Multnomah County has joined a list of other counties, cities and states across the nation in filing a lawsuit against major U.S. pharmaceutical companies, accusing them of pushing doctors to overprescribe opioids such as OxyContin and Percocet despite the great risks of addiction.

In the $250 million lawsuit, Multnomah County claims pharmaceutical makers and distributors have engaged in a nearly two-decades-long “campaign of lies and deceptions” to drive up profits by selling opioids to the masses. It’s now a $13-billion-a-year industry.

"Regardless of whether you call it a crisis or an epidemic, Multnomah County is on the front lines of the fight against (opioid abuse)," the suit says. "And that fight costs this community dearly. In lives shattered and lost. And, in public money spent in a seemingly endless fight."

The strategy of suing major drug companies over opioids mirrors a surge in lawsuits filed in the 1990s against the tobacco industry for deceiving the public about the dangers of smoking.

According to a July investigation by The Washington Post, at least 25 states, cities and counties have filed suit against opioid makers, distributors and drugstore chains in the past year alone.

In 2015, Oregon settled with an Arizona-based drugmaker -- Insys Therapeutics -- for $1.1 million after accusing the maker of using deceptive marketing to sell the opioid fentanyl.

Multnomah County’s lawsuit, filed last week in Circuit Court, goes after a much wider field of companies, including Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Johnson & Johnson, Watson Pharma, the McKesson Drug Co. and several Oregon doctors.

The suit states that opioids should be used only to treat short-term, acute pain and for end-of-life care to ease suffering, but that the pharmaceutical industry has zealously promoted opioid use for chronic pain -- resulting in widespread and deadly addictions. In the U.S. in 2015, more than 33,000 people died from painkiller- or heroin-related use, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

“(I)f it does not kill you, long-term use of opioids will cause disability, disease, and distress,” the suit says.

The lawsuit quotes a regional study that says more than 50 percent of people who have used the county’s needle exchange program became hooked on pain pills before they started shooting up heroin.

The suit says Multnomah County is a major healthcare provider, spending millions each year for services prompted in large part by the opioid-abuse crisis, including drug treatment, housing for addicts who have become homeless, mental health counseling, syringe needle exchanges to prevent the spread of HIV and the distribution and training for naloxone, a medication designed to save the lives of people who are overdosing.

On top of that, the county jail system must devote money to treat and house people with opioid addictions, the suit states. The county’s library employees encountered dirty syringes and blood in the restrooms, for example, and have requested training in how to use naloxone to prevent overdose deaths, according to the suit.

Portland attorney Nick Kahl filed the suit on behalf of the county. Read

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-- Aimee Green