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1 1 (December 6, 2018)

handle is hein.crs/govyjp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: State and Local Governments Pursue Judicial Solutions to the Opioid Epidemic December 6, 2018 Given the severity of the opioid epidemic and its prominence as a matter of national concern, efforts to combat the issue are of significant interest to Congress. Federal, state, and local lawmakers and executive branch agencies continue to develop and implement a wide range of responses to this problem. In addition to these efforts, courts are also involved in the nationwide battle against opioids. A growing number of states, municipalities, tribal governments, hospitals, insurers, individuals, and other plaintiffs have filed numerous legal challenges against opioid manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, health insurers, prescribing physicians, and other defendants. Despite the array of federal and state law claims advanced in these lawsuits, what is at the heart of these cases is the same: questions about who is legally accountable for the devastating consequences of the opioid epidemic. State and local governments have initiated many of the recent opioid-related cases. These governmental plaintiffs claim that because of widespread opioid misuse and abuse in their communities, they have shouldered enormous costs for medical care, drug treatment, law enforcement, and other services, and they are entitled to recover from the companies that supplied, marketed, and profited from the sale of these drugs. This Legal Sidebar provides a brief overview of some of the primary arguments in the cities' and states' lawsuits, as well as a discussion of the federal opioid multi-district litigation (MDL), which could potentially play a pivotal role in achieving some form of global resolution in these cases. Opioid Litigation and State and Local Governments While there is significant variation in the hundreds of lawsuits initiated by state and local governments, these cases typically involve numerous claims against two main categories of defendants: opioid manufacturers and distributors. With respect to the claims against opioid manufacturers, plaintiffs have generally asserted that the companies understated opioids' risks and misrepresented their benefits, in violation of a wide range of state laws. Cases brought by governmental plaintiffs generally center around claims that manufacturers fraudulently marketed their drugs, particularly with respect to the long-term use of opioids for chronic pain. As the State of Montana has declared in its lawsuit, the epidemic began not with an outbreak, but with a business plan. Complaints against opioid manufacturers generally insist, for example, that the companies' promotional activities distorted the risk of addiction, failed to disclose risks of higher dosages, and deceptively downplayed issues of opioid dependence and withdrawal. The Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10226 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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