CHICAGO (CBS) — Pharmaceutical companies are the target of a lawsuit filed by Kankakee County in response to the growing opioid overdose crisis.
The lawsuit accuses drug-making companies with aggressive and fraudulent marketing of pain-killing opioid drugs, leading to the heroin epidemic that’s taking more and more lives every year.
Officials say there have been 44 opioid-related overdose deaths in Kankakee County so far this year, which is eight more than last year’s end of the year total.
Opioid Crisis (CBS)
State’s Attorney Jim Rowe says that pharmaceutical companies that recklessly distribute opioids into his community are nothing more than heroin dealers in business suits.
“The communities in Kankakee County, and the county itself, that have had to spend, I guess, rare resources to combat this pandemic — we’d like to be compensated for that.”
Kankakee is not only seeking money damages to help pay the mounting costs from the opioid crisis, but it is also seeking to deter pharmaceutical companies from continuing to do what they’re accused of doing.
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Rowe says the epidemic is costly in other ways, as well.
“People now live on streets where they find heroin needles right out in front of their home, where kids play,” he said. “That certainly results in a declined quality of life.”
from CBS Chicago http://ift.tt/2xzvXFN
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