McBlain goes to Cleveland for start of opioid liability case

As the judicial system weighs the liability of drug companies in the opioid epidemic, Delaware County is at the table..

Delaware County Council Chairman John McBlain traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, to be in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Dan Polster as a jury trial for six drug manufacturers begins.

In January 2018, Polster himself likened the nation’s situation with opioids to the 1918 flu pandemic while stating that the crisis was “100 percent man made.” Pharmaceutical giants Allergan, Johnson & Johnson and Purdue Pharma and distribution companies, Amerisource Bergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson are defendants in the case.

At the time, he also said that doctors and individuals also bear some responsibility for the crisis and haven’t done enough to stop it.

In the legal action, Polster is overseeing more than 180 lawsuits brought by local communities across the country including Delco and those in California, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. McBlain is observing the legal proceedings as one of approximately 20 states, counties and city litigants of the thousands from across the country.

A potential settlement was being worked out Friday that could serve as a framework for a national resolution.

Polster previously said that due to this epidemic alone, the United States may see the average life expectancy diminish by three years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.