The Jefferson County Commission, the county sheriff and three municipalities filed a lawsuit Thursday against 27 opioid manufacturers and suppliers, claiming a "long-going conspiracy" that the makers knew their drugs were highly addictive and that they were prescribed much longer than necessary, leading to addiction.
The suit accuses the companies of negligence, fraud and unjust enrichment, among other claims. The county and the cities of Mountain Brook, Hueytown and Pleasant Grove are seeking a portion of the drug companies' profits to reimburse the county for jail, sheriff's office and other costs related to the opioid crisis. The county could not say how much those costs were, only that it was "a large number."
"What we're finding is that there's a long-going conspiracy with the drug manufacturers that have known that these painkillers are addictive," county attorney Theo Lawson told reporters outside the Jefferson County courthouse in Birmingham.
Among the drug companies named in the lawsuit were Johnson & Johnson, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Cephalon and Purdue Pharma.
Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Hale said the opioid crisis is "continuing to grow and become more expensive" for the county to manage. He noted that fatal opioid doses in the county increased more than 450 percent in the last 10 years. In the last six years, heroin deaths have jumped 700 percent and fentanyl deaths have spiked 3,000 percent, according to the sheriff.
"Good families in Jefferson County ... have suffered. Every hardworking, taxpaying American has carried the financial burden of this destruction while the drug companies have gotten richer and richer," Hale said. "We want to put a stop to this and shift the financial burden where it belongs with these companies that are profiting from it. I don't know how they can sleep at night knowing their product is leading to death, destruction and heartache for so many families."
Jefferson County Commission President Jimmie Stephens said members the county's task force on the opioid epidemic were all in agreement to file the suit.
"We want the opioid crisis to end. We want responsible prescriptions. We want a limit to the amount of opioids that people can purchase. We want to have an alternative to where our people will not get addicted to heroin or fentanyl," he said. "This is a cost on society. This is a cost on your government and we're looking to put that burden on those that cost it."