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.