Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter sued more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies Friday — accusing them of making fraudulent marketing claims that greatly understated the addictive risks of opioid painkillers while overstating the treatment benefits.

"We've had almost 3,000 overdose deaths in the last three years in Oklahoma," Hunter said. "We need to hold these people accountable. Manufacturers have in a consistent and ... coldblooded fashion marketed these drugs in a way that has misrepresented their tendency to be addictive and the extent to which they can be deadly."

The lawsuit does not specify the dollar amount the state will be asking the drug companies to pay, but Hunter indicated it could be in the "billions of dollars."

Hunter said it is his hope that a substantial amount of money can be recovered and that a large part of it can be used to combat drug addiction in the state, treating addiction as an illness rather than a crime.