Ohio's Opioid Manufacturer Lawsuit Featured On '60 Minutes'

Ohio is suing several opioid painkiller manufacturers for contributing to the addiction epidemic in the state. On Sunday night, Governor-elect Mike DeWine joined "60 Minutes" to discuss the lawsuits and the impact opioids have had on Ohio.

“Ohio is in crisis, and it's time opioid manufacturers and distributors step up to the plate and take responsibility for their role in this epidemic,” said DeWine. “The compensation these companies should be providing our state could help combat this crisis and increase access for those with substance use disorder to get the help they need and turn their lives around.”

DeWine hired attorney Mike Moore to lead Ohio's lawsuit against the drug manufacturers. Moore also joined the TV program to discuss newly released statistics on how many opioid painkillers are manufactured and where they are shipped. DeWine called the data "shocking" and Moore is confident the lawsuit could bankrupt the drug makers.

As the CBS-news show noted, Ohio has been frequently labeled "the face" of the nation's opioid epidemic. Nearly 4,800 people were killed by opioids in 2017 in Ohio, and the pace of overdose deaths has remained steady in 2018.

Moore is representing Ohio and three other states in the lawsuit against the drug manufacturers. Once the attorney general of Mississippi, Moore has a decorated history as a litigator, leading the massive 1998 multi-billion-settlement with tobacco companies and a lawsuit against BP over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Ohio's lawsuit is being coordinated with similar suits filed by 30-other states.Moore is hoping this lawsuit, and collective legal action, could ease the pain of the opioid crisis.

“If we win a verdict against these manufacturers and distributors…it could bankrupt them,” he said on the program. Moore said it costs Ohio four or five billion dollars annually to deal with the drug epidemic. “When a jury hears the evidence in this case they’re not just going to award a couple hundred million dollars. It may be $100 billion.”

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CBS' "60 Minutes" said several drug manufacturers declined to be interviewed for Sunday's segment, but the trade association for drug distributors said in a statement, “It defies common sense to single out distributors for the opioid crisis…Distributors deliver medicines prescribed by a licensed physician and ordered by a licensed pharmacy.”

Moore didn't take the response lightly, saying, "If you’ve got walking around sense and you care, you’re going to check before you send nine million pills to a little, bity county in West Virginia or Mississippi, or Louisiana or Ohio. You’re going to check if you care.”

Photo from Attorney General Mike DeWine's Office