GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Josephine County will join a long list of Oregon counties suing pharmaceutical manufacturers for damages created by the opioid epidemic, according to a statement from County Legal Counsel Wally Hicks.
Drug companies have "turned wounded heroes into addicts, imperiled the lives of first-responders, made wives widows and parents childless, and strained the limited financial resources of local governments, including Plaintiff Counties," the suit alleges.
Clackamas, Lane, Washington, Clatsop, Jackson, Yamhill, and now Josephine counties are all plaintiffs in the suit. The counties "are seeking economic damages in an amount to be proven at trial and such other relief as the Court deems just, proper and equitable," according to Hicks.
The case will play out in Ohio court, where it has been combined with about 400 other lawsuits filed by a number of jurisdictions across the country—all of which will go before Judge Dan Polster, Hicks says.
Judge Polster will see the case in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Ohio in Cleveland.
Defendants in the suit include such pharmaceutical giants as Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, McKesson Drug Company and AmerisourceBergen Drug.
The full text of the lawsuit may be viewed below:
