For instance, the lawsuit filed on behalf of Saline County said that the opioid prescribing rate in that county was about 214 prescriptions per 100 people in 2016, three times the overall national rate of 67 prescriptions per 100 people.

These high prescribing rates were not an aberration for Saline County; rates have been consistently greater than two prescriptions per person over the course of several years, the lawsuit claimed, citing statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This epidemic — resulting from failures of companies along the supply chain — has placed increased budgetary constraints on the county as it has required an increased public health, medical and law enforcement response in an attempt to stem the tide of addiction, and the illicit sale of drugs, the 210-page lawsuit claims.