BRUNSWICK, GA (Legal Newsline) - Trial began Tuesday in a case accusing opioid drug distributors McKesson and Cardinal Health of recklessly flooding the state with pills, and for the first time, private citizens are the plaintiffs instead of a state or local government.
Filed by 21 plaintiffs under the Georgia Drug Dealer Liability Act, the case is a departure from the usual “public nuisance” claims made by state and local governments. For that reason it will be closely followed for the precedent its outcome could set.
Held in the Glynn County Superior Court, the jury trial presided over by Judge Roger Lane is being streamed live courtesy of Courtroom View Network.
The plaintiffs maintain the overabundance of prescription opioid drugs supplied by the distributors caused the death of a family member and/or ruined their lives. As has been the case in past trials, defense attorneys will counter that societal problems leading to drug abuse caused the problems including illegal street drugs like heroin and fentanyl - not by legally regulated opioid suppliers providing needed drugs for doctors and hospitals prescribing the drugs through pharmacies.
During opening arguments, plaintiff attorney Jim Durham with the Atlanta-based Griffin, Durham, Tanner and Clarkson law firm said the companies knew the lives they were damaging and oversupplied anyway to profit.
“These distributors knew what was going on,” he said. “As opioid supplies go up, so do deaths. It correlates. They (companies) swore to protect public health and safety but profit was king.”
Durham said the plaintiffs are families including children, spouses and siblings who because of the drugs suffered death, pain and emotional distress.
Durham recounted the histories of a number of family members while exhibiting their photos and described how pharmacy-acquired opioid drugs had impacted their lives. Some overdosed and died leaving behind children while others (parents) introduced drugs to their children causing them to become addicted. Still others after becoming addicted began selling drugs on the street and were arrested and imprisoned.
Durham said pharmacies supplied such people with hundreds of pills and one example was what he called the “Trinity Cocktail.”
“It gives (the addict) a better high, but it stops your breathing,” Durham said. “The distributors were sending millions of the components of these drugs to the pharmacies.”
Durham mentioned three drugs as examples, hydrocodone, Xanax normally used to treat anxiety, and Soma, a muscle relaxer.
Durham said the culprits included recklessly dispensing “pill mills” and not a majority of doctors (99 percent) whom he said were “okay.”
“They (companies) are responsible,” Durham said. “They are the top link. If they know their drugs are getting out on the street the law says you can’t sell it. It’s a simple case. They knew what the law was and they broke it over and over.”
Durham asked the jury to return a large verdict in the millions of dollars in damages.
The attorney for McKesson, Randy Jordan with the Savannah-based firm of HunterMaclean, said his client was being made a scapegoat for the misbehavior and bad parenting of others.
“McKesson delivers medicines to people who need them and use these medications,” Jordan said. “They don’t sell to individual people, drug abusers. McKesson hasn’t had any interaction with these people (plaintiffs). Plaintiff counsel wants you to hold McKesson accountable for everything. They’re trying to convince you that McKesson is a drug dealer.”
Jordan asked the jury if people abusing drugs was the responsibility of McKesson.
“Their lives (child plaintiffs) were ruined because their parents let them down,” he said. “A lot of things go into making bad parents.”
Jordan, who vowed to show the holes in the plaintiffs’ case, said prescription opioids were not the only drugs being abused. He named heroin, ecstasy, LSD, cocaine and alcohol among them.
“Some of the parents (plaintiffs) did some of these drugs and some all those things,” Jordan said. “Some had criminal records and serious crimes, theft and assault. There are instances of physical abuse, a mom beaten up (by husband) in a home where there are children.”
Jordan said McKesson and other distributors were licensed to supply drugs by the federal and state government.
“You would have to conclude (with a negligence verdict) that the state licensed drug dealers,” he said.
Jordan said each transaction was reported to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) which oversees drug suppliers. He added that it is not the role of McKesson officials to pry into the doctor/client relationship or the process of prescribing medications.
"McKesson doesn’t make drugs or prescribe them,” Jordan said. “It’s a delivery company, a conduit.”
Jordan said the company supplies the Veterans Affairs (VA), hospitals and big chain drugs stores. He predicted that plaintiff attorneys would try to portray millions of pills going out, but McKesson didn’t set the volume, nor did they impact demand.
“You don’t deliver unless there’s an order for it,” Jordan said. “The total (supply) is set by the federal government.”
Jordan said the companies had three responsibilities, to report to the DEA, report suspicious orders (unusually large or more frequent), and to maintain effective anti-diversion controls.
He said McKesson had blocked the shipping of orders when a customer generated concerns.
“McKesson followed the law,” Jordan said. “Their compliance program was working.”
The trial is expected to last four weeks.