Jackson County lawsuit: Opioids ‘worst man-made epidemic in modern medical history’
Jackson County has joined the parade of local governments suing a slew of large companies connected to the opioid industry.
The county, represented by William Lee Dameron of Williams Dierks Dameron LLC, filed suit Wednesday in federal court, accusing opioid manufacturers, drug distributors and pharmacies of creating a “public health epidemic” by using deceptive marketing and evading regulations on selling controlled substances.
“This case arises from the worst man-made epidemic in modern medical history: the misuse, abuse and over-prescription of opioids,” the lawsuit says.
The suit says that 45,000 Americans died of opioid overdose between September 2016 and September 2017 and the 200,000 fatal prescription opioid overdoses since 1999 far outstrips the U.S. death toll in the Vietnam War.
“As a result, in part, of the proliferation of opioid pharmaceuticals between the late 1990s and 2015, the life expectancy for Americans decreased for the first time in recorded history,” the suit says. “Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50.”
Thousands more Americans became addicted to illegal heroin as a direct result of their dependence on opioid pain pills, the suit says.
The opioid overdose death toll in Jackson County between 2013 and 2017 was at least 308 and, according to the suit, “there’s a good possibility opioid-related deaths are underreported.”
The epidemic has also burdened the county with opioid-related hospitalizations, emergency medical responses to overdoses, babies born in withdrawal, incarcerations and child welfare cases, the suit says.
“While the county has committed substantial resources to address the crisis, the opioid epidemic is nowhere near contained,” the complaint states. “Fully addressing the crisis requires that those responsible for it pay for their conduct and to abate the nuisance and harms they have created in the county.”
The suit names 33 defendants, including major drug makers, distributors and pharmacy chains. The first defendant listed is Purdue Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Oxycontin.
Purdue pushed back against similar lawsuits in a statement to Reuters in May, saying that its drugs made up just 2 percent of opioid prescriptions and that it was “disappointed” it couldn’t reach an out-of-court agreement with the plaintiffs.
More than 300 cities, counties and states had filed lawsuits against the opioid industry as of February and the number has been increasing almost by the day.
The lawsuits follow a playbook similar to those filed against large tobacco companies that in 1998 resulted in a $246 billion master settlement to be paid out to states over 25 years.
A federal judge in Cleveland has convened settlement talks between many of the interested parties in the opioid suits.
At least 16 other governments in Kansas and Missouri have filed opioid suits, including Cass County in Missouri and Sedgwick County in Kansas.