsuit results in a verdict or settlement in favor of the towns.
Each town's lawsuit is filed individually, but the law firms are able to group the towns together when conducting pretrial work. Each town's lawsuit is modeled after the first filed against an opioid maker by a Massachusetts community last year. That lawsuit, filed by Greenfield in western Massachusetts, claimed the companies "aggressively pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction."
In 2015, 2 million Americans had a substance abuse disorder involving prescription pain relievers, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine. People who who have been prescribed opiates by a doctor are 19 times more likely to try heroin, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The American Society of Addiction Medicine estimates that 23% of use heroin develop opioid addiction.
Selectmen voted 4-0 to join the lawsuit. Chairman David Mills was not at Tuesday's meeting.

Return to headline | Return to top
Danvers to join national lawsuit against drug makers

Apr 3, 2018 | Wicked Local Danvers (MA)

By Mary Byrne

Danvers plans to join as many 70 other Massachusetts communities in a national lawsuit aimed at drug companies and distributors for their alleged role in the opioid epidemic.
Selectmen voted Tuesday night to move forward on joining the national effort, subject to further research by town council into details of the fee agreement.
The decision came after the second of two discussions had by officials at recent Board of Selectmen meetings. On Tuesday, Town Council David Deluca told the board he was supportive of the litigation.
“I do believe it’s a reasonable proposition for the town to engage in,” he said.
The lawsuit claims the underlying cause of the opioid crisis is a result of opioid manufacturers’ and distributors’ false studies, intense marketing and misleading advertising, according to Johnathan Silverstein of KP Law, who presented the case to the board during a March meeting.
The lawsuit, one called a multidistrict litigation, aims to help communities recover some of the expenses tied to the opioid crisis. A consortium of lawyers are filing individual lawsuits on behalf of each municipality.
“I think on the ground here in Danvers and in communities across the state, you see the impact of this crisis every day in public safety responses, [and] unfortunately, deaths and overdoses,” Silverstein said.
Danvers saw 25 opioid-related deaths between 2012 and 2016, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
Attorney DeLuca said there is “every expectation that the litigation will be successful,” but he still had some questions about the fee agreement.
He explained the litigation is operating under a contingency agreement, meaning there would be no attorney’s fees unless there is a recovery.
“I’m still questioning the Attorney’s Office on the nature of that recovery,” he said. “If, for example, there is a recovery that is something other than a monetary recovery, how [will] the attorney’s fees be compensated?”
DeLuca said he would resolve his understanding of the fee agreement in the next week or so, and report back to the board with an agreement he could support.
Still, he, like Silverstein, said there would be no cost to the town.
He told the board, however, there would be costs in the form of time and effort. In the case of a recovery, the town will need to produce records and information that could be used for calculating damages.
Overall, selectmen, who voted 4-0 with Chairman David Mills absent, said they were supportive of joining the litigation.
“I want to into this with caution,” selectmen Dan Bennett said. “Like any unknown, there are some factors that could affect the outcome, but I think it’s probably worthwhile to go forward rather than to not get involved.”
His main concern was how the settlement would ultimately be used — would it be used to benefit people suffering from addiction?
Selectmen Bill Clark and Gardner Trask had similar concerns.
“This is not a budget builder,” Trask said. “This is to get the funds to the appropriate people... whether it’s making sure the people are trained to respond, they got the right equipment, [or] the right resources, including Narcan and other supplies they need.”
Town Manager Steve Bartha said while there’s the possibility a judge may offer guidance for how the funds are used, they will also likely be subject to appropriation through Town Meeting.

Return to headline | Return to top
Danvers joins opioid lawsuit

Apr 4, 2018 | Salem News (MA)

By Ethan Forman

Selectmen voted Tuesday night to join an effort by 70 other Massachusetts communities to sue drug makers and distributors of opioid painkillers to recover costs due to the public health crisis.
Selectmen discussed this legal move last month with attorney Jonathan Silverstein of the firm Boston municipal law firm KP law, one of the legal firms that are part of a consortium seeking to recover damages in federal court for cities and towns have incurred due to the opioid epidemic.
The opioid crisis has taken a toll in Danvers; opioid statistics from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health show 25 opioid-related overdose deaths in town from 2012 to 2016. Essex County has seen 1,764 opioid-related overdose deaths between 2000 and 2016, with 280 deaths in 2016, up from 51 in 2010.
The costs to the town to respond to the crisis is not known, but it will be one of the things the lawsuit may reveal.
The lawsuit seeks to recoup costs for increased police and fire responses, including for staffing, training and equipment; increased health care premiums, workers compensation claims and treatment costs; and other impacts borne by taxpayers, according to a memo from Silverstein to the town’s attorney.
Danvers Town Counsel David DeLuca said the litigation has caused a great deal of discussion among town attorneys. Many communities have opted to join.
“The theory,” said DeLuca, “there was knowledge of the danger and harm from the pharmaceuticals who profited from this.” DeLuca echoed the concerns Silverstein outlined for the board last month.
DeLuca said it is expected litigation will be successful, however, it will not come without the town having to spend money. The law firms handling the case will work on a contingency fee basis, meaning the firms will only get paid a percentage of any judgment or settlement if the case is successful.
There will be a need for the town to dedicate staff time to seek out records, especially in the calculation of damages, DeLuca said.
The town should go into this litigation with “eyes wide open. If we are going to benefit from this litigation, we have to put the time in,” DeLuca said.
While details of the fee agreement are still being worked out, DeLuca said, said the result of legal action should be “a monetary recovery from which attorneys fees will be paid.”
While the Board of Selectmen voted 4-0 to move ahead — with Chairman David Mills absent from the meeting — Selectman Dan Bennett was cautious.
“My concern is the real victims of this are the people with addictions,” Bennett said, asking if the money recovered could be dedicated to those with addiction problems.
“I agree,” DeLuca said. “There is damage all over the place.”
Damages would not only look back on the past, but should also consider future damages, he said.
Town Manager Steve Bartha said Town Meeting could appropriate settlement money for such items as community policing.
Selectmen discussed the case in executive session before the public meeting, and Gardner Trask said he learned fees for the law firms involved “will be limited.” The risk is “fairly, very, very minimal,” he said.
DeLuca said there is strength in numbers by going this route, instead of the town going it alone.
Danvers’ civil action would be along the lines of the one first taken by the western Massachusetts community of Greenfield, the first Bay State community to sue in federal court in December 2017.
Since then, more than 70 communities have joined the effort. In the north of Boston region, Amesbury, Marblehead, Methuen, Newburyport and Salisbury are on board.
A nationwide consortium of law firms are representing more than 240 governmental agencies; locally the Massachusetts Opioid Litigation Attorneys, or M.O.L.A., are KP law, Rodman, Rodman and Sandman of Malden and Sweeney Merrigan Law of Greenfield and Boston. It’s not a class action lawsuit, but something called a multidistrict litigation. Essentially, this kind of litigation consolidates many cases and claims for the court’s convenience.
Each community brings their own individual lawsuit in federal court. For pretrial work, the cases are handled together; the judge then picks some number of cases that are representative of the other lawsuits to move forward. How these cases turn out will help inform settlement discussions for any number of lawsuits. A community may decide to accept the claim or go to trial.
Greenfield’s lawsuit alleges: “The manufacturers aggressively pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction.”
The suit alleges this behavior was “intentional and/or unlawful.” The suit also alleges the drug makers and distributors failed under state and federal law to monitor, detect or report suspicious orders of prescription opiates.

