Jasper files lawsuit against opioid manufacturers, distributors
The City of Jasper has filed a lawsuit against manufacturers and distributors of opioids; a trend that is occurring across the state and in neighboring states as communities grapple with the costly impact of addiction.
The city’s Board of Public Works and Safety approved an agreement this morning with Taft Stettinius & Hollister, an Indianapolis law firm representing dozens of Indiana cities, towns and counties in similar lawsuits will represent the city moving forward. In this suit, the city is the sole plaintiff rather than it being a class action lawsuit involving multiple potential parties as plaintiffs.
The lawsuit is being filed at no cost to the city, according to the agreement.
According to City Attorney Renee Kabrick, the city had been considering whether or not to file the suit since it was approached late last year. As a two year statute of limitations on the suit has been argued to have started in 2016 when a series of articles revealing the connection between prescription opioids and addiction were published, the city decided to file the lawsuit to ensure it has the option to do so before time runs out. That statute of limitations timeframe is expected to end this month.
Kabrick further stated the city has yet to put a pencil to paper on the cost of opioid addiction to taxpayers in the city. She pointed to the county’s struggle with increasing jail population, the cost of drug rehabilitation programs and the dramatic increase in CASA cases — CASA is a county-supported program that links volunteers with children separated from their parents — as a direct link to opioid addiction costs.
The city has incurred costs too. Just this year, the city felt the need to add a narcotics officer to specifically deal with drug issues as well as another detective to help handle the increased criminal activities linked to opioid abuse.
“At the end of the day, drug distributors and manufacturers have failed to accurately depict the addictive qualities of those drugs and have purposely downplayed those addictive qualities and pushed them into the hands of physicians who believed what they read and heard and prescribed,” said city attorney Renee Kabrick. “So now we have this huge epidemic of people addicted to opioids, leading to other drug use.”
Communities have had to build rehab centers, new jails, hire new police officers and add programming and employees in response. “It’s a real drain on tax dollars,” Kabrick said.
While the suit seeks reparation for damages incurred by these public entities, the ultimate goal is to develop a plan to curtail the problem.
“That will be another part of the analysis,” Kabrick said. “What do we need to do locally to minimize the effect and help the people that have already been impacted by it?”
According to Kabrick, suits have been filed across the country based on federal racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations (RICO Act) violations, corrupt business influence act violations, negligence and public nuisance violations.
Pharmaceutical companies Purdue Pharma, Teva, Janssen, Endo and Mallinckrodt are among the named defendants in the lawsuit. Drug distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson Corp are also named.
In the lawsuit, Taft Stettinius & Hollister is claiming several drug manufacturers and distributors deliberately mislead doctors in prescribing opioid-based painkillers. The 165-page file includes claims that distributors and manufacturers included statements like, “Most health care providers who treat people with pain agree that most people do not develop addiction problems,” and “Over time, your body may become tolerant of your current dose. You may require a dose adjustment to get the right amount of pain relief. This is not addiction,” in marketing materials provided to physicians.
According to similar suits filed by Taft for the other Indiana municipalities involved, opioid manufacturers “aggressively pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction.”
Opioid distributors, according to the suit, “intentionally and/or unlawfully breached their legal duties under federal and state law to monitor, detect, investigate, refuse and report suspicious orders of prescription opiates.”
Due to the current impact the opioid epidemic is having across the country, what normally would be a five-year court process may be expedited. In a series of similar lawsuits filed in Ohio, the judge has consolidated the cases and crunched the timeline to start the trial early next year.
If the plaintiffs are successful in those cases, Kabrick is optimistic the companies will start to settle the other cases that have been filed.
This is all good and well but the people who legally take and need these pain medications suffer because now they are lumped in with the heroin users and are prescriptions changed because doctors are too scared to give anyone pain medication because of the stigma now. The people who need it are getting a bad wrap here.
What about the true victims? Those of us with ligitimate chronic pain issues that have been taking pain medication for years and decades? People who get treated like addicts for going to the hospital instead of the streets for help. Just to be treated poorly, black balled, refused treatment but still expected to pay exorbant bills. I hope they spend some of this money where it belongs as in treatment instead of adding more cops or overpriced medical facilities. We have minimal actual crimes we dont need more cops to put users away. We need help repairing this drug plagued county.Do something positive with this money for you are not the victims here! You are not the ones suffering from these big pharma lies.
I don’t know but it seems that doctors may play a part in the BIG picture of all this. Are there not alternatives to be prescribed that effect the same/similar pain relief for those who need it, but that don’t also yield the evil intent/addictions of the druggies? Plus, how many docs may be in bed with the big pharmas? Some, at least.
Doctors play a HUGE part in all this. Mainly because they get kickbacks (which most docs lie about getting). The reason people seek opiates is because they work. Whether it is physical pain, mental pain or a combination of the two; narcotics work. Calling people druggies is insensitive and ignorant. Pain leads people to seek relief . It is no person’s right to tell someone else who or what they are especially when dealing with pain issues. There is no such thing as a safe drug. People will always find a means to eliviate their pain. All stuff like these crack downs does is push people to the streets. Why do you think the heroin epidemic is at our door? Over 60% of pain clinics in indiana have shut down due to the crack down on pain clinics. Look at the local jail tracker. It is no longer teens and twenty somethings being held but men and women in their 50-60. They hurt and have no where to turn. Education and comprehensive treatment is the only way to get this under control.