Everett, a city in Washington State, is suing the manufacturer of the drug OxyContin after claiming it let OxyContin flood the black market, which then “sparked an addiction epidemic in the community.”
Everett, a city north of Seattle, is suing Purdue Pharma, which manufactures the opioid-based pain medication. The city says it has already spent millions “combating OxyContin and heroin abuse after deaths from painkillers and heroin use spiked and street crimes increased.”
Everett, Washington officials are claiming in the suit that Purdue Pharma knowingly allowed pills to be funneled into the black market.
Via Daily Mail:
Everett’s lawsuit, now in federal court in Seattle, accuses Purdue Pharma of gross negligence and nuisance.
The city seeks to hold the company accountable, the lawsuit alleges, for ‘supplying OxyContin to obviously suspicious pharmacies and physicians and enabling the illegal diversion of OxyContin into the black market’ and into Everett, despite a company program to track suspicious flows.
Everett contends that Purdue Pharma “created a market for addicts that didn’t exist until the company let its pills flood the streets” and says the pharmaceutical company must pay for the damages that its drug has caused to the community.
A decade ago, Purdue Pharmaceuticals had to pay more than $630 million in legal fees to the government after they willfully misrepresented the drug’s addiction potential.