Return to headline | Return to top
Rockland weighs preliminary action toward municipal opioid lawsuit

Apr 3, 2018 | Penobbscot Bay Pilot (ME)

By Sarah Thompsno

As municipalities across the country join lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and wholesale distributors, City Councilor Amelia Magjik introduced an option for Rockland to explore if it should follow a similar path.
Current lawsuits target opioid distributors for false or negligent advertising by minimizing risks to consumers, she said during the Monday, April 3, agenda-setting meeting.
It is an opportunity for Rockland to regain financial losses incurred by police, fire, and EMS during overdose calls, as well as the residual affects to the community, she told some of her hesitant colleagues.
With council approval, the City would retain a law firm, at no cost, “to investigate whether Rockland has damages that should be pursued in terms of joining a class-action suit on the federal level.”
There have been a series of lawsuits filed against manufacturers and distributors around the country by municipalities.
“(There’s) the cost that now goes into South School, for example, because of kids being raised in homes that are struggling with addiction,” she said. “And kids who are being born addicted... It’s about recouping losses to the community and to repay some of those costs that we bear.”
Councilors Adam Ackor and Ed Glaser, however, were not sold on the proposal.
Though Rockland would not pay for a law firm’s investigation, city time would be required, Glaser said. He then listed the city attorney, city manager, and future city councils as entities whose time would be used.
Said Ackor: “I’ve read that these are very, very difficult, and could stretch for decades in the courts....We certainly have pressing matters here at home to deal with than chasing this down a rabbit hole.”
Councilors will revisit this topic at the regular council meeting, Monday, April 9. The two-part question being: A.) Does Council even want to pursue this idea, and then B.) what law firm should do the research.
“I’m not encouraging the City to spend money in casing something that could be futile, Magjik said.
“But if it could gain us without loss, then I personally would be a proponent of that course of action,” she said.

Return to headline | Return to top
Augusta council to consider joining lawsuit against drug companies

Apr 3, 2018 | Central Maine (ME)

By Keith Edwards

Augusta city councilors on Thursday are expected to decide whether the city should join with other municipalities and counties in a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies over claims that information was withheld information about how addictive their drugs could be.LOCAL & STATE Posted Yesterday at 4:48 PM Updated April 3Augusta council to consider joining a lawsuit against drug companies
Drug overdoses killed a record 418 Mainers last year, an 11 percent increase over the 376 overdose deaths in 2016. Opioids, including prescription painkillers as well as illicit drugs such as heroin, were responsible for 354 of those deaths.
Municipal, state and county governments have spent public resources combatting drug addiction and its effects.
A lawsuit brought by Napoli Shkolnik PLLC, of New York, and Trafton, Matzen, Belleau & Frenette LLP, of Auburn, alleges drug companies suppressed knowledge of the risks of addiction to opiates, and the public has suffered as a result.
Augusta City Manager William Bridgeo said if the numerous public entities that have joined the lawsuit and other suits filed nationwide prevail, Augusta, depending on the settlement or judgment reached, could be awarded money to help recoup the city’s costs related to opiate drug use. That could include the cost of ambulance crews using Narcan to save the lives of overdose victims, as well as the cost of overtime for police and rescue workers responding to calls involving opiates. Proceeds of a settlement could be used to create addict treatment programs.
Kennebec county commissioners voted last month to join the lawsuit, as did city councilors in Waterville last December.
The lawsuit is similar to one filed by numerous U.S. states against tobacco companies, which eventually resulted in a settlement in which the companies agreed to provide money to states.
Bridgeo said the proposed agreement with the law firms that filed the suit specifies that Augusta would not have to pay anything to related to the case unless the case is won. In that instance, the companies could deduct fees for their services from any funds awarded in a settlement or judgment.
“The contract (between the city and law firms) makes it clear the city incurs no financial obligation, beyond a share of a settlement or judgment,” Bridgeo said.
Bridgeo said the city’s law firm, Preti Flaherty, has a potential conflict of interest in the case, so Stephen Langsdorf, the city attorney, couldn’t review the contract proposal for the city. Instead, Bridgeo said, Marci Alexander and Mark O’Brien, both at-large councilors who are lawyers, reviewed the document.
The City Council meets at 7 p.m. Thursday in the council chamber at Augusta City Center.
Councilors also are scheduled to vote on whether to submit seven proposed changes to the city charter in a referendum question to voters June 12.
The proposed charter changes would make some minor administrative changes to city rules, including clarifying term limits to specify a school board member may serve three consecutive terms as chairperson of the board after his or her term as a regular board member has expired; require that nomination papers be made available 100 days prior to elections and returned 60 to 75 days before the election; and raise the limit on the amount of debt city councilors can approve without going to referendum, from the current $750,000 to $1 million.
Councilors are also scheduled to:
• hear a presentation on the Augusta Boys and Girls Club;
• consider accepting the donation of $82,000 for restoration of the reading room at Lithgow Public Library from the Friends of Lithgow Library;
• consider authorizing the city manager to approve occasional service of beer and wine at some public events at Lithgow Public Library; and
• consider authorizing beer to be served at several events on city properties coming up this summer.

