News Drug Distributors Cleared of Blame for Opioids Crisis in W. Va. County

[thegreenhand]

Drug Distributors Cleared of Blame for Opioids Crisis in W. Va. County​

Jan Hoffman
New York Times
5 Jul 2022

Excerpt:

A federal judge has ruled that the nation’s three largest drug distributors cannot be held liable for the opioid epidemic in one of the most ravaged counties in the country — a place where 81 million prescription painkillers were shipped over eight years to a population of less than 100,000.

Judge David A. Faber of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia released the opinion on the July 4th holiday, almost a year after the end of a trial pursued by the city of Huntington and Cabell County, which were the focus of an Oscar-nominated documentary called “Heroin(e)” about the effect of the prescription painkillers.

The fatal overdose rate in Cabell County increased to 213.9 from 16.6 per 100,000 people, from 2001 to 2017, according to the ruling.

In absolving the drug distribution companies — AmerisourceBergen, McKesson and Cardinal Health —Judge Faber acknowledged the terrible cost on the county and the city, but added that “while there is a natural tendency to assign blame in such cases, they must be decided not based on sympathy, but on the facts and the law.”

 

[S.J.B.]

They were always just another scapegoat. It's not their job to police pharmacists and physicians.

 

[jasperkent]

All-American Capitalism:

If you're dealing small amounts of drugs on a street corner, you're going to jail. Especially if you're black.
If you're a multi-billion dollar drug dealing corporation, you're OK.