America is becoming increasingly plagued by the growing opioid crisis all through the nation. Certain states are being hit harder, as more drugs are funneled into their borders. Indeed, more than a billion opioid pills were shipped into Missouri in the last six years. For context, that’s enough for each resident of the state to get 260 pills.

Sen. Claire McCaskill has been overseeing a series of investigations into the opioid crisis in her state. According to a report recently released by Sen. McCaskill, three major drugmakers have shipped a combined total of 1.6 billion doses of opioids into Missouri between 2012 and 2017.

“The opioid crisis these pills have fueled is a failure of policy and oversight by the government and a failure of basic human morality on the part of many pharmaceutical companies and distributors—a failure that has destroyed families and communities all over our state,” said McCaskill.

When a drug distributor believes that a doctor or pharmacy is placing suspicious orders (absurdly large amounts or odd patterns, for instance) they are supposed to record these anomalies.

According to the report, the three biggest distributors of opioids in Missouri—McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health—had extremely different records of suspicious orders by doctors or pharmacies. AmerisourceBergen and McKesson each shipped out roughly the same number of doses (around 650 million each) but while McKesson made more than 16,000 reports of suspicious orders, AmerisourceBergen made only 244 of these reports.

So far, McKesson and other companies have each paid millions of dollars in fines for inadequate reporting of suspicious drug orders. While AmerisourceBergen has not paid fines, it recently settled a lawsuit with West Virginia over this issue.

The Opioid Crisis

Opioids are prescribed to treat pain, but they are also extremely addictive because they produce a sense of euphoria. They work by reducing the number of pain signals that the body sends to the brain. Though opioids are often advertised as being safe and effective painkillers, they are actually in the same class of drugs as heroin. Unfortunately, these drugs can become extremely addictive, extremely quickly.

The opioid epidemic is growing more and more widespread. In 2016 alone, drug overdoses killed more than 63,000 people, the vast majority of which have been attributed to opioid usage, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the CDC, prescription opioid deaths have quadrupled since just 1999, a statistic that is tied closely with the increase in sales during that time. Indeed, around 183,000 people have died from opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2015.

Addiction to opioids isn’t necessarily something that happens from misuse of these drugs—even taking opioids at the direction of one’s doctor can quickly lead to addiction.

Filing an Opioid Crisis Lawsuit

Lawsuits against prescription opioid manufacturers in response to the opioid crisis have been filed from all over the country, including in Ohio, New Hampshire, New York, Chicago, Oregon, California, Arkansas, and Minnesota. A slew of different opioids and their respective manufacturers and distributors are involved in these lawsuits.

If you or someone you love has suffered from opioid overdose because of a painkiller prescribed by your doctor, you may be able to join the growing number of opioid crisis lawsuits. While a lawsuit cannot take away the pain and suffering caused by opioid overdose, it can help to alleviate some of the accompanying financial burden.

In general, opioid overdose death lawsuits are filed individually by each plaintiff and are not class actions.

If your loved died from an opioid overdose in the last three years from an addiction that began as a legal opioid prescription from his or her doctor, you may have a legal claim. Get help now by filling out the form on this page for a FREE case evaluation.

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