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Luzerne County Manager C. David Pedri is asking county council to sue prescription opioid manufacturers and wholesale distributors to make them pay for “dumping” drugs that created widespread addiction and a financial burden on county government.
“We are taking this action today because Luzerne County homes have been broken and families torn apart by this epidemic,” Pedri said in a Friday release. “This epidemic has claimed victims from all walks of life, and both the financial and emotional costs to the citizens of Luzerne County are staggering.”
The proposed action is on the heels of a suit filed Thursday by Delaware County against 11 major opioid drug suppliers and their consulting physicians — the first such county suit in the state. Officials in neighboring Lackawanna County said they plan to file a suit against pharmaceutical companies Monday, and more counties are expected to follow.
Pedri proposes suing some of the largest prescription opioid manufacturers, their related companies and the country’s three largest wholesale drug distributors. He declined to identify them at this time.
The suit would allege the manufacturing companies pushed highly addictive and dangerous opioids while falsely representing to doctors that patients would rarely become addicted, he said. Distributors breached their legal duties to monitor, detect, investigate, refuse and report suspicious orders of prescription opioids, Pedri stated.
Because opioid pills are highly addictive, Congress designed a system in 1970 to control the volume distributed in the country and limit the right to deliver them to a few select wholesalers.
“In exchange, those companies agreed to do a very important job — halt suspicious orders and control against the diversion of these dangerous drugs to illegitimate uses,” Pedri wrote. “The lawsuit will allege that in recent years these steps have not been adequately taken, and today the Luzerne County community is paying the price.”
Many who became addicted to prescription pills have turned to heroin, in part because heightened enforcement efforts have reduced access to pills, state drug experts say.
Pedri cited a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report pegging the 2016 prescribing rate for opioids in the county at 85.7 per 100.
“That means there are 85 prescriptions for opioids for every 100 people in Luzerne County, which puts us in the top third category in the country,” Pedri said.
94 ODs and counting
Through Friday, there were 94 overdose deaths in Luzerne County in 2017, excluding seven suspected ones awaiting toxicology confirmation, according to the county coroner’s office. Many involved opioids.
There were 142 overdose deaths in 2016, which surpassed the previous record of 95 set in 2015, the office said.
The administration would search nationally for a law firm equipped to handle this type of litigation, Pedri said, emphasizing the county’s in-house legal division also would be assisting.
The chosen firm must be willing to handle the suit on contingency so that no up-front county funds would be spent or pledged, he said.
“The county would pay nothing unless money is recovered, and the firm would have to understand who we are in Luzerne County and have our best interest at heart,” he said.
As part of the suit, a forensic accountant would tally the opioid epidemic’s financial toll over a yet-to-be-determined period on numerous county departments for prison lodging, legal defense and prosecution, adjudication, treatment and other services, Pedri said.
For example, Children and Youth spent at least $6.09 million in 2015 and 2016 handling the placement of 378 children in which substance abuse was a factor, the administration has said. The agency was involved in 88 parental or guardian terminations and more than 9,000 court hearings in these matters during those two years, it said.
Another example: the coroner’s office spent approximately $77,700 last year on cases directly tied to drugs, including $36,835 for toxicology screenings and $20,000 for 10 autopsies, Pedri told council earlier this year.
“That’s the thing about these drugs — they are just invading all aspects of Luzerne County,” Pedri said Friday.
He expects litigation to drag out for years, in part because government entities across the country have started filing such actions. Pedri said he would support investing most, if not all, recovered funds into battling the epidemic.
An attorney and former county prosecutor, Pedri said he has witnessed families destroyed by heroin addiction spawned by prescription pills.
“It all starts with that first prescription. That’s why we are seeking this lawsuit,” he said.