McDowell County, the West Virginia county with the dubious distinction of having the highest drug overdose death rate in the country, has filed a lawsuit against three major national distributors of prescription painkillers and a local physician, alleging that together they are responsible for causing epidemic levels of prescription painkiller addiction in the county.
The suit was submitted in state court by the McDowell County Commission, citing federal Drug Enforcement Agency records showing the distributors shipped 423 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia pharmacies and doctors from 2007 through 2012.
Three of the nation's largest drug wholesalers are named in the suit: McKesson Corp. of San Francisco, Cardinal Health Inc. of Dublin, Ohio, and AmerisourceBergen Drug Co. of Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania. Dr. Harold Cofer Jr. of Bluefield, West Virginia, was also listed as a defendant.
The suit accused the defendants of devastating the local economy and the county's budget as well as destroying "the lives of many residents" in order to reap millions of dollars in profit. The drug companies had no immediate response.
Attorney Harry Bell of Charleston, who represented the county commission, said the drug distributors "raped" West Virginia by flooding McDowell and other regions with painkillers that were easily prescribed locally to patients, turning them into addicts.
"In over 36 years of litigation, this is one of the most outrageous actions by businesses to profit over the misery and depth of despair destroying families and communities in West Virginia, said Bell.
McDowell County Sheriff Martin West, who accompanied Bell to the courthouse in Welch, said local residents have "suffered actual harm as a result of the conduct of the defendants, motivated by profit and greed, in knowingly flooding McDowell County with opioids beyond what would be necessary."
McDowell County, a poor and sparsely populated coal region (28,000 residents) in the southernmost stretch of West Virginia, has been hit hard by the opioid addiction crisis sweeping the United States. Unemployment and home mortgage foreclosures remain far above the national averages.
The DEA reported the drug company defendants distributed more than 12 million opioids to the county over six years, contributing to its dubious status as the leading county in the nation for overdose deaths per capita caused by opioids, heroin and other chemical substances.
Health officials in West Virginia, the leading drug overdose death state, report overdoses due to prescription painkillers have been declining in recent years as cheaper heroin is now fueling the addiction epidemic.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention latest report said overdose deaths in West Virginia occur at the rate of about 34 per 100,000 residents. The rate in McDowell County is even higher. The national average is 13 deaths per 100,000 people.