SCHENECTADY — Schenectady County Attorney Chris Gardner estimates the sobering cost of combating the opioid epidemic plaguing the county eclipses millions of dollars a year.

And he and other officials are hoping to recoup some of that money absorbed by the county's criminal justice and social services departments for everything from the addicts and suppliers who are arrested or hospitalized to those who die.

A lawsuit that Gardner and other county officials filed Thursday faults the manufacturers of prescription opiates, about a dozen of whom are named as defendants.

"It's a matter of they falsely alleged that the drugs that they were selling were not addictive and should be used widely when they should only be used for acute pain management, post-operative or palliative end-of-life care or other very limited circumstances instead of being one of the most prescribed drugs in the state of New York," said Gardner during a news conference at the county chambers before the 74-page document was filed with the clerk's office.

The false advertising relates to the "contacts with the doctors, the educational seminars for the doctors and other such efforts to get the doctors to prescribe the medications," Gardner said.

County Legislature Chairman Tony Jasenski said his family knows two people in their 20s who were on prescription medication for chronic pain, got addicted to the drugs and then overdosed on heroin and died.

"The cost of this crisis to Schenectady County residents is significant," said Jasenski, adding the county earlier this year expanded the county's drug unit in an effort step up the fight against the opioid problem. "Our investment in Schenectady County includes a lot of money spent on rehabilitation services, counseling and housing in addition to law enforcement."

Jasenski said criminal acts are often committed to obtain opioids, and heroin has emerged as a cheaper alternative, Medicaid costs increase as a result of the overprescription of opioid medication and patient admission to hospitals and drug treatments also rise.

James DeSantis, an addict in recovery, said the lawsuit is important but so too is personal accountability.

He recalled a downward spiral that began with a prescription for hydrocodone for chronic pain that eventually led to him injecting himself with heroin with a needle.

"What we're trying to do here is to get the government paid back the money that's been invested and hopefully some of that money can go towards helping people in the future," said DeSantis, co-founder of a Schenectady-based support group for recovering addicts called Breaking Barriers.

Among the defendants named in the lawsuit are Johnson & Johnson, Purdue Pharma and Endo Health Solutions.

Gardner said the companies named as defendants in the litigation were "misleading the doctors to prescribe opioid in situations where they should not have been prescribed."

He said the pharmaceutical companies lied to the doctors. "It was marketed to them in a very specific fashion on that changes in the way drugs are formulated made it safe and that any addictive issues were dealt with with the reformulations," Gardner said. "The doctors are victims of this as well as their patients."

The suit states that in 2012 drug companies earned $8 billion in revenue from opioids and that the defendants' "marketing campaign has been extremely harmful to Americans."

"The rising numbers of persons addicted to opioids have led to significantly increased health care costs as well as a dramatic increase of social problems, including drug abuse and diversion and the commission of criminal acts to obtain opioids throughout the United States, including New York and Schenectady County," the lawsuit states. "Consequently, public health and safety throughout the United States, including Schenectady County, has been significantly and negatively impacted due to the misrepresentations and omissions by defendants regarding the appropriate uses and risks of opioids, ultimately leading to widespread inappropriate use of the drug."

In 2014, there were 327 opioid-related emergency department admissions, nearly double the rate for 2010.

Officials in Sullivan, Seneca, Broome, Dutchess, Erie and Orange counties as well as Nassau and Suffolk on Long Island have already filed similar suits against drug companies.

Gardner urged other counties to join the fight and said that though the lawsuits are currently being filed separately by each county, the legal action may be consolidated in the future.

He predicted a protracted legal battle, saying "the more counties that join with us, the more likely we are to reach a favorable settlement."