Opioid Distributors Sold ‘Mountain of Pills,’ Lawyer Tells Judge
By Jef Feeley and Katherine Chiglinsky | May 4, 2021
The biggest drug distributors in the U.S. were accused of swamping a West Virginia county with millions of doses of painkillers as testimony is set to begin in the first trial over the companies’ role in the opioid crisis.
McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp. wrongfully “sold a mountain of opioid pills into our community, fueling the opioid epidemic,” Paul Farrell, a lawyer for Cabell County, told a judge Monday in his opening statement. The county and the city of Huntington want distributors to pay $2.6 billion to beef up treatment and policing budgets strained by years of opioid overdoses and addictions.