Return to headline | Return to top
SUFFOLK COUNTY’S SUIT AGAINST BIG PHARM IS MOVING FORWARD. Decision Coming Soon

Apr 3, 2018 | The Independent (NY)

By Peggy Spellman Hoey

Suffolk County officials expect a judge overseeing their lawsuit against opioid drug manufacturers to rule on whether the legal action should be dismissed within the next two months.
The county is the lead municipality in the case. It’s suing for compensation to remedy the public safety threat that has been created by the addictive nature of the drugs. The companies misrepresented the drugs’ risks of addiction, the county argues.
But a motion by attorneys for the main defendants in the case, Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, contends the company can’t be held liable for selling the narcotic because it is approved by the Federal Drug Administration. They wanted to wait until the FDA concluded a study of opioids.
Judge Jerry Garguilo recently ruled in favor of the county that awaiting the FDA’s investigation of the benefits and risks of opioids would delay the county’s lawsuit. In Garguilo’s March 14 order, he states there is “no compelling reason to impose a stay of the proceedings.”
Garguilo stated he recognizes the FDA is generally responsible for ensuring drugs are “safe and effective,” but the court will examine the scientific knowledge in the past and make a determination about which data “the defendants possessed to support their marketing claims when they were made — matters, which the FDA will not address and which do not require its expertise but, which, rather, routinely fall within the conventional experience of judges.”
“The court is also constrained to express its concern that whatever value the studies might yield will be significantly outweighed, and Justice defeated, by prejudice arising from the delays that inevitably accompany the agency process,” Garguilo concludes.
Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming, who sits on the county’s public safety committee, said attorneys for both sides argued for seven hours about whether the case should be dismissed before Garguilo on March 19. The South Fork lawmaker noted it’s a very unusual case with roughly 20 plaintiffs.
While Garguilo is deciding the lawsuit’s fate, Fleming remains optimistic given his reluctance to grant a stay while the FDA investigates the risks and benefits of opioids.
“It’s actually a real win for the county,” she said.
Another new development of the case is that a request by Dr. Russell Portenoy, a pain management specialist who weighed in on the risks of opioids for the drug companies, to be dropped from the lawsuit was agreed to by all parties involved, Fleming said.
Fleming noted that at the end of the day, the defendants are completely different in that doctors have been considered secondary in the lawsuit.
“We also agreed that it made sense because the focus is on these larger corporate defendants because this is not a criminal action. It is a civil action and the relief that we are seeking is monetary,” she said.
Purdu Pharma’s spokesmen did not respond to a reporter’s inquiry by press time.
Attorneys for both sides are scheduled to appear in court on April 25.

Return to headline | Return to top

Southeast (AL, GA, WV, NC, FL)

City of LaFayette joins opioid lawsuit

Apr 3, 2018 | The LaFayette Sun (AL)

By Alton Mitchell

The city of LaFayette has agreed to join a growing class-action lawsuit being brought against the manufacturers of opioid related medications. The city of LaFayette is just the latest in growing list of hundreds of municipalities across the country to seek legal action against companies that produce and supply the highly addictive narcotics.
City Attorney Joseph “Mac” Tucker will not be representing the city in the proceedings, but the suit will be handled by the Beasley Allen Law Firm in Montgomery. The suit is a national suit that will be heard in a Cleveland, Ohio Federal Courthouse as hundreds of city, county, and state governments seek to recover damages from opioid companies.
The national suit claims that manufacturers have deliberately deceived patients and doctors.
believing that opioids are not addictive and were a safe treatment for long-term pain management. City Attorney Tucker told members of the LaFayette City Council that he did not see why the city should not join the lawsuit. Tucker also noted that the only way to handle a suit of this size is to go through a large firm.
LaFayettes participation in the suit will cost the city nothing out of pocket. If damages are awarded the attorney representing the city will receive 1/3 of those damages as compensation for their work. The other funds go to the city to help with the burden caused by what is being called a very terrible epidemic.

The Chambers County Commission joined the lawsuit two weeks ago and is also being represented under the umbrella of the Beasley Allen Law Firm. There is no word yet on when the trial could possibly begin.

Return to headline | Return to top
Dougherty Co. selects law firm group for opioid litigation

Apr 4, 2018 | WALB (GA)

By Ashley Bohle

As the opioid epidemic continues to spiral out of control, our Southwest Georgia leaders are working to fight this epidemic.
Dougherty County Commissioners have now chosen a law firm to represent them in opioid litigation.
Blasingame, Burch, Garrard, and Ashley is the law firm commissioners selected moving forward with this opioid litigation.
It was a six to one vote on Monday favoring the Athens-based law firm group.
BBGA was selected out of the five groups that presented to commissioners last week.
A representative from the group said last week when presenting to commissioners they have represented more than 100 women across the southeast after faulty uterus mesh was shipped to the U.S. from Europe causing infections.
The representative said the issue caused incontinence and the faulty mesh became a nationwide problem that was the biggest multidistrict litigation in U.S. history.
Now the BBGA group wants to tackle the opioid epidemic within South Georgia communities.
Dougherty County Attorney Spencer Lee said the damages here will be specific to Dougherty County.
"We are a long time down the road before we are thinking about any kind of recovery. Apparently yes, these big-time law firms think there's something here just like they do in class action lawsuits," explained Lee.
While other Southwest Georgia communities are joining the fight against the nationwide opioid epidemic, the city of Tifton has also chosen the Blasingame, Burch, Garrard, and Ashley law firm to represent them.
Lee said litigation could take between two to three years.

Return to headline | Return to top
Williamstown council votes to join opioids suit

Apr 4, 2018 | Parkersburg News and Sentinel (WV)

By Jeffrey Saulton

In a unanimous vote Tuesday, Williamstown City Council became the latest government body to join the class action lawsuit to be filed against opioid manufacturers and distributors.
Mayor Jean Ford said Williamstown is the only Wood County government entity not in the lawsuit.
“Parkersburg has done it, the county has and so has Vienna,” Ford said.
For those that join in the suit, the law firms will not charge any fees unless they win the case.
“I heard on the news that the attorney general of the United States has contacted the judge in Cleveland to get in on the suit,” Councilman Marty Seufer said. “Right now no one has said it, but it may be they want to seal it in so we need to make a decision. It doesn’t cost anything to get in but they get 25 percent of any settlement.”
Seufer said he has been told the first filings in the suit may be in Wood County.
Seufer said the city, as well as the county, has been heavily involved in the opioid crisis.
“We’ve added an officer and that’s his skill to work on this,” he said. “We’ve had time in magistrate court we never had before; our fire department is more involved and we can make a case to keep the ambulance service up here.
“This is real, it is happening and it is affecting Willlamstown big time,” Seufer said.
Seufer said the city has had damages from being on what he called the front lines and he said he hopes the city will be able to recoup some of the money it has lost.
“It is very important,” Ford said. “This is something we need to be part of.”
City Attorney Blaine Myers said he would like time to review the paperwork, which he received Tuesday.
“It’s a seven-page representation agreement and I will do my due diligence by reviewing it,” he said. “I can have it done by Thursday and I’ll let you know if there are any red flags.”
Council voted to join the lawsuit pending review of the agreement by Myers.
Council also voted to approve the ordinance to close portions of four streets for the new Williamstown Elementary School in the place that was once the home of Fenton Art Glass.
Ford said the streets are Elizabeth Street, Caroline Avenue, Fifth and Henderson.
Seufer said the city and county may have overlooked a small plot.
“There is a 15-foot alley between Caroline and Henderson avenues that is also bordered by Fifth Street and Elizabeth that looks like it may be a catch basin,” he said. “I’ll contact Mike Fling (school official) to see what they are planing for this area.”

