CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With closing arguments in the lawsuit against opioid
distributors taking place later this month, an attorney representing Cabell
County believes lawyers showed there is enough evidence to prove drug
distributors fueled the opioid crisis.
The city of Huntington and Cabell
County Commission are suing AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and
McKesson Corp. for allegedly intensifying the opioid crisis by shipping millions
of pain pills to the area from 2008 to 2014. The defendants rested their case
last Monday.
“I believe we put on a very strong case that these
defendants who are distributors of opioids … violated their duties under the
Controlled Substances Act,” plaintiff attorney Anthony Majestro said.
Majestro said the legal team met all the elements of their claims by
addressing the volume of pills and the companies’ inability to investigate the
shipments.
“We acknowledged that there were other players who could have
done things differently, too, but certainly, these defendants that we tried the
case against are a substantial factor in bringing about the awful opioid
epidemic that is still ongoing in Cabell County and Huntington,” he
said.
Majestro said the distributors failed to meet their duties to stop
the shipment of pills and investigate if people were acquiring medication for
non-medical purposes. He added the case is too complex to address doctors and
manufacturers in the same trial, although claims do exist against other
parties.
“There are so-called bellwether trials against those other
groups going on,” Majestro said.
Judge David Faber will hear closing
arguments beginning July 27.