Waukesha County files racketeering case against opioid industry

Bruce Vielmetti | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

As the opioid abuse crisis grows in America, Waukesha County announced a lawsuit Monday against dozens of drug-makers and distributors for deceptive trade practices, public nuisance, fraud and civil racketeering.

The county joins hundreds of states and local governments, along with the U.S. Department of Justice, that have brought similar legal actions since Mississippi first sued drug-makers over the growing crisis in 2015.

Waukesha County's board of supervisors approved such a suit in February.

“The opioid crisis is one of the most pressing issues facing our community today,” Waukesha County Board Chairman Paul Decker said. “The Board of Supervisors gave local government the tools to address the crisis on a new front by passing the resolution that allowed us to file this lawsuit.”

The 316-page lawsuit seeks untold damages, both punitive and trebled, for the county's costs of addressing the many consequences of addiction and its myriad spinoff effects. Those costs range from medical care, treatment and counseling for abusers, to social services for the children of addicted parents and law enforcement.

It notes that of 62 drug deaths in the county in 2016, 54 were from opioids, and that in 2015, 243 ambulance runs in Waukesha County included administration of naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of an overdose. The naloxone use was third highest in the state, behind Dane and Milwaukee counties.

RELATED: 28 Wisconsin counties sue prescription drug-makers to recover costs of fighting opioid epidemic

RELATED: Opioid lawsuits by Wisconsin counties follow years of Journal Sentinel investigations

RELATED: Milwaukee County sues prescription drug-makers and distributors behind the opioid crisis

"The manufacturers aggressively pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction," the suit states.

"These pharmaceutical companies aggressively advertised to and persuaded doctors to prescribe highly addictive, dangerous opioids, turning patients into drug addicts for their own corporate profit. Such actions were intentional and/or unlawful."

The civil complaint is signed by Waukesha County Corporation Counsel Erik Weidig and lawyers from seven private law firms from a Brookfield law firm and six other firms from four states.

The suit accuses makers and distributors of opioids of false, deceptive and unfair marketing, failure to monitor and report illegal diversions of the drugs, and of creating a public nuisance.

The RICO Act — for Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations — counts name Purdue, Caphalon, Janssen and Endo. It contends they knew they could not grow revenue and profit without misrepresenting that opioids were a safe, non-addictive way to treat chronic pain.

The Healthcare Distribution Alliance, a national trade association representing distributors, including AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson, some of the firms named as defendants, is described in the lawsuit as aiding the RICO enterprise, but is not a defendant.

"Given our role, the idea that distributors are responsible for the number of opioid prescriptions written defies common sense and lacks understanding of how the pharmaceutical supply chain actually works and is regulated," said John Parker, senior vice president at HDA.

"Those bringing lawsuits would be better served addressing the root causes, rather than trying to redirect blame through litigation,” Parker said.

Though filed in Milwaukee, the suit will be assigned to a federal judge in Cleveland who is hearing many similar cases from around the country joined together in a multi-district litigation.