Cherokee Nation turns to state court in opioid fight
TAHLEQUAH — Blocked from pursuing the case in tribal court, the Cherokee Nation plans to sue several major corporations in state court for allegedly creating “an epidemic of prescription opioid drug abuse” among Native Americans, officials said Wednesday.
Cherokee Attorney General Todd Hembree originally filed the lawsuit last April in tribal court, arguing that federal and Cherokee law gives tribal judges jurisdiction over non-Indians when they are threatening the “political integrity, economic security or health and welfare” of the tribe.
The companies, including Walmart, Walgreens, CVS and other major drug distributors, responded by asking a U.S. District Court in Tulsa to declare that Cherokee courts have no jurisdiction over them. And Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Terence Kern agreed, ruling that “the mere act of doing business with a tribe or its members, even on tribal land, does not subject a nonmember to broad tribal civil authority.”
The ruling was a preliminary injunction and, theoretically, the Cherokee Nation could continue arguing in federal court that the case should be allowed to proceed under tribal jurisdiction. But instead, the tribe will refile the case in a state court, Hembree said Wednesday.
“The opioid crisis in the Cherokee Nation was fueled by the defendants’ decision to prioritize profits over the well-being of Cherokee citizens,” Hembree said. “In 2015 and 2016 alone, distributors shipped and pharmacies dispensed 184 million opioid pain pills in the 14 counties in northeast Oklahoma that comprise the Cherokee Nation — or 153 doses for every man, woman and child. The defendants knowingly turned a blind eye to the harm they caused.”
Written with help from out-of-state law firms, the original case pits the Cherokee Nation against some of the biggest names in the pharmaceutical industry, including the McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen. Combined, the three companies account for nearly 90 percent of all revenues from drug distribution in the United States, according to the original lawsuit.