Nevada Refuses to Settle in Opioid Manufacturer Lawsuit
Personal Injury Attorney in Las Vegas, NV
One of the hot political topics this year is the opioid crisis resulting from the increasing cases of opioid addictions in the US; especially among the middle class.
While Ohio counties Summit and Cuyahoga reached settlements in their own lawsuits against opioid producers, the state of Nevada is refusing to settle and with attorney Robert Eglet, the state is seeking 4 billion so it can use that money to fund opioid addiction treatment.
Eglet has litigated several high-profile personal injury cases in Las Vegas such as the case of a Hepatitis C outbreak which was spread through a colonoscopy clinic. He’s taking on the crisis and producers as it has damaged Nevada’s citizens, specifically in its rural areas.
Looking at things statistically, between 2006 and 2012 Mineral county in Nevada has fewer than 5,000 residents and yet 2.5 million doses of opioids were prescribed there. In the same period of time, in Nye county 34 million doses of opiods were prescribed in a county of 43,000 people.
Broken down, that’s about 790 pills a person. The statistic becomes worse considering that not every person in Nye county is addicted to or is using opioids, meaning the amount a person dealing with addiction is using could be much more.
In turn, the state of Nevada filed a lawsuit against opioid several opioid producers, one of which is Perdue Pharma, which produces the popular opioid OxyContin.
Nevada specifically has seen the crisis affect its citizens, specifically in its rural areas.
The lawsuit contends that drug manufacturers downplayed the addiction risks while encouraging doctors to prescribe them in doses higher than what is necessary to address their issue.
At the same time, they also argue that drug makers failed to stop large shipments of their products, which should have been labeled as suspicious.
After the state of Oklahoma won their own case in August against Johnson & Johnson, a parent company of subsidiaries that also produces opioids, the prediction is that verdicts will get even larger.