West Memphis joins suit against opioid suppliers

West Memphis joins suit against opioid suppliers

‘ The fact is they put too many doses in circulation for the number of people that have prescriptions,’ says city attorney

news@theeveningtimes.com

Arkansas has risen to the top of some dubious national standings. The Diamond State recorded the second highest opioid prescription rate in the country and owned the second highest rate teen prescription abuse in 2013. While Arkansas ranks 32 in population its in the top ten for the number of pain killers prescribed by physicians and purveyed over pharmacy counters.

Emergency calls for overdoses and law enforcement expenses tax public coffers. All levels of government have responded to the health crisis to save lives and reduce operating costs.

During the last city council meeting of the year, West Memphis City Attorney Mike Stephenson presented a statistic laced resolution and asked city council to join in a class action suit against opioid suppliers.

The National Health Institute reported death by opioid overdoses is 2.8 times higher than in 2002. President Donald Trump declared a national health emergency for the fourth quarter of 2017 as opioids became the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of fifty. There are 142 opioid related deaths each day. The president’s remedy injected federal funding into abuse and addiction prevention, prescribed new guidelines, instituted new training on pain medication, and issued state grants for prescription monitoring. Supply reduction and enforcement strategies, included drug take back days and increased federal sentencing for trafficking opioids.

First District U.S. Congressman Rick Crawford recognized the epidemic and co-sponsored a bill earlier this year. “The cost of opioid addiction goes beyond the heartbreaking individual loss of life; there is also law enforcement and health care costs that weigh on all of us. We want to do our part on the federal level.”

The state of Arkansas has also taken steps in the fight against prescription painkiller abuse establishing in 2011 a prescription monitoring program requiring drugs like oxycodone, codeine, hyrdocodone and fentanyl be recorded in the state database. In 2013 the state moved to prevent Arkansas patients from doctor shopping. By 2015 state monitoring detected patients being prescribed opioids by more than three doctors in 30 days and allowed access to the information for criminal investigation. Legislation also opened the door to emergency responders to administer naloxone which blocks opioid receptors. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has touted drug turn in days and high school drug education.

Counties across the country have counted the costs of the opioid abuse epidemic. With the opioid epidemic busting budgets, litigation has been viewed as an avenue to fund assistance to battle the opioid epidemic. According to County Lines Magazine, two Southern California counties settled with Teva for $1.6 million going toward substance abuse treatment and education.

Hitting closer to home, Crittenden County opioid prescribing rate is 108.7 per 1000 people compared to the national average of just 66.5 according to the Center for Disease Control.

Arkansas ranked second only to Alabama in opioid prescriptions; so the Arkansas Association of Counties and the Municipal League have been mustering members to join in a class action lawsuit against manufacturers and purveyors of prescription opioids to stem the overflow of the drugs.

City Attorney Stephenson presented the multi-jurisdictional lawsuit in the form of a resolution and Mayor Johnson explained it to city council. The mayor said occupational safety and injury expense are some of the operating costs potentially set to sky rocket by prescription drug abuse.

“The municipal league has asked all the major cities to participate in the litigation,” said Johnson. “The league has some exposure.

Right now they have our worker’s comp and that is one of the avenues that they might have problems with and also our public legal defense contract we have with them may have some implications. If anything this will slow that epidemic down. The number of deaths is staggering.”

“The resolution was basically prepared by the municipal league, it basically has a lot of statistics in it,” said Stephenson. “The statistics are rather shocking.

They believe if they have a greater number in the class which would be the counties and cities throughout the state together, then there would be in a better position to litigate the case.

We don’t have any out of pocket costs.”

Stephenson summarized the key contention for the ward representatives.

“This goes after the distributors and manufacturers,” said Stephenson. “The fact is they put too many doses in circulation for the number of people that have prescriptions.”

In fact 80 opioid pills for every man, woman, and child were prescribed by physicians and delivered through pharmacies in Arkansas last year, a rate ranking the state number two in the country.

The West Memphis resolution noted the president’s public health emergency declaration, and a “flood of victims “ at hospitals and rehab centers in the introduction. The resolution said 30 percent more deaths were caused by opioids than traffic accidents.

“Municipal governments have born a substantial financial and societal burden fighting this crisis and will face abatement costs for this nuisance for many years to come,” read the resolution passed by city council.

The resolution calls for those responsible for the epidemic to be held to the highest standards of the law and recognized the “acute need” to address the opioid crisis and joined the efforts of the municipal league to bring litigation against those responsible.

By John Rech