Flint is the latest Michigan city to file a lawsuit against the nation’s largest manufacturers of opioid drugs.
Mayor Karen Weaver compares the effect of opioid addiction in Flint to the city’s water crisis.
“We stand as a city to hold accountable those that are most responsible for manufacturing, distributing and marketing these dangerous drugs in our community," said Mayor Weaver. "We ask for accountability with the water crisis. We’re asking for accountability with the opioids.”
Flint joins Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids and other cities and counties in Michigan in suing major pharmaceutical companies for damages related to a rising number of opioid-related overdoses and other costs.
Flint’s lawsuit names Perdue Pharma and dozens of other companies that manufactured, distributed and marketed a variety of drugs.
Attorney CK Hoffler says they can link about 85 percent of the opioid-related overdoses, deaths and other social issues to the companies named in the lawsuit.
“This is personal for all of us, the lawyers too," said Hoffler. "Because this is an epidemic of monumental proportions and these companies need to be stopped.”
Hoffler concedes the legal process will likely take years.
Pharmaceutical industry groups declined to comment on opioid lawsuits.
