Delray sets legal fight against opioid drugmakers

DELRAY BEACH – The city hired a law firm Wednesday to sue drug manufacturers over the opioid epidemic sweeping South Florida.

The city hired San Diegobased law firm Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, whose attorneys helped to secure a $7 billion settlement against Enron in 2008, to seek damages on behalf of Delray for alleged deceptive marketing practices.

Amid a rising number of overdoses, Mayor Cary Glickstein solicited the firm in June, arguing the city is taking necessary steps to stop the next generation of addicts. It also wants to recoup damages for the significant cost in taxpayer money, such as an estimated $2,000 the city spends per overdose emergency call.

“Cities are firmly within their rights to seek restitution for past, present and future costs of an addicted population in large measure precipitated through fraud, deception and negligence,” Glickstein said.

The law firm plans to use Florida’s consumer protection laws to argue drug manufacturers misled the public and omitted facts through their marketing. It also will go after drug wholesalers for failing to report suspicious orders of opioids, as required by federal law.

The firm agreed to cover in advance the costs of the lawsuit in return for 23 percent of any amount a judge awards, plus expenses, according to the city’s agreement.

But it’s likely to be a long time before the city sees results, firm attorney Mark Dearman told the City Commission in July.

“I think you have to go into this with the idea that this is going be a fight,” Dearman said.

In Delray Beach, overdoses rose more than 250 percent from 2015 to 2016, rising from 195 to 690. Halfway through this year, police recorded 412 overdoses, with 37 of those people dying.