Clallam county suing drug manufacturers and distributors of opioid medications is the height of moral bankruptcy (“Clallam County to file suit against opioid firms,” PDN, Feb. 15).
Opioid medications are produced and distributed for legitimate medical purposes and many of this paper’s readership have legally availed themselves of these medications to successfully control acute pain while recovering from injury or surgery.
Responsible doctors and paramedics depend on the availability of opioid medications for low-cost relief of severe, acute pain suffered by their patients, allowing for initial extrication at the emergency site, treatment and diagnostic procedures, hours-long transport to specialty centers for definitive care and successful post-surgical recovery.
The abuse of these medications originates not during the production and distribution phases but through irresponsible or even criminal prescription of the medications, criminal theft or diversion and end-user profiteering.
In their greed for easy money, the Clallam County commissioners have chosen to accept the temptation offered by litigators behaving as high-end ambulance chasers.
The commissioners hope to fleece legitimate businesses, misdirecting blame, increasing medication costs and decreasing drug availability all the while making no impact on the root causes of opioid abuse.
I expect this kind of behavior from Commissioners Ozias and Johnson and am ashamed to have voted for Peach.
David Benzick,
Port Angeles