Public nuisance laws in opioid cases give hope to both sides

CLEVELAND (AP) — A jury's finding this week that three major pharmacy chains are responsible for contributing to the scourge of opioid addiction in two Ohio counties may be just the beginning of a protracted legal battle that ultimately could leave the communities no better off.

The reason is the central argument — that pharmacies created a “public nuisance” by dispensing an overwhelming quantity of prescription painkillers into each county.

Thousands of state and local governments have sued drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies over a crisis that has contributed to more than 500,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. over the past two decades. The lawsuits generally center on claims the companies created public nuisances by interfering with the rights of the public through the way they marketed, shipped and sold the drugs — feeding the addictions of some patients and providing pills later diverted to the black market.

Similar arguments were used in two other cases — in California and Oklahoma — that went in favor of the industry in the weeks before the Ohio jury's decision. Given those decisions, there is no guarantee that Tuesday’s verdict in the case brought by Lake and Trumbull counties against CVS, Walgreens and Walmart will hold up on appeal or lead to similar decisions elsewhere.

“There’s been a variety of different decisions lately that should give us reason to be cautious about what this really means in the grand scheme,” said Kevin Roy, chief public policy officer at Shatterproof, which advocates for solutions to the nation’s addiction and overdose crisis.

The industry argues it did nothing illegal and that public nuisance laws simply don’t apply to prescribing and distributing prescription painkillers.

"As we have said throughout this process, we never...