Heroin Lawsuit

Last week Tuesday, at our annual budget meeting, we also passed a resolution authorizing the County to sue several pharmaceutical companies for improper marketing.  In deciding to support this, there were some key factors I considered:

• 5 out of 6 heroin addicts started with prescription opioid pain killers.
• More then 98% of all prescribed opioids are not prescribed by pain specialists, but instead by general care doctors (the lawsuit contends that the pharmaceutical companies, through a shadow marketing campaign, convinced general practitioners that opioid were not addictive and were good long-term pain relief solutions).
• Many pharmaceutical companies have paid fines to the government for improper marketing, as well as failures to report cases where opioids were over-prescribed.  The pharmaceutical companies did not in any way protest or challenge the fines, in essence admitting guilt.

I introduced 2 amendments, one which sought to make sure our lawsuit pursued practice reform (make pharmaceutical companies stop mis-marketing opioid drugs) and one that stated our intent to use some of the proceeds towards heroin prevention and treatment efforts.

I know Supervisor Kelling had some concerns about this lawsuit, and I share some of those concerns.  I know he is an avid supporter of efforts to stop the heroin epidemic, and supports the great work that Elevate and the Washington County Heroin Task Force have done.

Anytime there is any type of class action lawsuit, and this lawsuit in my mind would be in the realm of class action law suits, I always have a concern that there might be lawyers who are drumming up work for themselves where there may not be a legitimate claim.  In this case, I feel reasonably secure in believing that the pharmaceutical companies have mis-marketed opioids, and that mis-marketing may be a significant contributor to the current opioid crisis.

I was asked if this lawsuit was like suing the gun manufacturer for make guns.  In my mind, it would be more like suing the gun manufacturer for dishonestly telling gun retailers that someone could get shot in the face with a .22 and be fine (I know that's not a perfect analogy, but you get what I mean).  It's not about making Opioids, it's about deliberately misinforming doctors.