LYNN — The city has joined other communities in Massachusetts and across the country in a class-action lawsuit to hold prescription opioid manufacturers and wholesale distributors accountable for their role in fueling the current opioid epidemic, according to an announcement from Mayor Thomas M. McGee.
The lawsuit is against five of the largest manufacturers of prescription opioids and their related companies, as well as the country’s three largest wholesale drug distributors.
“Drug companies and wholesale distributors have made billions of dollars pushing the use of prescription opioids,” said McGee in a statement. “These companies need to be held accountable for their role in the opioid epidemic which has spun out of control across the nation and greatly impacted our city.
“Nothing can replace the families that have been ripped apart or the lives lost to opioid addiction, but we must do everything in our power to turn the tide and prevent further addiction and loss.”
In 1970, Congress designed a system to control the volume of opioid pills being distributed in the country because prescription opioids are highly addictive.
It let only a few wholesalers gain the right to deliver opioids, with those companies agreeing to halt suspicious orders and control against the diversion of those dangerous drugs to illegitimate uses. But in recent years, those companies have failed to do that, according to the mayor’s office.
Lynn, along with other communities, is working with a consortium of law firms to hold pharmaceutical drug manufacturers and wholesale distributors accountable for failing to do what they were charged with under the federal Controlled Substances Act — monitor, identify and report suspicious activity in the size and frequency of opioid shipments to pharmacies and hospitals, according to the mayor’s office.
The manufacturing companies pushed highly addictive and dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction, according to the mayor’s office.
Opioids are now the most prescribed class of drugs and sales in the country and have exceeded $8 billion in revenue annually since 2009.
Opioid abuse is the leading cause of death for people under 50. Last year, 1,977 people lost their lives due to opioid-related overdoses in the state, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
In addition to the cost of human life, researchers estimate the total economic burden of the prescription opioid epidemic at $78.5 billion, according to the mayor’s office.
No taxpayer money is being used for the lawsuit, with all costs paid through any litigation settlement.