Return to headline | Return to top
County joins lawsuit against opioid makers

Apr 4, 2018 | The Laurinburg Exchange (NC)

By Beth Lawrence

Scotland County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously this week to join a mass action lawsuit against manufacturers and distributors of opioids.
The board made the decision after hearing a presentation from Amy Quezon, a litigator with the McHugh Fuller Law Group at its planning retreat in February and further discussion of the matter in its retreat on Thursday.
“There is a belief that large opioid manufacturers and distributors have allowed prescriptions of these drugs to be filled to an extreme amount, and I think most counties have seen the negative impact that has occurred,” said Commissioner Whit Gibson. “I know we in North Carolina have three counties in the top 10 in the nation to be impacted by this.”
Scotland has joined a list of ever increasing counties across the country and state seeking relief and mitigation for the fallout surrounding opioid addiction. In North Carolina that list includes: Richmond, Buncombe, New Hanover, Yadkin, Brunswick, Rockingham, Surry and Onslow counties.
A mass action lawsuit is different from a class action suit. A multi district litigation means that all motions filed in cases in which counties and municipalities who have brought suits will be heard and ruled on by one federal judge, Dan Polster in Cleveland, Ohio. This is done to ensure that there are not inconsistent rulings from different judges and districts which might affect other cases. Each county or municipality will be allowed to decide whether to settle and the amount of damages they should ask for. If the cases go to trial, they will be heard in North Carolina federal court.
The law firms will work on a contingency basis covering all costs and only being paid if there is a settlement. The cost will be shared among the counties and cities represented.
The suit began when the West Virginia Attorney General filed lawsuit against manufacturers and distributors and reached out to other law firms to from a consortium of five national law firms to represent multiple counties: Baron & Bud; Greene, Ketchum, Farrell, & Tweed LLP; Hill Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Rafferty, & Proctor P.A.; and McHugh Fuller Law Group.
The suit alleges that manufacturers and distributors wantonly pushed for prescriptions of drugs like OxyContin, codeine, Demerol, Percocet, Vicodin and dilaudid claiming that such drugs were safe with little risk of addiction despite mounting evidence to the contrary. The drugs were touted as good for pain management although studies show that they often damage the body’s ability to perceive pain causing long term users to feel even minor pain more intensely.
Any proceeds from a verdict or settlement of the case would be used to combat addiction, help first responders like police and EMS, and help health departments and Department of social services child protective services cope with the effects of what many are calling an epidemic.
Data from 2016 shows that there were 191.5 opioid prescriptions written per 100 residents in Scotland County, according to the CDC. Richmond showed 151.6 per 100 residents and Robeson showed 129.7 per 100. In 2016 1500 people died of an opioid related issue in the state.
According to the website drugabuse.gov, 80 percent of all heroin users started with prescription opioids.
Also this week, Commissioner Carol McCall invited her fellow commissioners and the public to attend a meeting at the AB Gibson Center on Monday to learn about addiction. Eastpointe behavioral health will host an opioid training meeting at the center at 9 a.m.
“I think it’s a good opportunity for any of us here tonight including our audience to learn more about the opioid epidemic and how it impacts Scotland County and what resources there are for us to combat it,” McCall said.

Return to headline | Return to top
Florida mental health providers join crush of opioid lawsuits

Apr 4, 2018 | Tallahassee Democrat (FL)

By Jeffrey Schweers

Big Bend Community Based Care and six other state mental health agencies are joining a national legal action against some of the biggest drug manufacturers and distributors in the world to try to recover billions of tax dollars spent on the state’s opioid crisis.
A lawsuit expected to be filed Wednesday by the mental health providers in federal court in Tallahassee is part of a nationwide strategy to go after Big Pharma similar to the way litigants went after the tobacco industry.
The suit was filed by Ryan B. Hobbs of Brooks, LeBoeuf, Bennett, Foster and Gwartney partnered with Price Armstrong of Birmingham, Alabama.
States, cities and counties across the country have filed similar lawsuits under fraud and federal racketeering laws. The Florida lawsuit, filed by a consortium of Behavioral Health Managing Entities in 65 of the state 67 counties, will be merged with dozens of similar lawsuits against the manufacturers of Oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin and others. All the lawsuits will be presided over by the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Ohio.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster is presiding over more than 200 opioid-related cases.
The abuse of morphine-based painkillers has reached epidemic proportions nationally, killing 64,000 in the U.S. in 2016 and costing $500 billion a year to combat.
“We refuse to stand by while the makers and distributors of these harmful and highly addictive drugs cost Florida taxpayers billions of dollars each year — not to mention the horrible loss of life and the harm they cause to Florida families,” said Mike Watkins, CEO of Big Bend Community Based Care and President of the Florida Association of Managing Entities.
The state is divided into seven districts, each of which is assigned a Behavioral Health Managing Entity - a nonprofit organization required by state law to deliver substance abuse and mental health services to uninsured Floridians.
The consortium’s providers are charged by statute to care of the families harmed by the opioid crisis and seek any and all remedies including the pursuit of financial payments from third parties.
“The filing represents best effort to vigorously pursue justice on behalf of those we serve and recover the cost of providing badly needed mental health services on behalf of the taxpayers of this state,” Watkins said.
The lawsuits are being filed because state and federal governments are not coming up with the money to fight the epidemic.
For years, Florida has been at the bottom of mental health funding compared to other states. Florida provided $36.05 per person in mental health support services in 2014, less than one-third of the U.S. average of $125.90, according to the Florida Policy Institute.
The opioid crisis has created an even larger demand for services that the managing entities must provide without getting additional funding. Medical service providers are not getting paid for the work they are required to provide.
And the crisis will continue to result in funding shortages down the road, providers said.
Instead of waiting for state and federal government to pay for the treatment costs, they're trying to get the money from Big Pharma.
Plaintiffs include small cities like Ceredo, West Virginia, to New York City. In Florida, Delray Beach, Jacksonville, Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Escambia counties have filed suit against Big Pharma.
Defendants in many of the lawsuits already filed with the Ohio northern district include manufacturers like Teva Pharmaceuticals, Purdue Pharma, Endo International, Cephalon, Johnson &Johnson, and Amerisource Bergen, and distributors including Wal-Mart, Walgreens, CVS and Health Mart Systems.
Some of those manufacturers and distributors have accepted responsibility and entered into multi-million dollar settlements with the Justice Department.
“We share the attorney general’s concerns about the opioid crisis and we are committed to working collaboratively to find solutions,” Purdue Pharma told The Atlantic magazine in an article published last June. “We are an industry leader in abuse-deterrent technology.”
Another company, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, told the Atlantic it has acted “appropriately, responsibly, and in the best interests of patients” regarding opioid pain medications.
Common arguments among the lawsuits are that opioids have been diverted and used for other things than intended pain relief, and that drug companies used false and sophisticated advertising to hook a nation.
"This crisis arose because Defendants told physicians and the public, through a well-orchestrated marketing campaign, that the risk of addiction to prescription opioids was low when opioids were prescribed to treat chronic pain," the Big Bend Community Based Care lawsuit stated. "In support of this claim, Defendants misrepresented research and manipulated data to make opioids appear safer than they are."
In particular, the industry relied heavily on one 1980 letter to the New England Journal of Medicine declaring opioid addiction was rare.
"Defendants’ opioid marketing campaign has been wildly successful and profitable," the lawsuit said. "Their reliance on this letter and other sources of information that were false and misleading (as described in more detail below) ultimately resulted in a well-documented and substantial increase in the prescription of opioids."

