13 COMMUNITIES COME TOGETHER TO DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR OPIOID CRISIS
13 Communities Come Together To Demand Accountability For Opioid Crisis
BY KATHERINE NEWMAN
A recent lawsuit filed in the Cook County Circuit Court names 13 municipalities and one fire department as plaintiffs in a case against several national pharmaceutical companies and three Illinois doctors alleging that they are the responsible parties for the rise in opioid addiction and overdose in Illinois.
The City of Harvey, Village of Broadview, Village of Chicago Ridge, Village of Dolton, Village of Hoffman Estates, Village of Maywood, Village of Marionette Park, Village of North Riverside, Village of Orland Park, City of Peoria, Village of Posen, Village of River Grove, Village of Stone Park and the Orland Fire Protection District have all come together to press charges against numerous opioid manufacturers, distributors, and three Illinois doctors who together ran a pain management clinic in Riverside that the lawsuit alleges was a “Pill Mill” responsible for prescribing enormous quantitates of opioids.
The lawsuit has categorized the defendants into three groups, manufacturing defendants, (the entities responsible for the research and development of prescription opioids), the distributor defendants (the entities that were responsible for facilitating the production and distribution of opioid medications to pill prescribers) and the prescriber defendants (three Illinois doctors who operated Melrose Park Clinic, Ltd.) also known as Riverside Pain Management, which allegedly overprescribed opioids to their patients.
“Generally speaking, it’s our position that the manufacturers and the distributors engaged in a concerted effort to misrepresent the nature and the addictiveness of opioids and they effectively created an epidemic that was entirely avoidable and now communities and other entities are left to deal with the aftermath,” said Alfred Murray, senior litigation counsel for Edelson PC and one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs.
Purdue Pharma L.P. is one of the manufacturer defendants named in the Illinois lawsuit and has denied the claims against them and said they are also concerned about the national opioid crisis.
“We vigorously deny the allegations in these lawsuits. The jurisdictions are claiming that Purdue acted improperly by communicating with prescribers about scientific and medical information that FDA has expressly considered and continues to approve. We believe it is inappropriate for these jurisdictions to substitute their judgment for the judgment of the regulatory, scientific and medical experts at FDA. We look forward to presenting our substantial defenses to these claims,” Purdue Pharma said in a written statement.
Regardless of who is to blame, the opioid crisis has devastated communities across America and proven that no city is safe from its reach, and that fact holds true for Illinois as well.
“The pharmaceutical companies and those who have been involved in overprescribing opioids must be held accountable for the devastation their actions have caused. I am proud to be a part of the group of city leaders taking action to lead the fight against opioid addiction. We must protect others from those who would place profits over people,” said Riley H. Rogers, Mayor of the Village of Dolton.
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