The toll the opioid crisis has taken on Newfoundland and Labador is immeasurable, say the province's justice and health ministers, which is why it's important to be included in any sort of restitution for people whose lives have been torn apart by addiction.

"The facts of this case are heinous," said Justice and Public Safety Minister Andrew Parsons.

"I mean, just when you look at the addictive nature and the fact that there was misleading information that was put out there to health-care systems, to physicians, and ultimately to people, not telling the true story."

In the United States, OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma reached a tentative deal with about half the states and thousands of local governments over its role in America's deadly opioid addiction epidemic.

It was marketed very aggressively, and there was a lack of emphasis on the side effects. - John Haggie

Newfoundland and Labrador is part of a national class-action lawsuit launched by British Columbia last year, and Parsons said the province is committed to seeing the process through.

"It's had a huge impact. People are dying," he said.

"This is huge, so we have no choice but to take action here."

It isn't just about taking action to bring some justice to people wronged, Parsons said; it's also about finding a way to ensure people are protected in the future, as well as recouping some of the costs of the opioid crisis to the province.

"When you think about the opioid addiction problem, it really had reached a crisis level, not only in Newfoundland and Labrador, but in Canada and the United States," Parsons said.

Bottles of prescription painkiller OxyContin pills, made by Purdue Pharma LP, are seen on a counter at a pharmacy in 2017. (George Frey/Reuters)

"The impact that it's had just on human lives, on health, and also on just the cost to our health system where it's direct health-care costs. The fact is that we have no choice but to be a part of this proposed class action."

In 2017, there were 33 deaths linked to opioids, Parsons said. And in 2019, between January and April, there were nine. Parsons said that's a startling statistic for a province with about half a million people.

A class-action lawsuit is a long, drawn-out process, Parsons added, so there are no specific companies named in it yet. However, Parsons did point to the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma as examples of who he expects to see mentioned in the process.

'The human toll is what I'm struck by'

Health Minister John Haggie agrees opioid addiction is a crisis in the province and beyond, adding that, regardless of how the lawsuit turns out, people were wronged.

"There is an onus on the manufacturers to provide a product, but also to do it in a responsible way, and we feel that that wasn't the case," Haggie said.

"I think there's a general consensus from our point of view that it was marketed very aggressively, and there was a lack of emphasis on the side effects and the addiction potential of the drug, which was a fundamental flaw."

Health Minister John Haggie says there wasn't enough emphasis on the side effects and addictive nature of opioids when the drugs were first marketed. (Mark Quinn/CBC)

Haggie said there is no way to bring people back who have been lost to addiction.

"I think really the human toll is what I'm struck by — the number of people whose lives have been turned upside down because of substance use issues and will continue to be so," he said.

"We can never undo the loss of life, but what we can … is to seek some financial restitution to offset the costs and make sure our programs for those people who are trapped in substance use issues are as good as we can make them."

When Haggie took on the health portfolio in 2015, there were about 1,200 people on the methadone-suboxone program. Now, there are more than 3,000.

"And we've seen death rates from opioid poisoning and overdose rise," Haggie said — not to mention the heightened awareness about opioids has caused concern for people who are actually in pain and need the drug, he added.

'Gonna be in the billions of dollars'

"That's certainly been a concern we've heard from advocates of people with chronic pain," he said.

Opioid addiction has reached crisis levels in Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as the rest of Canada, say Haggie and Parsons. (Toby Talbot/The Associated Press)

"I think the prescription monitoring program and the college education program, which is now being required for new prescribers goes a long way to put that in context, and so I think whilst physicians naturally now think twice about prescribing opioids, they still prescribe them."

In the meantime, Parsons said he has no way to guess exactly how much of a financial toll the opioid addiction crisis has taken, but it's certainly high.

"When you quantify that across our country, it's absolutely gonna be in the billions of dollars."

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