A Wisconsin opioid lawsuit alleges drug companies have conducted “nefarious and deceptive” advertising campaigns that have given rise to a nation full of addicts.

Twenty-eight Wisconsin counties are suing pharmaceutical companies, saying the counties’ health departments and police departments “have been strained to the breaking point” due to the opioid overdose crisis. According to a Chicago Tribune article, the counties allege the drug companies downplayed the dangers of using narcotics to treat chronic pain in order to increase their profit margins.

The Wisconsin opioid lawsuit says, “Defendants’ goal was simple: to dramatically increase sales by convincing doctors that it was safe and efficacious to prescribe opioid to treat not only the kind of severe and short-term pain associated with surgery or cancer, but also for a seemingly unlimited array of less severe, longer-term pain, such as back pain and arthritis to name but two examples.”

Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, Endo Health Solutions, Inc., and a number of these companies’ subsidiaries are named defendants, who allegedly knew their “products were addictive, subject to abuse, and not safe or efficacious for long-term use,” adds the Wisconsin opioid lawsuit.

Also named as defendants are doctors Perry Fine of Utah, Lynn Webster of Utah, and Scott Fishman of California, all of who were “instrumental in promoting opioids for sale and distribution nationally,” claims the Wisconsin opioid lawsuit.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports more than 52,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2015. These drug overdose deaths were related to prescription drug abuse or the illegal drug heroin.

Wisconsin lost 1,824 people who died due to opioid overdoses between 2013 and 2015, says the Wisconsin opioid lawsuit. Washington County, which is among the plaintiffs, reported 542 hospital visits due to opioid use in 2016 and 70 overdose deaths between 2013 and 2016.

Wisconsin Opioid Lawsuit Alleges Drug Companies Created Epidemic

“County governments are bearing the brunt of the costs of this crisis,” alleges the Wisconsin opioid lawsuit’s lead counsel Erin Dickinson and partner Charles Crueger of Crueger Dickinson LLC, in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article. “Defendants must be held responsible for the devastating effects their action have produced on counties across the country.”

Other Wisconsin counties might join the lawsuit in the near future, indicated Dickinson.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported from a news conference held Nov. 7 to announce the Wisconsin opioid lawsuit, where Oconto County Health and Human Services Board Chairman Alan Sleeter made a statement.

“Our law enforcement, human services and judicial systems are being stressed in the effort to effectively respond to and manage the damage caused by opioid abuse and addiction,” said Sleeter. “There are babies that are born addicted and go into withdrawal.”

Sleeter said the Wisconsin opioid lawsuit is “one more tool to help us fight for our community.”

The Wisconsin counties join a number of communities and states across the country who are filing lawsuits against the drug companies that allegedly have hidden the true dangers of narcotics when taken for chronic pain.

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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