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Motion of the Council of Allegheny County requesting that the Allegheny County Law Department prepare research into the feasibility of filing one or more lawsuits against major drug manufacturers and/or distributors in order to recover current and future damages to the County taxpayers resulting from the detrimental effects of opioid pharmaceuticals.
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WHEREAS, according to statistics provided by the Centers for Disease Control (“CDC”) the rate of opioid overdose deaths has more than tripled from 2000 to 2015, with approximately 3 deaths per 100,000 population in 2000, and over 10 deaths per 100,000 in 2015, and
WHEREAS, as reported by the CDC, citing Rudd RA, Seth P, David F, Scholl L. Increases in Drug and Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths - United States, 2010-2015. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. ePub: 16 December 2016: “[r]egardless of the analysis strategy used, prescription opioids continue to be involved in more overdose deaths than any other drug, and all the numbers are likely to underestimate the true burden given the large proportion of overdose deaths where the type of drug is not listed on the death certificate. The findings show that two distinct but interconnected trends are driving America’s opioid overdose epidemic: a 15-year increase in deaths from prescription opioid overdoses, and a recent surge in illicit opioid overdoses driven mainly by heroin and illegally-made fentanyl. Both of these trends continued in 2015;” and
WHEREAS, citing the same source, the CDC additionally notes that the extent of the underreporting of opioid overdose deaths is potentially significant: “[i]n approximately 1 in 5 drug overdose deaths, no specific drug is listed on the death certificate. In many deaths, multiple drugs are present, and it is difficult to identify which drug or drugs caused the death (for example, heroin or a prescription opioid, when both are present).”; and
WHEREAS, the CDC also notes that, in 2015 there were more than 15,000 deaths inv...
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