Return to headline | Return to top

Midwest (MI)

Kalamazoo County leaders move forward on lawsuit against opioid makers

Apr 4, 2018 | WWMT (MI)

By Anna Giles

Kalamazoo County Commissioners are preparing to join a statewide lawsuit against some of the biggest opioid manufacturers in the world.
he controversial decision to move forward was made at a commission meeting Tuesday afternoon. There could be a big pay out in damages should the lawsuit find these companies accountable, but an exact figure is not yet known.
Commissioners in favor of suing say it's not about the money, it's more about the ethics and holding opioid manufacters accountable.
"The disease of addiction is real in our community," Kalamazoo County Chairwoman Stephanie Moore, a supporter of joining the lawsuit, said.
Big name drug makers and pharmacies like Purdue Pharma and Walgreens are named in the lawsuit.
"I don't think that a lawsuit is going to change the epidemic at all," Kalamazoo County Commission Vice Chairman Dale Shugars said.
Shugars is one of several opposed to the lawsuit, doubting it will be effective in fighting the opioid epidemic in Kalamazoo County.
"I just want to be careful that we're not just doing this for ceremonial purposes, that we actually can affect some change," Kalamazoo County Commissioner Ron Kendall said.
Kendall expressed concern about how the lawsuit might affect Pfizer, a top Kalamazoo County employer. Pfizer is planning to expand its facility on Portage Road, which could bring roughly 140 new jobs. Portage city leaders have discussed giving Pfizer a 12 year tax exemption in exchange for the investment, but that plan has not been finalized.
Some Kalamazoo City Commissioners visited the council meeting where this was discussed, warning about joining a lawsuit against other drug companies. Pfizer is not named in the statewide suit but Kendall and others fear a, "slippery slope."
"Having Pfizer in the backyard is a big deal. They are not named in the lawsuit, but if it's not opioids its another drug," he said.
Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting supports moving forward with the suit, saying fighting opioid addiction is a significant financial burden for the court system and local jails.
"In my mind, it's right that we look at are there ways to recoup that cost. Are there ways we can work to fund better services for those people that are suffering from addiction?" he said.

Return to headline | Return to top
Kalamazoo County Might Sue Opioid Drug Makers

Apr 3, 2018 | WMUK (MI)

By Sehvilla Mann

Kalamazoo County Board members have expressed interest in joining a lawsuit against manufacturers of opioid drugs. Local governments around the country are seeking damages for the costs of fighting the opioid epidemic. Those governments have also sought to change drug companies’ marketing of opioids.
On Tuesday, Democrats on the county commission indicated their support for joining the lawsuit. Commissioner Julie Rogers says drug makers have misled doctors and patients about the risk of opioid addiction. Rogers says she hopes the lawsuit will change companies’ practices.
“To make sure that they are up front with any kind of potential for addiction, to try to turn this tide,” she said.
But Republicans on the Board expressed doubt that the case would make a difference in the opioid crisis. Commissioner Roger Tuinier suggested that addiction is a matter of, as he put it, “personal responsibility.”
“The bottom line is, the person that takes it is responsible for what they take,” he said.
More than 45 local units in Michigan have filed claims against opioid makers. Kalamazoo’s board has not said when it will decide whether to join them.

Return to headline | Return to top
Opioid lawsuit supported by majority of Kalamazoo County board

Apr 3, 2018 | Michigan Live (MI)

By Malachi Barett

A majority of Kalamazoo County commissioners support suing pharmaceutical companies for manufacturing addictive opiates, but more information is needed before formal action is taken.
Tuesday, the Board of Commissioners spent an hour talking about the pros and cons of litigation during its committee meeting. The board directed Administrator Tracie Moored to address some of their uncertainties, resolving to make a decision at a later date.
Michigan cities and counties are filing federal civil lawsuit filed against some of the largest drug makers and pharmacies in the world on Dec. 19, 2017. The lawsuits seek to force companies to award damages for opioid-related deaths, treatment and law enforcement costs.
The Council of Economic Advisers estimated that the national economic cost of the opioid crisis was $504.0 billion in 2015, according to a 2017 report.
Commissioners Julie Rogers, a Democratic physical therapist, and Ron Kendall, a Republican, have been in discussions with attorneys and Michigan county officials since December.
Rogers said pharmaceutical companies have misled health care professionals and the public about the addictive potential of opiates for years. The crisis is perpetuated by false claims made by the industry, she said.
The result: growing costs for communities dealing with expenses for hospital visits, crime, treatment and even the deaths of opioid patients.
"Pursuing litigation is not about money," she said. "From my perspective it's an ethical and moral cause. I hope the outcome of potential litigation is to change the way (pharmaceutical manufacturers) practice and make sure they are up front with (the) potential for addiction."
Kendall is open to the idea, but cautioned the county to recognize that a lawsuit will not solve the expansive opioid crisis. Litigation would likely entangle a large amount of staff time and resources, so he asked the county to look before it leaps.
Six Democrats on the board expressed their support, while Republicans were less sure about the benefit. Commissioner Roger Tuinier wondered why manufacturers should solely take the blame -- doctors, hospitals and pharmacies are similarly guilty, he said.
Vice Chair Dale Shugars strongly opposed the lawsuit.
"I don't think a lawsuit is going to change the epidemic at all," he said. "If we prevail in the lawsuit, how many deaths are we going to prevent? I don't think it will prevent any deaths. (It will just) make us feel good."
Attorney Mark Bernstein, who has been in contact with the county since December, flatly disagreed with Shugars' sentiment.
"We've already seen some defendants change their conduct," he said.
A Kalamazoo County lawsuit would be filed as its own individual claim in U.S. District Court and move on to a multi-district litigation court in Ohio, Bernstein said.
The lawsuit pending in Federal District Court in Cleveland consolidates more than 400 complaints across the country.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions filed a file a so-called statement of interest in the Ohio court, essentially throwing the weight of the Justice Department behind the lawsuit.
Bernstein said the county would not be charged if the lawsuit fails. If successful, Rogers said, the firm would be awarded 30 percent of financial damages.
"This is an important decision for a municipality," Bernstein said. "I think (Kalamazoo County) is doing its appropriate, thoughtful due-diligence on this. We're pleased to see it appears the direction is to engage in an effort to change the course of the opioid epidemic through the civil justice system."
"The risk is quite minimal and manageable," he said.
According to a county report on opioid abuse, the number of retail opioid prescriptions has steadily decreased to 72.4 per 100 people since peaking in 2011. However, Kalamazoo County remained above the national rate in 2016 -- 66.5 prescriptions per 100 people.
The number of accidental opioid-related deaths doubled from 29 to 59 between 2015-16.
Opioid and drug abuse hit home to several commissioners.
An average of 24 people were treated for unintentional opioid overdoses each month in 2016. The rate of men treated for opioid-related overdose was twice as high than the rate for women.
In 2016, fentanyl accounted for 20 deaths, more than triple the number of deaths associated with the drug in 2015.
The average age of a person who died from an overdose is 39.4 years.
Injunctive relief is the most important aspect of the lawsuit, Bernstein said. The intent is to change the behavior of drug companies that are "misrepresenting the addictive quality" of opioids.
Close to 50 Michigan communities represented by Bernstein's firm since joined the lawsuit against a number of companies, while similar lawsuits are being filed by cities across the United States.
Some of the largest companies named in the lawsuit include Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of Oxycontin, several other drug makers, and large pharmacies, including CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid and Costco.
The 156-page lawsuit alleges these and other companies knew drugs they manufactured and sold had the potential to be abused, but acted with reckless indifference.
"Defendants acted with a conscious disregard for the rights and safety of others in a manner that had a great probability of causing substantial harm," the lawsuit reads.
Shugars and Commissioner Scott McGraw publicly warned against joining the lawsuit at a Tuesday, March 27 Portage City Council meeting.
McGraw and Shugars worried about the impact the lawsuit could have on Portage's relationships with Pfizer, but these concerns were dismissed by county commissioners.
Shugars and Tuinier also referenced a "marijuana problem" in Kalamazoo.
Shugars said it is ironic that companies that make addictive opiates are being sued while medical marijuana facilities are being allowed into the area.

