Governments across the nation suing Big Pharma over opioid epidemic

City, county, and even some state governments have filed lawsuits over the past several months blaming the pharmaceutical industry for the growing opioid epidemic that they say has costed them millions on health care and law enforcement.

As the opioid epidemic continues to ravage communities across the country, governments have had to spend millions on medical treatment, rehabilitation programs, and law enforcement to combat the problem. Now some have said Big Pharma is partly to blame for this crisis and are seeking financial restitution.

This is not the first time legal action has been taken against the pharmaceutical companies on this issue. In 2007, Purdue, maker of OxyCotin, pleaded guilty to misleading the public about the drug’s risk of addiction and agreed to pay $600 million in fines. Additionally, three top executives were found guilty of criminal charges. There have also been various cases at the state and local level, so the link between pharmaceutical companies and the opioid crisis is nothing new.

Despite that lawsuit, very little changed and other companies followed suit, spending millions to market the opioid painkillers to doctors as a cure-all with very low risk for addiction. Some doctors would and still do prescribe drugs as powerful as Oxycotin or Percocet for something as simple as a sore knee.

The crisis has grown to this point thanks in no small part to the power of the pharmaceutical lobby in Washington. They are one of the biggest lobby groups, spending nearly a billion dollars every year to influence legislation that will keep their profits high, at the expense of patients and consumers.

The lawsuits being filed today seek to make the pharmaceutical companies pay to help offset the burden and tremendous costs governments have incurred dealing with the epidemic. There is good precedent for a case like this. In 1998, Big Tobacco was sued to help pay for the costs of smoking-related diseases, with 46 states arguing the tobacco companies knew the health risks associated with smoking and covered them up. Since then tobacco companies have made annual payments to the states to fund anti-smoking campaigns and related public health projects.

Suing Big Pharma certainly won’t be an easy task, if not just for their massive power in Washington; however since the 2007 Purdue case and the growing national attention to the opioid epidemic, most companies have taken token measures to at least appear to help resolve the problem, such as giving clearer warnings of the risk for addiction and measures to deter abuse.

Surely the pharmaceutical industry will fight these cases tooth and nail, but in the end it only seems fair they should foot the bill for this growing crisis. It has been caused by their products after all, and Big Pharma is one of the biggest and most profitable industries in the country.

The opioid epidemic is growing every day and there is no end in sight. Governments can only do so much with their limited funds. But with the money and resources the pharmaceutical industry could contribute, the fight to end the opioid epidemic would get a much needed boost.

Hopefully more cases like these will be filed across the country and result in a resolution similar to the 1998 Big Tobacco case. The opioid epidemic has affected people from all walks of life and every part of the country. Its even had an impact on the economy. To this point however, these lawsuits have not received much national attention. Its time the pharmaceutical companies are held accountable for their greed. They carried out dishonest business practices and fooled both doctors and the public for their own profit. Now they are doing remarkably well while the public is suffering. Their power needs to be checked and they must do their part to resolve this crisis.