Today
Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 74F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%..
Tonight
Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 74F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%. Updated: June 29, 2021 @ 11:09 pm
CHARLESTON — The estimated price tag on the harm caused by prescription opioids in Cabell County and the Huntington community is more than $3 billion, according to a Harvard University
Health economist: Opioids cost community $3.3B in damages sfgate.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sfgate.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Chris Zimmerman, senior vice president of AmerisourceBergen, is seen leaving federal court in Charleston on Wednesday evening. Zimmerman is expected to continue providing testimony Thursday during the opioid trial pitting Cabell County and Huntington against three major drug distributors the municipalities sued over fueling the region s drug crisis.Â
KENNY KEMP | HD Media
CHARLESTON â Drug wholesalers accused of fueling the opioid epidemic by shipping millions of opiates to Cabell County over a nine-year period continued to blame federal regulators in court Tuesday and attempted to discredit years of work completed by a data analyst.
The city of Huntington and Cabell County argued that the defendants â AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp. â became culpable when 127.9 million opiate doses were sent to the county from 2006-14. When the number of shipped doses decreased around 2012, users were made to turn to illicit opiate drugs, like heroin, they said.
The defendants said they did report suspicious orders to the Drug Enforcement Administration, but never heard back and were unsure of the next step to take because of lack of communication. They attribute the volume to DEA pill quotas and a rise in prescriptions written by doctors for a population with myriad health issues.