RICHMOND, Va. — Two national public health groups recently filed an amicus brief in support of Huntington and Cabell County's appeal of a federal court ruling in their opioid public nuisance verdict.
On January 4, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, along with the American Public Health Association, filed the brief in the appeal sought by the City of Huntington and the Cabell County Commission against AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson.
In the brief, the groups say the oversupply of prescription opioids caused a severe and ongoing misuse and dependence crisis that must be remedied through evidence-based treatment, prevention, and recovery measures.
“Prescription and illicit opioid misuse is a significant public health threat and national emergency," NACCHO CEO Lori Tremmel Freeman said. "Across the country, communities are experiencing the harms of opioid misuse including increases in emergency department visits, non-fatal overdoses, and widespread outbreaks of infectious diseases linked to intravenous drug use – burdening public health with heavy economic costs from death, lost productivity, and avoidable expenditures.
"The City of Huntington and Cabell County have borne the worst of it and need significant resources to restore the health and safety of their communities."
Last summer, U.S. District Judge David Faber ruled in favor of the defendant companies, saying Cabell and Huntington hadn’t proved the companies were at fault for creating a public nuisance, had faulty controls against diversion of opioids and had faulty systems to detect suspiciously large orders.
Faber’s federal trial took place in the summer of 2021, but he didn’t issue his ruling until July 4, 2022.
The state Mass Litigation Panel case for the other cities and counties was scheduled to begin the next day, but it was continued while the sides worked on the $400 million settlement agreement that was announced August 1. Cabell County and Huntington are not part of that settlement. Settlement talks in the state MLP case heated up following Faber’s ruling, as the parties finalized the terms of the settlement just before opening statements were scheduled to begin.
Cabell County and Huntington, the county seat, sought more than $2.5 billion over 15 years to fund evidence-based strategies to address the ongoing opioid misuse and dependence crisis. They said funding would be used to support opioid use disorder treatment, overdose prevention and recovery programs to address the needs of special populations. Cabell and Huntington appealed Faber's decision to the Fourth Circuit in August.
“NACCHO’s members, the nearly 3,000 local health departments across the country, play a critical role in responding to the nation’s opioid epidemic," Freeman said. "Local jurisdictions must be able to appropriately respond to the public health and community harms caused by the opioid epidemic through evidence-based policies and programs for the prevention and treatment of opioid use disorder and related health consequences. Local efforts are often constrained by available funds, but money from opioid-related litigations can help.
"An adverse ruling in this case would set a dangerous precedent that would constrain local jurisdictions’ ability to mitigate the ongoing public health harms of the opioid epidemic.”
Other groups also have filed amicus briefs supporting Cabell County and Huntington. Those include County Executives of America, the National Association of Counties, the National League of Cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the International Municipal Lawyers Association and the West Virginia Sheriff's Association.
U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals case numbers 22-1819 (Huntington) and 22-1822 (Cabell County)
