As Opioid Fight Continues, Brick Joins Suit Vs. Drug Companies

BRICK, NJ – Brick Township has officially joined the dozens of towns, counties and states across the country that have filed lawsuits against the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture opioid painkillers.

The Township Council initially approved the lawsuit in 2017 and hired the national law firm of Motley Rice, LLC, to represent the township in the lawsuit. Under the terms of the agreement, the law firm will not receive any payment from the township but will instead take a percentage of any recovery from the drug manufacturers.

Motley Rice LLC is the same law firm representing the states of South Carolina, Alaska and New Hampshire, the city of Chicago, Albany County, New York, and Summit County, Ohio, all of which are battling epidemic levels of opioid and heroin abuse. Washington State joined the lawsuit effort in September. Santa Clara County in California filed the first complaint, in 2013.

In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, the township is seeking monetary damages, abatement of the public nuisance caused by the pharmaceutical companies and the opioid manufacturers and an injunction permanently prohibiting the companies from engaging in the acts the lawsuit claims fueled the opioid crisis. Thirty-six companies are named in the lawsuit.

"Countless lives in our community and across the nation have been destroyed by the opioid crisis and these companies share a significant amount of blame in helping create that crisis," Brick Township Mayor John Ducey said. "This lawsuit aims to hold them responsible for their role in this crisis and to hold them accountable for the effect that the crisis has had on lives and the financial burden the crisis has placed on our community."

A government database published by The Washington Post shows more than 1.5 billion opioid painkillers were distributed in New Jersey from 2006 to 2012, the years that preceded the explosion of the crisis across the country. Of those, nearly 128 million prescription painkillers were distributed in Ocean County, enough for 32 pills per person per year.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were more than 70,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2017, and it estimated there were nearly 68,000 in 2018. In Ocean County, there were 1,011 overdose deaths from 2012 through 2017, in and another 217 deaths in 2018, according to the state Department of Health.

Brick Township's lawsuit alleges violations of numerous laws, including the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, and that their actions led to a public health nuisance. The lawsuit alleges the manufacturers knowingly misrepresented the risk of addiction to doctors and patients, misrepresented the effectiveness and safety of opioids and misrepresented their efforts to rein in opioid abuse, among other actions.

Brick Township has been hit hard by the opioid crisis. In response, the township and its police department have used a drug enforcement unit to pursue drug dealers and a community policing unit to educate children about the dangers of opioid use. In addition, the Blue HART Program allows addicts and substance abusers who want help to go to the police department and ask for it; they are taken to a treatment evaluation without any threat of charges or incarceration.

These efforts have resulted in a reduction of heroin overdoses by more than 33 percent since 2016, police officials have said.

The township hopes to use funds awarded to abate the public nuisance, recoup the funds that have been spent fighting the opioid crisis, including the costs for prevention programs and staffing them, and for any monetary damages deemed just by the court.

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