overdosed on the same two drugs. under west virginia law, distributors are legally required to report pharmacy orders that seem suspicious. >> the quantities of the opioids were increasing dramatically. they were shipped from the wholesalers to the pharmacies. that should have sent signals to the distributors. >> west virginia sued the distributors for failing to raise red flags about the number of painkillers flowing into the state. during the previous 12 years, the state received just two suspicious order reports. in the years since the lawsuit was filed, that number shot up to more than 7, 200. the state settled with two of the biggest distributors which said they would pay $36 million. neither admitted to wrongdoing. now the town of kermit is following the state's example, suing five drug distributors for damages. >> if we don't get anything out of this suit monetary maybe we