Nationally, the opioid crisis has rocked rural areas and struggling coal mining communities especially hard, and Franklin County is no exception.
“You can tell by the number of people who are homeless, and if you look at the docket for Franklin County Court, you see so many drug cases on there,” said Mike Riva, the city’s attorney.
Southern Illinois’ communities are among thousands of state and local governments nationwide that have filed similar lawsuits. The defendants include manufacturers of oxycodone, hydrocodone and fentanyl, such as Purdue Pharma, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Mallinckrodt, among others; the “Big Three” distributors — McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp. — and other wholesale distributors; and pharmacy distributors such as Walmart, CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid.
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Regionally, Union County led the way in 2017, when then-State’s Attorney, now Circuit Court Judge Tyler Edmonds announced the filing of a lawsuit against five prescription opioid manufacturers and their related companies. “This addiction crisis crosses all socioeconomic classes and includes your neighbors, friends, family members, and co-workers,” Edmonds said at the time.
Their cases have been, or are expected to be, transferred to a federal court in Ohio, and join a consolidated legal case pending there before U.S. District Judge Dan A. Polster.
