Editorial roundup

Dec. 26 Tuscaloosa News Opioid lawsuit

For the past few years, NFL football players have worn pink during the month of October in an effort to raise awareness of breast cancer. The league moved last year to end the practice, but you still see players wearing the color. It is a worthwhile cause that has led to increased donations. But breast cancer, as bad as it is, now kills fewer Americans each year than opioids.

In 2016, there were 41,070 Americans who died from breast cancer, but there were 42,249 overdose deaths involving opioids that same year. Opioids were involved in the majority of the more than 63,600 overdose deaths last year.

And, as pharmaceutical companies get richer, the problem is only getting worse. U.S. deaths from drug overdoses increased a whopping 21 percent in 2016. Preliminary 2017 data shows that the rise in overdose deaths is continuing. It is such a problem that it is dragging down the overall life expectancy of Americans for the second straight year.

While the problem is nationwide, it is especially troubling in Alabama, where we have more opioid painkiller prescriptions than people. A recent study by Quintiles IMS found earlier this year that there are 1.18 opioid prescriptions per person in Alabama, which was the worst ratio of all states.

There’s no way that pharmaceutical companies don’t know that they are shipping more of these drugs than are needed in Alabama. There’s no way that doctors prescribing these highly addictive drugs at such a remarkable rate are unaware they are being abused. …

It’s time to address this incredibly serious problem in a serious way, a way that gets results, so we’re heartened to hear that Tuscaloosa County’s largest local governments are considering participating in a class-action lawsuit against manufacturers and distributors of opioid drugs. Tuscaloosa County, the city of Tuscaloosa and the city of Northport are all in the process of doing due diligence and researching which law firm they should choose.

While joining the lawsuits isn’t a panacea that will make this problem go away, it is a step in the right direction. Settlements have already been reached in other cases brought against the pharmaceutical companies. And Mississippi, Ohio, West Virginia, along with other counties and cities, such as Chicago, have also started litigation.

These companies have enriched themselves while our citizens are addicted and dying. They’ve wreaked havoc in our communities and depleted resources and we’re all paying a steep cost.