Companies knew their drugs were more dangerous than anyone suspected.
Every year for the past several years, more than 100 Volusia and Flagler County residents have lost their lives to opioid abuse. Countless others have lost their health, financial security, liberty, families and dignity.
It’s easy enough to write them off as addicts. And it may well be that some would have lost their way no matter what; addiction has always plagued society and probably always will.
But Florida, along with the nation, is in the grips of a drug-abuse crisis that outscales history. And over the past decade, investigative reporters and governmental regulatory agencies have uncovered clear and consequential links between the surge in addiction, and callous, deceitful behavior by large pharmaceutical companies. Even as they reaped billions of dollars from the sale of high-voltage painkillers, the companies knew their drugs were more dangerous than anyone suspected — as a damning report published last week in The New York Times details. That story (and others like it) portrays the myriad ways companies schemed to cover up the truth — not just through their own marketing, but with a barrage of deceptive tactics that included fake patients-rights groups and paid-for endorsements by medical professionals. But even as they touted the safety of their drugs, corporate executives were well aware that patients were crushing pills for a more potent high and doctor-shopping for multiple prescriptions, the Times report and others have revealed.
That’s why we applaud the decision by Florida Attorney General Pamela Bondi to drag these companies into court and hold them accountable.
Some have criticized Bondi for delaying Florida’s entry into litigation. But Florida could benefit from other states’ trailblazing efforts. Bondi also had to work within the confines of a Florida law that caps fees for law firms that handle this kind of massive, complex litigation — a move that made it tough to recruit a law firm, as detailed by The Tampa Bay Times.
But Bondi put together a team of private attorneys, and they’re casting a wide net. Named defendants in the suit include big pharmaceutical firms such as Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin, as well as distributors who are accused of knowingly shipping vast quantities of the easily abused drugs to “pill mills” across the state. At one point, Florida bore the shameful distinction of being a national leader in illicit prescriptions for powerful painkillers. As Florida choked down on pill mills, many addicts turned to more powerful substances, including heroin and even more potent (and fatal) synthetics such as fentanyl.
The suit sums up the litany of destruction: “Loss of lives, babies born addicted to opioids, adults unable to work, treatment costs, emergency personnel costs, law enforcement expenses, naloxone (a drug used to treat addiction) costs, medical examiner expenses, foster care expenses, self-funded state insurance costs, and lost tax revenues, among many others.” It accuses drug companies and distributors of a “campaign of misrepresentation” to maximize their profits, with reckless indifference for the ensuing wreckage.
That wreckage is most poignantly displayed in places like Halifax Health Medical Center’s infant intensive-care unit — where impossibly tiny infants, born to addicted mothers, fight to survive and face life-long consequences for choices they never made.
It’s easy to put the blame for their plight on their mothers. But some share of that burden also, undoubtably, rests with the corporations who knew how dangerous their products were, and lied to protect their profit margins. Bondi, and other officials, are right to confront these massively wealthy firms and demand justice.