The Boone and Kenton County Fiscal Courts voted Tuesday to separately file suit against the wholesale drug distributors whose misconduct contributed to the ongoing opioid epidemic in Northern Kentucky.
Boone and Kenton counties will file suit against the country’s three largest wholesale drug distributors – AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson Corporation. These three companies, with combined annual revenues of $400 billion, together control more than 80 percent of the market for prescription opioids.
“We are pursuing this lawsuit because the opioid scourge has placed a heavy burden on our local governments, while wholesale distributors maximized their profits. Much like a drug dealer, they ignored the harmful impacts and poisoned our community. I have personally witnessed the devastation that our families experienced as a result. These companies must be held accountable which will allow for greater investment in law enforcement, treatment, education and prevention efforts to relieve the effects of the opioid epidemic.” – Boone County Judge/Executive Gary Moore
Because prescription opioids are highly addictive, Congress enacted a system in 1970 to control the volume of opioid pills being distributed. In exchange for being selected to be among a small group of wholesalers permitted to distribute opioids, these companies agreed to halt orders that indicated abnormal or suspicious activity. There is evidence that the companies failed to fulfill this duty, and Boone and Kenton counties are among many communities currently paying the price for that failure.
Boone and Kenton counties, along with many other communities in Kentucky, Ohio and other states, will be working with a group of law firms to demonstrate that these wholesale distributors failed to fulfill their responsibilities under the federal Controlled Substances Act – to monitor, identify and report suspicious activity in the size and frequency of opioid shipments to pharmacies and hospitals.
“Based on the information presented to us, wholesale drug distributors ignored their legal obligations. Instead, they chose to pursue maximum profits from the sale of opioid pills. Our community is spending millions of dollars mitigating the impact of corporate decisions flooding Northern Kentucky with highly addictive opioid pills, and we have an obligation to our citizens to seek remedy from those who unlawfully profited from this epidemic.” – Kenton County Judge/Executive Kris Knochelmann
In addition to taking legal action, Boone and Kenton counties continue to combat the opioid epidemic with every tool available, from nationally-recognized treatment programs, to a statewide-recognized addiction assistance helpline, to partnering with St. Elizabeth’s to enhance treatment resources. Residents have also joined the fight to protect their communities by volunteering to spread informational door hangers to every home in the counties.
In collaboration with Addiction Services Council, Boone and Kenton counties are also deploying Quick Response Teams. Quick Response Teams are composed of a police officer, a firefighter, and a rehabilitation specialist. The QRT team goes out each week, contacts those who overdosed, and offers them the opportunity for treatment.
Boone County Fiscal Court, Kenton County Fiscal Court
Suing the distributor of the opioids is just the tip of the iceberg. What about the doctors that overcome prescribed pain pills for hangnails, so that they could get office visits co-pays on insurance and probably kickbacks from pharmaceuticals companies. What about the liability for drug stores that were filling the prescriptions for years and years with no documentation of chronic pain. So, instead of holding doctors responsible, we roll out pain clinics so doctors don’t get shit on their shoes. And the result… suddenly these people that had never experienced the withdrawl symptoms of opioids are not rolled up in a corner vomiting and defecating because they can no longer get that prescription for that chronic “hangnail” they have had for a year because we have to hurry and figure how to not have our doctors put waders on to waddle through the shit they dumped! Then the light goes off and pain clinics are the new wave… Why are we not holding the doctors responsible for this epidemic in our society. They too were maximizing their profits by over prescribing pain pills for hangnails? Because they you must have a written script in order to obtain opioids, which resulted in a copay for these doctors. Then we have pharmaceutical giants that not only are maximizing on the opioids, but now are maximizing on the drug narcan to reverse a overdose. If I fall down the stairs and call a ambulance, you can bet that the bill might beat the sirens to my house. However, if “John Doe” decides he wants to maximize his high he knows Mr. EMT will be there to hit him with the Narcan with no bill, no rehab and no penalty. Sadly, the EMT knows he will most likely see “John Doe” tomorrow same place, same time. Who is paying that bill? Instead of rolling a St. E and Walgreens on every corner we certainly should be rolling out rehabs on every corner. Instead of funding field trips to the Creation Museum take our children to a rehab so that they can watch someone withdrawl from opoids and I guarantee you they’ll think twice before they stick that needle in their arm. Instead of treading lightly in our schools about our epidemic, because we might offend someone, we should be teaching the affects and impact of opioids to our kids. I certainly know that that drug does not discriminate . Suungthe distributors will not impact them they have made billions of dollars and certainly don’t mind paying out millions so that they can continue to make billions. Same as pharmaceutical companies don’t mind paying out millions of dollars on class action suits years later because they made billions of dollars and will continue to make another billion dollars on the drug to replace the very one they are being sued for. I applaud your efforts, however, you are not going to impact the giant when you still have the stalk .