DRUG DECEPTION?
Suburban counties sue opioid manufacturers over overdose deaths in Illinois
Calling doctors, pharmacists and patients victims of “a coordinated, sophisticated and highly deceptive marketing campaign,” the leaders of five major suburban counties filed lawsuits Thursday naming opioid drug manufacturers as the source of the thousands of overdose deaths in Illinois.
The lawsuits, which were announced during a news conference in DuPage County, seek an unspecified amount of damages. However, the state’s attorneys of the five counties agreed the financial cost to local taxpayers for policing, preventive programs and the actual deaths is in the millions of dollars.
The nearly identical lawsuits also seek a judicial mandate that would prohibit the drug manufacturers from continuing what the attorneys described as 20 years of “unfair and deceptive acts and practices.” The direct result of the lawsuits would be a reduction in the number of overdose deaths in Illinois. Those deaths now total 11,000 people since 2008, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
As more units of local government seek justice from drug companies, they may face obstacles from state officials who don’t agree with pointing the finger at those businesses.
Don Kauerauf, assistant director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, told a group of reporters this month there isn’t one source of the problem.
“As much as we try to place the blame on any one industry, say the pharmaceutical companies are drivers, you can’t do that,” Kauer- auf said. “You can’t blame all of one sector. There’s a lot of factors.”
Kauerauf pointed to insurance companies as sharing in the blame. Many insurers would cover the costs of pain medication but reject alternative, but more costly options, like physical therapy.
The suburban state’s attorneys pointed to the rising death tolls in the face of all existing prevention and policing methods as a major reason why the lawsuits are appropriate at this time.
State health department stats show opioid overdoses killed 1,888 people in Illinois in 2016. That makes opioids responsible for more fatalities than homicides or car accidents. Illinois’ opioid death toll is up 57 percent from 2014. And overdoses are now the leading cause of death for people younger than 50 in Illinois.