Cabell County WV sues drug companies over massive oxy influx

[Tanuki]

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/_recent_news/cabell-becomes-latest-to-file-suit-against-drug-firms/article_48451b28-04f1-11e7-83e4-5788deaa1103.html

"The Cabell County Commission has become the latest to file a lawsuit against drug firms in an effort to recoup money lost due to the substance abuse epidemic.
.........

According to a complaint filed by Paul Farrell Jr., the lawsuit alleges the companies are to known to have sold more than 40 million doses of opioid pain medicine in Cabell County between 2007 and 2012, while the county's population was 96,319, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.


The lawsuit is seeking compensation and punitive damages from the companies for the creation of a public nuisance.

The county joins a dozen cities and municipalities which have filed, or have announced intentions to file, lawsuits against drug firms and pharmacies after the successful $36 million settlement of a West Virginia lawsuit alleging similar claims.

In January, the commission declared pain medications in the county a public nuisance under West Virginia State Code and hired the law firm of Greene, Ketchum, Farrell, Bailey & Tweel to pursue legal action against those in the chain of distribution.

A recent investigation by the Charleston Gazette-Mail found drug wholesalers shipped 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia in six years, a period when 1,728 people statewide died of overdoses.

On Jan. 9, two of the major prescription drug distributors agreed to pay $36 million to settle a West Virginia lawsuit alleging they fueled the state's opioid epidemic with excessively large shipments of painkillers into the state over several years..."