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Manatee Co. joins City of Sarasota in suing drug companies over opioid epidemic

They join a growing number of communities seeking restitution for treating overdose cases.
Photo: Getty Images

SARASOTA, Fla. -- The fight against the opioid epidemic is heading to the courtroom.

Manatee County commissioners approved filing a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies to reclaim damages.

Manatee joins more than 200 other municipalities nationwide, including the City of Sarasota, to file a suit. Both communities have led the state in overdoses and deaths.

In 2016 at the peak of the epidemic locally, the number of deaths in both counties totaled 263.

In Sarasota, every EMS call cost around $25,000 and each dose of Narcan, an overdose-reversing drug, cost $300. Add to that the cost for treatment, incarceration and autopsies.

In two weeks, Sarasota attorney Bill Robertson will be filing a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of the city. He expects damages past, present and future could top millions of dollars in taxpayer money.

Robertson says pharmaceutical companies did what big tobacco companies did and misled the public with false information.

At one time, opioids were used only for short-term pain and end of life control of pain, not chronic pain because they can be highly addicting after two weeks' use, Robertson said.

“They started pushing use of it in chronic pain across the country. They used false fronts and a lot of funding for organizations that were publishing publications to justify the use of opioids,” explained Robertson.

He said the pharmaceutical companies were fined $200 million by the federal government for their “malfeasance.” Robertson said,

“That’s a drop in the bucket. They made $11 billion in 2014. The only way these companies understand things is through the financial pocketbook and being punished by it and being held accountable for it.”

Robertson says most of the lawsuits are now consolidated under one large federal lawsuit overseen by a federal judge in Ohio. He believes more lawsuits, including independent lawsuits by victims’ families, will be filed.

He believes pharmaceutical companies will likely be forced to settle in the next year or two.

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