Judge rules against W. Virginia community in federal opioid trial

In a blow to claims that dru g companies fueled the opioid crisis, a federal judge ruled Monday that the nation’s three major drug distributors did not cause a public nuisance by shipping millions of addictive pain pills to a West Virginia com- munity that was among the hardest hit.

In a legal win for Amer- isourcebergen, Cardinal Health and Mckesson, Judge David A. Faber dismissed the argument made by Cabell County and its seat, Huntington, that the distribu- tors bore responsibility for the consequences of an inun- dation of opioids, according to the judge’s order filed in the U.S. District Court in West Virginia.

The distribut o rs have denied wrongdoing and have said the painkillers they shipped were prescribed by licensed doctors and filled by pharmacies. They argued they had no way of telling that those prescriptions were not legitimate and that any of the drugs may have been funneled to the black market.

The arguments by lawyers for the distributors resonated with the judge, who ruled that the plaintiffs did not prove the conduct by the companies was unreasonable, a key ele- ment to establishing a public nuisance case. He found that the conduct of the companies could not be connected to the harm suffered by the com- munities. Finally, he ruled that the plaintiffs failed to devise a detailed abatement plan out-lining how the communities would spend any money they received if they did prevail at trial.

The increase of pills going to West Virginia was due in part, he said, to “good faith dispensing” as well as the rise in product thresholds set by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“The opioid crisis has taken a considerable toll on the citizens of Cabell County and the City of Huntington. And while there is a natural tendency to assign blame in such cases, they must be decided not based on sympathy, but on the facts and the law,” Faber wrote in his ruling.

In the end, Faber ruled that public nuisance statutes had been wrongly applied in the case.