Taking on opioids
Beaver County is right to fight pharma firms
Beaver County has joined the ranks of cities, counties and states that have sued pharmaceutical companies, alleging they distributed highly addictive opioids like candies from a PEZ dispenser. The county has limited financial resources, so this is a big step. And a worthy one. The people there have a right to learn the origin of the opioid epidemic and bring those responsible to account.
The suit alleges that 23 defendants — drug companies, their affiliates and a handful of physicians — flooded the county with drugs even though they realized the tinder of addiction. The county’s attorney, Robert Peirce, is speaking to neighboring counties about filing their own suits. Bringing more parties on board would be an excellent step, partly because the sharing of costs and pooling of research efforts could help local governments mount a more vigorous case against Big Pharma’s deep pockets.
At least one defendant, Purdue Pharma, quickly denied culpability, and establishing wrongdoing or goading drugmakers into a settlement may be a formidable challenge. The point is, it’s worth trying. There is a growing public consensus that the drug industry shares some blame for what President Donald Trump intends to declare a national crisis.
On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Tom Marino, a Republican from Lycoming County, withdrew his name from consideration as the nation’s drug czar after The Washington Post and CBS’ “60 Minutes” program reported that he backed a law making it easier for drug companies to overrun communities with opioids. With federal officials providing help like that, the industry-fighting efforts of local governments take on added significance. “They can buy the feds, maybe, but they can’t buy the local communities,” Mr. Peirce said.
Two other Pennsylvania counties, Lackawanna and Delaware, already have filed suits similar to Beaver’s. Cities and counties in other states have filed them as well. Some states, including Ohio, also have gone to court. In addition, Pennsylvania’s attorney general, Josh Shapiro, is part of a 40-state investigation into the marketing and sale of opioids.
This may be the tobacco case of our time. Various states filed suits against tobacco companies in the 1990s to recover costs associated with tobacco-related illnesses. That litigation continues to pay dividends, financially and in other ways.
All 50 states settled, with 46, including Pennsylvania, parties to a master agreement requiring tobacco companies to pay billions of dollars annually in perpetuity. The settlement also places restrictions on tobacco advertising, prevents manufacturers from hiding information about tobacco’s impact on public health and funds prevention activities.
Through April, Pennsylvania had received $6.5 billion from the settlement, according to Rep. Joe Markosek, D-Monroeville, minority chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. The source of funds is so reliable that the state Senate, confronted with tough budget choices this year, voted to borrow money against future tobacco settlement funds.
There is no compensation possible for the lives lost to opioid addiction, 102 of them in Beaver County alone last year. However, the county and other local governments deserve some recompense for money they have spent on law enforcement, treatment programs and other epidemicrelated costs. More important, as the tobacco settlement showed, government can use litigation to change an industry’sbehavior forever.
The old drug crisis involved narcotics smuggled into the country and sold on street corners under cover of darkess. The opioid crisis is arguably a greater threat, and these drugs were manufactured and distributed by established companies, prescribed by licensed medical professionals and released by pharmacies. If wrongdoing is established, industry reform would be the best result of Beaver County’s suit.