AG seeks anecdotes for opioid lawsuit

Ask any trial lawyer and he or she will tell you the chances of winning or losing a lawsuit can often hinge on witness testimony and personal stories.

That is why Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has launched a program to help his office in the state's lawsuit against major opioid manufacturers. Schmitt was in Cape Girardeau this week as part of a statewide tour, announcing the "Real Opioid Pain" initiative, asking Missourians to share how opioid addiction and abuse has affected them.

The Missouri Attorney General's office filed a lawsuit in June 2017, seeking damages and civil penalties from three pharmaceutical companies: Perdue Pharma, Endo Pharmaceuticals and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson -- alleging they knowingly misled Missourians regarding the addictive nature and adverse effects of opioids.

"Missouri is in the midst of one of the most severe health crises in modern history," Schmitt said of the opioid use situation in Missouri. "Tragically, it is highly likely that each one of us knows someone who has been impacted by opioids. After all, the opioid epidemic knows no boundaries. It affects every background, every race, every creed across Missouri. Urban, suburban, rural ... the impact has been enormous across the state."

"It's heart wrenching when you hear the stories of people who have been affected," he told the Missourian, adding he hopes to gather those stories through a new website, realopioidpain.com.

Missouri is one of about three dozen states that have filed lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies related to opioid use and addiction. "We allege in our petition that there was a concerted effort to mislead doctors and other providers about the impact and the likelihood that someone would be addicted to these drugs and that they're not meant for chronic conditions, even though they were being marketed as such," he said.

"Each state has its own cause of action," he said. "Our case is set for trial for January 2021. It's the biggest case in a generation in our office. The next thing close to this would have been the tobacco litigation of the 90s, so this is a massive, massive case."

Stories collected through the "Real Opioid Pain" website will be used by the Attorney General's office to support the state's claim opioid addiction has resulted in irreparable damage to the state and its citizens.

"It's impossible to measure the human damage and the human toll that these opioids have had on families across Missouri," Schmitt said, "so we want to reach out and hear from people. Their stories are heartbreaking, and we think they can aid in our case."

Schmitt added that in the United States, more than 130 people die from opioid overdoses every day. "To put that in context, that's about the same number of people who would die if we had a fatal airline crash every day of every month of every year."

Ten Missouri counties, including Cape Girardeau County, and the City of Joplin filed suit against 49 manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies and prescription benefit managers in July 2018 alleging they misled communities, doctors and residents about opioids by claiming they were the proper treatment for chronic pain and were not addictive.

That lawsuit is independent of the state's legal action, according to a spokesperson with the Attorney General's office.

jwolz@semissourian.com

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