New Hanover County sues drug companies over opioid crisis
New Hanover County, which has grappled with the fallout from opioid addiction in recent years, filed a lawsuit this week against several drug manufacturers claiming the companies engaged in “false, deceptive and unfair marketing and/or unlawful diversion of prescription opioids.”
Lawyers for the county filed the 166-page complaint with the Eastern District of North Carolina’s Southern Division on Thursday and seek unspecified compensatory and punitive damages to reimburse the county for the “costs association . . . to eliminate the hazards to public health and safety.”
The beachside county also requests that the court create an “abatement fund,” money that would be used to cover the county’s costs from dealing with the “opioid nuisance.”
The city of Wilmington is the county seat for New Hanover and the county’s largest city. According to the 2010 census, the county’s population was just shy of 203,000 residents.
But the city could be considered Ground Zero for the nation’s opioid crisis.
Based on abuse rate, Wilmington was the No. 1 city for opioid abuse, according to a report last year by Castlight Health, which researched opioid abuse to determine how the addition was affection employers and the workplace. The San Francisco-based health care information company estimated that nearly 12 percent of Wilmington’s population receiving prescription painkillers was abusing the drugs.
Three other North Carolina cities, Hickory, Jacksonville and Fayetteville, landed in the report’s top 25 cities for opioid abuse.
Several large U.S. drug companies are named in the suit, including Amerisourcebergen Drug Corp., Cardinal Health, McKesson, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Watson Pharmaceuticals.
The suit alleges that the drug manufacturers engaged in racketeering, negligence and unfair and deceptive trade practices.
According to the suit, North Carolina ranks 13th in the nation for residents with opioid prescriptions. The complaint, citing figures from the state Department of Health and Human Services, also paints a dire picture across the state:
- From 1999 to 2016, more than 12,000 North Carolinians died from opioid-related overdoses.
- In 2015, there were 1,567 North Carolina overdose deaths, up 14.5 percent from 1,358 in 2014.
- Unintentional fatal drug overdoses cost the state $1.3 billion in 2015, and DHHS estimates opioid related drug deaths cost $2.1 billion in 2016.
New Hanover County is the latest municipality to sue drug companies for opioid abuse.
The Washington Post reported this year that at least 25 states, cities and counties have filed civil cases against manufacturers, distributors and large drugstore chains that make up the $13 billion-a-year opioid industry.
Comments from county officials about the suit were pending.
