CHARLESTON – The Cabell and Kanawha County Commissions have filed lawsuits against four drug distributors and five pharmacies they claim contributed to the state’s prescription drug epidemic.
The lawsuits were filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia by attorney Paul Farrell Jr. of Greene Ketchum Farrell Bailey & Tweel. Mike Woelfel of Wielfel & Woelfel will serve as co-counsel.
The lawsuits name AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc., McKesson Corp., H.D. Smith Wholesale Drug Co., CVS, Rite Aid, Wal-Mart, Kroger and Walgreens.
The commissions claim that the drug companies sold more than 40 million doses of opioid pain medicine in Cabell County between 2007 and 2012 and 66 million doses in Kanawha County in the same time frame.
The drug distributors created a public nuisance and a public health and safety hazard, according to the suit.
Kanawha claimed the defendants shipped an “endless supply” of pain pills to the county, all the while earning billions of dollars.
The counties claim the drug distributors failed to report pharmacies that ordered suspicious quantities of prescription pain pills.
The distributors repeatedly and purposefully breached their duties under state and federal law, according to the suits.
Cabell and Kanawha County Commissions are the latest to join a growing list of counties, cities and towns across the state that are seeking damages for the prescription drug problem that has ravaged the state.
Farrell expects at least five additional county commissions to file suits in the future. It will work on a contingency basis, only taking 30 percent of any damages that may be won, but not charging anything if there are no damages awarded.
