Nearly a dozen cities and counties throughout Michigan are suing the largest drug manufactures in the country and their distributors over their role in hooking the state on painkillers.
The 152-page lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court, names Detroit, Genesee, Grand Traverse County, Macomb County, Saginaw , Delta County, Chippewa County, Lansing and Escanaba as plaintiffs and leaves the door open for additional cities and counties to join the litigation. More than 1,700 people died in Michigan from opioid-related overdoses in 2016, a 33 percent increase over the previous year, reports Michigan Live.
The lawsuit targets Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals and 21 other companies, including distributors, for their alleged role in sparking the opioid epidemic through deliberately deceptive advertising. It calls their marketing schemes a “pattern of racketeering.”
“Opioids — profligately sold to treat virtually any ailment — have destroyed the lives of countless men and women who had the misfortune of suffering from back pain, arthritis, workplace injuries and a countless array of other relatively minor and term-limited painful conditions,” the lawsuit says, according to Michigan Live. “As patients throughout the country became addicted to opioids, manufacturers, distributors and retailers of opioids similarly became addicted to the immense profits associated with the widespread consumption of opioids.”
The cities and counties hope to recoup the economic cost of the addiction crisis to their communities from the targeted drug companies. Pharmaceutical companies have previously denied any claims of wrongdoing and say they are committed to working with the government to solve the opioid epidemic.
“We are deeply troubled by the opioid crisis and we are dedicated to being part of the solution,” a spokesman for Purdue Pharma previously told The Daily Caller News Foundation in response to a lawsuit filed by the attorney general of New Jersey. “We vigorously deny these allegations and look forward to the opportunity to present our defense.”
Lawsuits are mounting against the largest drug makers in the country for their alleged complicity in sparking the opioid crisis through dishonest advertising. There are currently more than 75 cities and states suing pharmaceutical companies over the destructive addiction crisis.
President Donald Trump declared the opioid epidemic a “public health emergency” on Oct. 26, giving states hit hard by opioid addiction flexibility on how they direct federal resources to combat rising drug deaths.
Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental death for Americans under age 50, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, claiming more than 64,000 lives in 2016.
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