A county in Texas recently filed a lawsuit against a slew of pharmaceutical companies over serious painkiller addiction problems.

The County of Cherokee in Texas leveled its new painkiller addiction lawsuit against Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, Endo Health Solutions and many other drug manufacturers.

According to the lawsuit, these companies used false and deceptive marketing tactics throughout Cherokee County—and throughout the country. These tactics include providing incentives for doctors to prescribe opioids and giving misleading information about these drugs and the risk of painkiller addiction.

The painkiller addiction lawsuit was filed on multiple counts, including public nuisance, common law fraud, negligence, and unjust enrichment, among several others.

Background of the Painkiller Addiction Epidemic

Opioid drugs like OxyContin are often prescribed to treat pain. Their job is to reduce the number of pain signals that the body sends to the brain.

Unfortunately, the potential for painkiller addiction is vast. In just 2016 alone, more than 289 million prescriptions for opioid drugs were written. The United States consumes a disproportionate amount of opioids–around 85 percent of the global total, the lawsuit notes. This widespread use of opioids has led to a major problem with painkiller addiction.

Painkiller addiction usually starts with a prescription, but can quickly lead to the misuse and abuse of opioids. Indeed, at least two-thirds of accidental drug overdose deaths are from opioids.

This painkiller addiction epidemic was directly brought on, the lawsuit claims, by the drug manufacturers that market and distribute their opioid drugs in an unsafe manner. In the past, the lawsuit claims, the threat of painkiller addiction was too great for opioids to be used for problems like chronic pain, migraines, and arthritis. Because of the risk of painkiller addiction, opioids were only used for short-term issues.

However, around the new millennium, pharmaceutical companies “began a marketing scheme to persuade doctors and patients that opioids can and should be used for chronic pain,” the lawsuit alleges. The money put into this scheme was considerable. “Each Defendant spent, and continues to spend, millions of dollars to promote the benefits of opioids for chronic pain while trivializing or even denying their risks.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), prescription opioid deaths have quadrupled in the last twenty years, correlating closely with the sales increase made in the same period.

As the opioid epidemic and the involvement of major pharmaceutical companies becomes more widespread, state attorneys general have begun taking action through investigation and litigation against the pharmaceutical companies themselves.

Filing an Opioid Painkiller Addiction Lawsuit

Painkiller addiction lawsuits like the one filed in Cherokee County, Texas claim that drug companies downplayed the severity of the addictive risks of opioids, placing company profit over the safety of patients.

Lawsuits over the painkiller addiction epidemic have been filed against companies from all over the country, including Ohio, New Hampshire, New York, Chicago, Oregon, California, Kentucky and the one in Texas, involving dozens of different opioid medications and manufacturers.

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

The Painkiller Addiction Lawsuit is County of Cherokee v. Purdue Pharma, et al., Case No. 6:17-cv-00659, in the U.S. District Court for the Tyler Division of the Eastern District of Texas.

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

Do YOU have a legal claim? Fill out the form on this page now for a free, immediate, and confidential case evaluation. The attorneys who work with Top Class Actions will contact you if you qualify to let you know if an individual opioid addictino lawsuit or opioid addiction class action lawsuit is best for you. Hurry — statutes of limitations may apply.

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