Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Florida should sue drug makers, Gwen Graham says
Governor candidate Gwen Graham said Tuesday the state of Florida should sue the pharmaceutical industry to recover costs of treating people addicted to opioids.
Other states and local governments are taking or have contemplated similar actions. Graham said Florida would join them if she’s elected governor.
Taking a break from a “workday” at an addiction treatment center in Boca Raton, Graham said it would be similar to Florida’s landmark case against the tobacco industry undertaken by the late former Gov. Lawton Chiles.
“This is such an important issue to Florida, and a crisis across the state,” she said, citing 4,000 deaths in the state in the past year. “We need to be holding the pharmaceutical companies accountable for their role in addicting so many people across the state to opioids.”
She said the drug manufacturers have a responsibility to cover the costs created by people who became addicted to their products. She said she didn’t have an amount of money in mind but said she would strive for “a settlement that would be significant enough” to cover appropriate treatment for people addicted to opioids. She also cited high costs for local governments whose police and fire-rescue crews have to respond to opioid-related overdoses.
At least two dozen states, cities and counties have filed lawsuits against drug companies, including attorneys general in Ohio, Oklahoma and Missouri.
Attorney General Mike DeWine of Ohio served in the U.S. Senate with Graham’s father. She said she would seek his counsel as she develops her plan for a Florida lawsuit.
In July, Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay asked for the county’s legal staff to review the possibilities of such a case. And in August, Delray Beach hired a law firm to sue drug manufacturers.
The current actions come 20 years after Florida’s settlement with the tobacco industry in which cigarette manufacturers agreed to pay $11.3 billion. The tobacco companies also agreed to some limits on advertising and sales.