Franklin has joined communities across the nation in suing the makers and distributors of prescription pain pills in a lawsuit that alleges they flooded communities with drugs that have caused an addiction epidemic.
The city council decided to take part in the federal lawsuit in anticipation of any judgments that could result against the makers of opioids. Financial payments or other judgments, such as assistance in paying for Narcan or the construction of clinics to treat addicts, could help Franklin in addressing the crisis.
Greenwood and more than a dozen Indiana cities and counties are part of a federal lawsuit that claims that the companies have flooded their communities with the addictive painkillers and engaged in deceptive marketing campaigns that helped lead to a growing crisis. Many of the lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, are nearly identical, claiming the manufacturers aggressively pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids and falsely represented to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction.
The lawsuits are being consolidated in a multi-district litigation effort in U.S. District Court in Cleveland and will include lawsuits from other states. The defendants Defendants include opioid makers Purdue Pharma, which produces OxyContin and has no affiliation to Purdue University, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Jannsen Pharmaceuticals, as well as distributors Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen.
Franklin city attorney Lynn Gray said she was contacted about Franklin joining the lawsuit six months ago, but she wanted to see how the case developed before advising the city on whether to join. She brought the matter to the city council this week because she doesn’t want the city to miss out on payments that could help the community recover from the addiction epidemic.
See Wednesday’s Daily Journal for more information.
