SHEBOYGAN - A burgeoning drug epidemic is costing local government agencies “millions” of dollars, according to Sheboygan County estimates. Now, in an effort to recoup some of those costs, county leaders are mulling whether to press for a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies they believe helped cause the problem.

The county board could agree Oct. 24 to team up with several law firms in pursuing a potential suit targeting multiple national drug manufacturers. The move would put Sheboygan County alongside other counties around the state also considering similar legal action. Several counties in central Wisconsin have already OK'd the move.

“If you look at just Sheboygan County alone, our health and human services department has spent upwards of $1 million or more … addressing individuals who are suffering from this substance abuse,” Sheboygan County Administrator Adam Payne said Monday. Other county departments, including the sheriff’s office, district attorney and medical examiner, he said, have also seen their budgets grow.

The Wisconsin Counties Association is pushing for local governments around the state to join the pending lawsuit against drug makers “whose marketing practices may be responsible for much of the” opioid epidemic, county board chairman Tom Wegner wrote in a recent letter to other board members urging them to get behind the litigation attempt.

“We hope this effort will help stop this improper activity and allow us to potentially recoup some of the expenses incurred in response to this crisis,” Wegner added in his letter, which notes the county has spent "millions" of dollars in response to local opioid drug-related issues.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse lists opioids among a family of drugs that includes both prescription painkillers and heroin. Painkillers "are generally safe" when prescribed by a doctor and taken for a short period of time, the drug institute says on its website, but they can also lead to dependence and overdoses.

Governments around the nation have been increasingly grappling with opioid abuse for the past several years, and Payne said the issue has dominated conversations he's had with other county leaders around the U.S.

Sheboygan County's resolution would allow it to engage with several law firms already working with other counties across the state to investigate and possibly prosecute claims against drug manufacturers.

Payne on Monday said he suspects more counties will eventually join the initiative, which first gained statewide attention about a month ago during the Wisconsin Counties Association's annual conference.

According to a handout document available on the counties association's website, other states and counties are also considering lawsuits against major pharmaceutical companies to hold them "financially responsible" for opioid-related problems and to push them to change their drug marketing tactics.

It wasn't clear Monday when a potential lawsuit might be filed. Payne said a suit could examine whether companies withheld information about their drugs.

“I think that’s the type of approach that’s in play here, that they’re going to be really drilling into and evaluating these companies that have been selling these drugs and how they’ve been marketing them,” Payne said. “And had they been holding, withholding, any information, that as a result of withholding it people perhaps were taking more drugs or utilizing opioids more than what was in their best interest. And if anything like that comes out, that will be strong grounds for the lawsuit to be successful.”

Litigation-related costs to Sheboygan County, including attorneys’ fees, would depend on the outcome of a potential lawsuit, according to a document included in the county board’s meeting agenda and that lays out terms of the agreement with the law firms.

“Costs incurred during this litigation are contingent to a successful outcome to the lawsuit and are limited only to the sum of the settlement that would be received by the County,” says a fiscal note attached to the county's resolution authorizing the legal move.

“At this point we see it as no cost to the county,” Wegner told a reporter Monday morning.

"Every county is dealing with this crisis," Payne said. "It's growing in significance, and it's requiring a lot of taxpayer resources to try to address the problem."