Politics & Government
Marin Sues Big Pharma For Overmarketing Opioids
The county filed the suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco.
MARIN COUNTY, CA – Marin County has joined a nationwide lawsuit against 12 pharmaceutical manufacturers and wholesalers that allegedly encourage the use of opioids.
The county filed the suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, but the suit will be transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio as part of an ongoing, nationwide multi-district opioids litigation, the Marin County Counsel's Office said.
The suit alleges the "Big Pharma" companies misled the public about the dangers of opioid addiction, causing sales and overdoses to soar, the County Counsel's Office said.
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For more than 20 years the drug companies aggressively marketed and falsely promoted liberal opioid prescribing, claiming there was no risk of addiction even when used long-term for chronic pain, according to the plaintiffs in the suit.
The nationwide cost associated with the opioid epidemic exceed $1 trillion, and an additional $500 billion in costs are projected by 2020, the County Counsel's Office said.
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Drug overdoses, most of them linked to opioids, were the leading cause of accidental deaths in Marin County for the past five years, and they far exceed deaths in motor vehicle accidents, according to county officials.
Between 2004 and 2013, the number of prescribed opioid painkillers, emergency room visits, admissions for painkiller addictions and overdoses of prescription medications doubled in Marin County, the County Counsel's Office said.
Marin County had more prescriptions for opioids than households in 2016, the County Counsel's Office said.
Marin County Department of Health and Human Services co-founded RxSafe Marin, a grassroots coalition of community agencies and individuals, to eliminate prescription opioid abuse and deaths.
"This litigation is the next step in the County's ongoing leadership in combating the crisis," County Counsel Brian Washington said in a news release.
By Bay City News Service
Image via County of Marin
