Warren County government could join a movement to sue prescription drugmakers for their role in the opioid epidemic.
The county Budget and Finance Committee met Thursday and listened to a proposal by Galligan & Newman, Attorneys at Law to file against manufactures for damages caused by opioids, which are pain killers such as morphine, methodone, buprenorphine, hydrocodone, and oxycodone.
Attorney Michael Galligan presented committee members with a Centers for Disease Control map of the United States depicting how opioids have affected different areas of the country. Tennessee is largely in black, which depicts the worst hit opioid areas.
According to CDC stats, providers in the highest prescribing counties prescribed six times more opioids than those in the lowest prescribing counties, and the highest prescription rates are in small cities or towns, more residents who are white, and more people who are uninsured and unemployed.
Another graph showed the U.S. consumption of oxycodone soared from 1980 to 2015. In 2015 alone, 300 million pain prescriptions were written.
Galligan said manufacturers and distributors aggressively pursued doctors to prescribe opioids for pain, falsely representing that those medications were not as addictive as they actually are.
“In 2014, we in this country consumed 69 percent of the world’s opioid painkillers,” said Galligan. “We have less than 5 percent of the world’s population, however. Why was that? It was because drug manufacturers and distributors concocted a scheme to convince the medical profession and others that these painkillers were not addictive or very little addictive.”
What turned out to be a highly addictive substance and its widespread use resulted in:
• CDC researchers estimate the economic burden of the epidemic to the country in 2013 was $78.5 billion.
• About one-third, or $28.9 billion, is from higher health care and addiction treatment costs.
• $7.7 billion in criminal justice-related costs, paid mostly by local and state governments.
• $20 billion in lost productivity in nonfatal cases.
There have been fatalities related to the epidemic. According to the CDC, 28,000 people died from opioid overdoses in 2014 – the last year for which statistics are available.
The “scheme” that turned patients into addicts was financially lucrative for those companies. Specifically, Purdue Pharma earned $3 billion – nearly all opioid revenue.
More than 100 states, cities and counties have filed lawsuits against manufacturers and distributors. Warren County could be the second in Tennessee. Williamson County government, at the direction of its commissioners, was the first to file a federal lawsuit against several drug manufacturers and distributors. That county is seeking damages that include compensation for past and future costs to abate the ongoing public nuisance caused by the opioid epidemic, as well as the creation of an abatement fund to help further curb opioid-related expenses.
The lawsuit claims, “The manufacturers aggressively pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addition. These pharmaceutical companies aggressively advertised to, and persuaded doctors to, prescribe highly addictive, dangerous opioids, turned patients into drug addicts for their own corporate profit.”
The lawsuits, said Galligan, are based on negligence, false advertising, nuisance, consumer fraud, false claims, fraud, etc., and monetary awards are based on the ability to show damages, such as the need for or an increase in opioid-specific programs, mediation-assisted treatments, additional programs, child protective services, law enforcement costs, prison populations, increased ambulance costs, and atypical or increased burden on public services.
Galligan and Newman offered to represent the county in a similar lawsuit at zero financial risk to the county.
“We get one-third of whatever you receive,” said Galligan. “If you get nothing, our fee is nothing. We are taking all the risk. You would be out some manpower. We need information from county records and someone might have to be assigned to provide it.”
The expense of any expert opinions (scientific, technical or other) required for the litigation process would be paid for by the firm and reimbursement would come from the monetary award, if one is attained.
If other counties in the state file similar suits, they could be lumped together. Mass torts are civil actions that have many plaintiffs involved against one or several defendant corporations. The legal action could take years to resolve.
Committee members requested a written agreement for legal counsel review. Budget and Finance Committee members will reconvene Tuesday, Jan. 9, at 4 p.m. to consider the contract.