Return to headline | Return to top

Northwest (WA)

Clark County officially files federal opioid lawsuit

Apr 3, 2018 | The Reflector (WA)

By Staff

Last week Clark County officially filed a federal lawsuit against pharmaceutical manufacturers and wholesalers that make and sell opioids.
The Clark County Board of County Councilors voted unanimously in late February to retain Seattle-based law firm Keller Rohrback for the purpose of the civil lawsuit, which aims to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable for its alleged part in the national opioid crisis.
The move puts Clark County in line with eight other Washington cities and counties, who also have suits led by Keller Rohrback.
“The increased use of opioids over the last 20 years has had a devastating effect on our community,” said Marc Boldt, Clark County Council Chair, in a news release. “It’s time to hold these drug companies accountable and take steps to reverse this disturbing trend.”
The goal of the suit is to recoup costs associated with hard opioid addiction, county officials said in February. The law firm will be paid only if Clark County recovers damages in a settlement or at trial.
“The lawsuit contends the drug manufacturers contributed to the opioid crisis by deliberately providing false and misleading information to doctors and patients about the safety of prescription opioids,” county staff said in the news release.
According to the news release, over the last two years opioid use has led to more deaths in the county than traffic collisions; there were 91 opioid-related deaths not involving heroin between 2014 and 2017; and the Clark County Sheriff’s office estimates that it has spent over $5.5 million fighting the crisis over the last three years.
During discussions around the crisis in February, Clark County Undersheriff Mike Cooke offered perspective on Clark County’s drug crisis when he said that in no uncertain terms the opioid epidemic has been devastating to many citizens in Clark County, and has been a burden to the Sheriff’s Office and social services.
“A significant contributor to this epidemic has been the intentional and deceptive practices of pharma companies who produce and market opiate-based medication,” he said.
The crisis Clark County faces is reflected nationally.

According to the county, the rate of prescriptions for opiates has multiplied by nearly four fold since 1991, going from 76 million to 289 million in 2016.

Return to headline | Return to top

West (WY)

Northern Arapaho Tribe sues drug companies, citing opioid epidemic on central Wyoming reservation

Apr 3, 2018 | Casper Star Tribune (WY)

