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Date: 6/8/2018
WEST SPRINGFIELD – The towns of West Springfield and Agawam are among the latest municipalities to join a federal lawsuit seeking to recover damages from manufacturers of prescription opioids and the country’s three largest wholesale drug distributers.
On June 6, West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt hosted a press conference in the municipality’s Town Hall building, where he was joined by mayors from Greenfield, Agawam, Easthampton and North Adams. The town police and fire chiefs were also in attendance. The lawsuit alleges that the pharmaceutical drug manufacturers and wholesale drug distributers created the opioid epidemic in the region by “recklessly dumping millions of prescription opiates on to the local citizenry without regard to the devastating consequences.”
It also claims the manufacturing companies pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids by falsely representing to doctors that patients would only “rarely succumb to drug addiction,” and that the distributers breached their legal duties to monitor, detect, investigate, refuse and report suspicious orders of prescription opioids.
During the press conference, Reichelt mentioned the death of a West Side resident that took place earlier that morning.
“It’s a very important subject – overdoses and over-prescription. We just lost a 20-year-old to an overdose on Riverdale Road,” he said.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the number of opioid-related deaths throughout the state has risen dramatically in recent years. From 2000 to 2015 alone, the state saw a 372 percent increase in overdose fatalities. In 2015, there were 1,724 state overdose deaths, up from the 463 state deaths in 2000. In 2012, the state logged 742 opioid related deaths and by 2016, the number of deaths rose to 1,933.
More than 100 cities and towns in the state are working with a consortium of national law firms – with 14 being from the Western part of the state. The Massachusetts Opioid Litigation Attorneys (MOLA) – a coalition of law firms that includes Sweeney Merrigan Law LLP; Rodman, Rodman & Sandman; and KP Law – is leading the effort locally. In addition to MOLA, the legal consortium hired to represent the Western Massachusetts cities and towns includes several national expert law firms, such as: Baron & Budd; Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Rafferty & Proctor; Greene Ketchum Bailey Farrell & Tweel; Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler; McHugh Fuller Law Group; and Powell & Mejestro.
Agawam Mayor William Sapelli also spoke during the conference, and argued that the opioid crisis not only causes hardships and heartbreaks for the individuals affected, but for the towns dealing with the crisis as well.
“First and foremost we’re concerned about the people that are addicted, and their families, but also with the pressure it puts on our communities with regard to resources and finances,” he said. “When I was superintendent of schools, we brought Narcan in. So what we’ve done is we’ve purchased Narcan for all of our schools and first responders, but we’ve also had to train them, and that’s an expense. There are many expenses associated with the issue and it’s a real strain on public health and safety – it has to stop.”
Narcan, also known as Naloxone, is a drug in the form of a nasal spray that can temporarily reverse the potentially deadly effects of opioid overdose during an emergency. Without insurance, Narcan can typically cost about $130 for a kit with one or two doses, but the over-the-counter prices could be 25 percent lower depending on current price points and discounts for other pharmacies already carrying the drug.
Attorney J. Tucker Merrigan, a partner at Sweeney Merrigan, said he hopes that there will be some sort of “resolution” for the lawsuit later on down the road, and that they have “[our] work cut out for us.”
“Nothing is more patriotic, or captures the essence of democracy in this country, than casting a vote, and that’s what we are doing,” he said. “To say to Corporate America and Big Pharma, ‘Not in our community, not in our backyard – you cannot have a business plan that lines your pockets at the expense of the lives of our own community members and our own family.’”
He added that the consortium is currently working toward setting a trial date.