By Arno Rosenfield

The Northern Arapaho Tribe sued several opioid manufacturers and distributors in federal court Monday, claiming the companies knowingly caused a public health epidemic on the Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming by deceptively marketing and distributing the drugs.
The tribe has suffered “substantial loss of resources, economic damages, and damages to the health and welfare of its members,” attorneys for the tribe wrote in the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming.
The lawsuit states that child welfare and foster care costs related to parents with opioid addictions have skyrocketed, while law enforcement, health services, education and rehabilitation costs have also become overwhelming. It blames these tolls on the drug companies, citing a failure to control the supply of opioids in central Wyoming and reckless marketing schemes that put profits over public health.
“(A)lmost every tribal member has been affected,” the lawsuit states.
The Northern Arapaho Tribe also argued that opioid addiction has damaged the community in more holistic ways.
“The Tribe has ... suffered substantial damages due to the lost productivity of tribal members, increased administrative costs, and the lost opportunity for growth and self-determination,” tribal lawyers wrote.Impact across Indian Country
The Northern Arapaho join a host of tribes across the nation who have sued pharmaceutical companies in recent months, highlighting the disproportionate impact of the opioid epidemic in Indian Country.
Fremont and Hot Springs counties, where the Wind River Reservation is located, have an opioid prescription rate far above the national average of 66.5 per 100 people, according to the lawsuit. Fremont has a rate of 83.3 per 100 people and Hot Springs a rate of 98.1.
“Opioid addiction hits Indian Country harder than any other place or people in the United States today,” Northern Arapaho Business Council Co-Chairman Lee Spoonhunter said in a statement. “We brought this lawsuit to stop the destruction of lives here on the Wind River Reservation, and we encourage other Tribes to join us in this important effort.”
Spoonhunter declined an interview request.
Janet Abaray, an attorney with the firm Burg Simpson, which is representing the tribe, said that the Northern Arapaho lawsuit is likely be combined with some of the other suits filed by Indian tribes.
The National Indian Health Board has testified before Congress in recent weeks regarding opioid addiction in Indian County. Though not mentioned in the Northern Arapaho lawsuit, NIHB director Stacey Bohlen said that underfunding Indian Health Service, the federal program that offers free healthcare to members of recognized tribes, had contributed to the crisis.
“Instead of being referred for surgeries or simpler treatments, patients are often simply placed on prescription opioid medications to address their pain as they wait for treatment,” she said during a March hearing.
The 2018 federal budget, approved last month, appropriated $55 million for treating opioid issues on reservations.Broad claims, few specifics
The Northern Arapaho lawsuit makes broad claims about the impact of opioid distribution on and near the Wind River Reservation, though it is light on specific details.
For example, it states that the opioid distributors should have known that “flooding the market in and around the Tribe with highly addictive opioids would allow opioids to fall into the hands of children, addicts, criminals, and other unintended users.”
Distributors “were aware of widespread prescription opioid abuse in and around the Tribe, but... they nevertheless persisted in a pattern of distributing commonly abused and diverted opioids in geographic areas — and in such quantities, and with such frequency that they knew or should have known these commonly abused controlled substances were not being prescribed and consumed for legitimate medical purposes,” the tribe’s attorneys wrote.
Instead of statistics regarding opioid addiction on the central Wyoming reservation, the lawsuit relies on broader data about Native Americans across the country. According to the lawsuit, 10 percent of American Indian teenagers and adults abused opioids, double the rate of white Americans. While the number of drug overdose deaths for all Americans increased over 200 percent from 1999 to 2015 it increased by more than 500 percent among Native Americans.
In Congressional testimony three years ago, Sunny Goggles of the White Buffalo Recovery Program on the Wind River Reservation said that various forms of substance abuse were having a devastating impact on the reservation.
“Families are torn apart, lives are lost, and personal injury is the result. In addition, private and public property is destroyed thus, creating a reflection of the community’s lack of self-esteem and pride,” Goggles said. He added that the Northern Arapaho Tribe was taking proactive steps to address the problems.Voice in litigation
Abaray said while there were many ongoing lawsuits related to the culpability of pharmaceutical companies in the opioid epidemic, it was important for the Northern Arapaho Tribe to have a voice in the litigation.
“It’s important for the tribe to make sure that they’re included so that they get compensated and can take of their members,” Abaray said.
The lawsuit is seeking damages against the pharmaceutical companies partially through the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a law originally used to bring down organized crime bosses during the 1970s.
The companies named are Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, Endo Health Solutions, Allergan Sales, Watson Pharmaceuticals, Actavis Elizabeth, Mallinckrodt LLC, McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen.
The companies have denied wrongdoing in other lawsuits.
The Northern Arapaho Tribe is represented by both national plaintiff trial firm Burg Simpson and local attorneys from Baldwin, Crocker & Rudd.

Return to headline | Return to top

Broadcast Media Coverage

FOX 17 Morning News

Apr 4, 2018 | Grand Rapids, MI

By WXMI (FOX)

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34014195?token=45f4cbc6-044d-4d0a-bdc4-13ef60daed73
Rough Transcript: kalamazo county is considering joining several cities that are suing dozens of major pharmaceutical companies... blaming them for the opioid epidemic. grand rapdis has already filed suit. the companies are acused of racketering to profit from highly adictive opiods. while calling them "safe" drugs. the ci comission met last night but did not vote... and instead recommended more research.

Return to headline | Return to top
WSBT 22 News on Fox

Apr 4, 2018 | South Bend, IN

By WSBTDT2 (Fox)

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34014281?token=45f4cbc6-044d-4d0a-bdc4-13ef60daed73
Rough Transcript: kalamazoo county commisioners deciding to join a lawsuit against big name drug makers... and pharmacies. the statewide-- multi-milion- dollar lawsuit includes about 50 other michigan cities and counties. it would hold pharmaceutical companies and distributors accountable for the growing opioid epidemic in the past 10 years. lamakers say.. joining the lawsuit could mean millions- of-dollars for kalamazo county.

Return to headline | Return to top
2 News at 4:30am

Apr 4, 2018 | Salt Lake City, UT

By KUTV (CBS)

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34014427?token=45f4cbc6-044d-4d0a-bdc4-13ef60daed73
Rough Transcript: tooele county is now the second county in utah... to file a lawsuit against big pharma -- for their contributions to the growing opioid cris . tooele joins summit county.... in a suit claiming those companies put their desire for profit above the health of the public... . and that the growing number of people addicted to opioids has led to rising health care costs in tooele county as well as a rise in crimes related to getting opioid meications. mon . on the national stage -- medicare is planning to change their policy on prescribing opioids next year, which could affect more than five-hundred- thousand patients. . as circa" allison maass explains, hundreds of doctors have joined forces in an effort to try and stophis from happening. supers: :28-:31 dr. ajay manhapra / yale university :47-:50 dr. jane ballantyne / university of washington pkg script: manhapra says: sjust cutting the pill is not the solution. it might even worsen the situation. the center for medicare and 6:47 AMmedicaid have proposed new policies for 2019, restricting patients to an opioid dose level equal to 90 milligrams of morphine dr. manhapra and over 200 other medical professionals signed a letter warning the agency the one-size-fits- all proach could have dangerous consequences manhapra says: speople with these complex set of problems will be abandoned, and they'll be either bed- ridden, or a lot of them will likely have adverse medical outcomes. and even doctors who helped develop the cdc guidelines on opioid prescribing disagree with the proposed policy, including dr. jane ballantyne. ballantyne says: sif we just tried to reduce everyone who is already on high doses of opiates to the dose level that the cdc is recommending you would have an awful lot of people who are either suffering a lot or going to the street to get heroin. in a statement, medicare and medicaid said the policies are meant to reduce the number of patients becoming addicted while maintaing their access to care. and dr. manhapra says if the agency doesn"t make th changes he" advocated for, he will continue to speak out. manhapra says: sthese patients after abandonment ends up in somebody"s clinic as the physician sitting in the clinic that is my problem.

Return to headline | Return to top
Today in Georgia

Apr 4, 2018 | Albany, GA

By WALB (NBC)

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34014472?token=45f4cbc6-044d-4d0a-bdc4-13ef60daed73
Rough Transcript: as the opioid epidemic continues to spiral out of control, our southwest georgia leaders are working to fighthis epidemic. dougherty county commissioners have now chosen a law firm to represent them in opioid litigation. walb news 10's ashley bohle is live in the studio now. ashley, what law firm group will be commissioners 6:39 AMutilize to file a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical industry? cade/karla, blasingame, burch, garrard, and ashley is the law firm commissioners selected moving forward with this opioid litigation. it was a six to one vote on monday favoring this athens- based law firm group. bbga was selected out of the five groups that presented to commissioners last week. a representative from the group said last week when presenting to commissioners they have represented more than 100 women across the southeast after faulty uterus mesh was shipped to the u-s from europe causing infections. the representative said the issue caused incontinence and the faulty mesh became a nationwide problem that was the biggest multidistrict litigation in u.s. history. now the bbga group wants to tackle the opioid epidemic within south georgia communities. dougherty county attorney spencer lee says the damages here will be specific to dougherty county. we are long time down the road before we are thinking about any kind of recovery. apparently yes, these big time w firms think there's something here just like they do in class action law suits. while other southwest georgia communities are joing the fight against the nationwide opioid epidemic, the city of tifton has also chosen the blasingame, burch, garrard, and ashley law firm to represent them. lee says litigation could take between two to three years.

Return to headline | Return to top
News 8 Daybreak

Apr 4, 2018 | Grand Rapids, MI

By WOOD (NBC)

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34014501?token=45f4cbc6-044d-4d0a-bdc4-13ef60daed73
Rough Transcript: kalamazoo county commissioners want to see more research on opioids before they join a federal lawsuit. commissioners met last night to discuss joing the suit against major pharmaceutical companies. several michigan counties and cities signed onto this lawsuit last year. 6:35 AMlast night's discussion focused on how much it would cost to litigate the lawsuit versus how much the lawsuit would actually help reduce the number of overdose deaths. sot 15:29:50:26 18 seconds roger tuiner)and what a lot of this really gets down to all of the things that i mentioned is two words: personal responsibility. and i know there's addictive things out there but bottom line is person that takes it is responsible.> people living in the county got a chance to give their input later in the evening... some shared their personal experiences with the opioid epidemic... including stories of losing loved ones to overdoses.others pushed for more resources to help addicts. (áááno superááá) they didn't treat anything for her. she died so that people could make some money and that's what this is about.> <áááno superááá) we want <áááno superááá) we want resources to help sick people out in our county, in our city.> lynsey:..so far 11 counties have joined in on the federal lawsuit. no word on when kalamazoo will make its decision.

Return to headline | Return to top
News Channel 3 at 4:30am

Apr 4, 2018 | Grand Rapids, MI

By WWMT (CBS)

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34014562?token=45f4cbc6-044d-4d0a-bdc4-13ef60daed73
Rough Transcript: kalamazoo county commissioners are moving forward with plans to join a statewide lawsuit against some of the biggest drug-makers in the world. commissioners ultimately made the decision during a meeting last night.supporters of the move say companies like purdue pharma and walgreens should be held accountable for their role in the growing opioid epidemic.but opponents believe the lawsuit won't help in the fight against opioid addiction here in kalamazoo county. "i just want to be careful that we're not just doing this for ceremonial purposes, that we actually can affect some change.""in my mind it's righ that we look at are there ways to recoop that cost are there ways we can work to fund better services for those poeple that are suffering from addiction." some commissioners are expressing concern about how this might affect ápfizer which just announced an expansion to its facility on portage road last week.pfizer isn't named in the statewide suit but some fear the move is a quote "slippery slope."th kalamazoo county commission hasn't officially signed onto the lawsuit yet.

Return to headline | Return to top
24 Hour News 8 at 11p

Apr 3, 2018 | Grand Rapids, MI

By WOTV (ABC)

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34014616?token=45f4cbc6-044d-4d0a-bdc4-13ef60daed73
Rough Transcript: the kalamazoo county board is taking a closer look at how pharmaceutical companies are involved in the opioid crisis. now- they're considering joing a lawsuit that would ask drug companies to reiumburse local governments for the costs of responding to the cris. brian:..24 hour news 8's sarah hurwitz was at that meeting today as the board weighed its options and took input from the community -- she has this story from kalamazoo tonight. the board ultimately recommended to the county administrator to do more research on this lawsuit on potential impacts to the county... as it looks to potentially join this federal lawsuit. sot 15:58:20:00 17 seconds julie rogers) the practices have really changed for a variety of reasons. several of the other municipalities' lawsuits 11:04 PMhave claimed that some of the pharmaceutical companies were kind of deceptive in their marketing practices to physicians.>the meeting started with a look at the lawsuit itself -- several michigan counties and cities have already signed on -- which was originally filed last year... calling on drug companies to reimburse governments for the costs of responding to the cris. commissioner julie rogers who's also a physical therapist outlined what the opioid numbers look like in kalamazoo... in 2016 nearly 80 percent of accidental drug- related deaths in kalamazoo listed opioids as contributing factors.sot 16:03:30:13 13 seconds julie rogers) it seems that the pharmaceutical companies have mislead the public and physicians for years and i would hope the outcome of potential litigation would be to change the way that they are practicing.> the discussion centered around questions of costs with litigation, how much the lawsuit would actually help in reducing the number of overdose deaths and the resources the county doesn't have to help its citizens who are struggling with addiction... sot 15:29:50:26 18 seconds roger tuiner)and what a lot of this really gets down to all of the things that i mentioned is two words: personal responsibility. and i know there's addictive things out 11:05 PMthere but bottom line is person that takes it is responsible.>15:34:06:11 15 seconds sotkevin wordelman) we as a community pay more than we should in order for drug companies to go out and sell their product and i would argue the same thing's true with guns and many other products that are sold in our market place.>and they shared personal stories... sot 15:52:44:24 19 seconds stephanie moore) you know i was born to a two parent household. my parents were married, my mother worked extremely hard at general motors and at some point in her life she actually stumbled and fell and ended up in an addiction. a serious drug addition that had a huge impact on myself and my two siblings.>lklive: commissioners also mentioned some concerns about whether this would impact pfizer - a pharmaceutical drug company in kalamazoo... but it is not named in any lawsuits... it's unclear when the board may make a decision on the lawsuit -- but commissioners did express a sense of urgency.in kalamazoo, sh 24 hour news 8. heather:.. heather:..several citizens spoke during public comment at that meeting tonight.sharing their input on the lawsuit, and their personal experiences with the opioid epidemic... some shared stories of losing loved ones to overdoses, others pushed for more resources to help addicts. (áááno superááá) they didn't treat anything for her. she died so that people could make some money and that's what this is about.> <áááno superááá) we want resources to help sick people out in our county, in our city.> heather:..so far, 11 counties have joined in on the federal lawsuit.

Return to headline | Return to top
2 News at 6:00pm

Apr 3, 2018 | Salt Lake City, UT

By KUTV (CBS)

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34014751?token=45f4cbc6-044d-4d0a-bdc4-13ef60daed73
Rough Transcript: tooele county is joining the stance against big pharma. they filed a lawsuit against the opioid cris in utah and across the country. pharmaceutical companies are accused of violating a number things -- of things including fraud. tooele county is the second utah county sued over opioid overdoses. >> over the past coup years this has become a public health crisis, policy and political crisis. something that matters and should matter to everyo. >> the number is unbelievable, utah saw a 400% increase in deaths due to misuse or abuse of prescription drugs. over a 15 year period. that is according to the health department of Utah. Six Utahns die every single week from drug overdoses leading Utah to have the 7th highest drug overdose rate in the nation.

Return to headline | Return to top

Add recipients

Suggested