PORT ANGELES — Clallam County is being asked to file a lawsuit against drug manufacturers that are fueling the opioid epidemic.
The three county commissioners on Monday are expected to discuss a Board of Health recommendation to retain a Seattle law firm to sue major pharmaceutical companies, distributors and pill mills to recover costs associated with the opioid crisis.
Similar lawsuits have been filed by hundreds of jurisdictions nationwide, including King County and the city of Tacoma, a Seattle attorney told the Clallam County Board of Health on Jan. 16.
“We haven’t filed cases yet for Skagit and Pierces (counties),” said Dan Mensher of the Keller Rohrback firm.
“They are going to be filed very soon.”
Mensher and colleague David Ko pitched the litigation to Clallam County officials because Clallam County has the highest opioid-related death rate in the state.
In 2016, the county’s opioid-related death rate was about 16 per 100,000, said Dr. Christopher Frank, Clallam County health officer.
“It’s not hard to get pretty fired up about and passionate about this particular case,” Mensher told the Clallam County health board.
“This is having, as you all know probably better than we do, a pretty dramatic effect across our state, and counties are really on the front line.”
Should Clallam County policymakers decide to sue, Keller Rohrback would work on a contingency fee basis, collecting money only if the county collects damages.
Commissioners will consider the health board’s unanimous recommendation to retain Keller Rohrback and file suit against opioid manufacturers such as Purdue Pharma, distributors and pill mills — doctors and clinics where highly-addictive prescription painkillers are dispensed without a legitimate medical purpose.
“It’s very clear that they knew — they’ve known for a long time — that they were causing harm through their very deceptive marketing practices, and they need to be held accountable,” Frank said in a Friday interview.
“I think it’s clear that the pharmaceutical manufactures are a big part of this problem, and they created it knowingly and they did it to make money.
“So I think that trying to recoup costs, both now and into the future, to try to deal with the problem that they caused makes a lot of sense,” Frank added.
Health board member Don Lawley made the motion to pursue litigation at the Jan. 16 meeting.
“We’re going to watch another 15 die (from opioids) this coming year, ” said Lawley, a Forks Community Hospital commissioner.
“We owe it to those people who have already died because of this issue. We owe it to our citizens who are dying, or who already are addicted.
“That’s who I feel we owe it to.”
If the three commissioners proceed with litigation, a survey will be sent to county department heads asking how the opioid epidemic is affecting their work.
Examples of county departments impacted by the crisis are the Sheriff’s Office, Juvenile and Family Services and Health and Human Services, Frank said.
David Alvarez, Clallam County Chief Civil Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, told the health board that the proposed litigation was “worthwhile.”
“I think it’s one of the only ways you can hold these corporations accountable for their lies,” Alvarez said.
“If Clallam County becomes a named plaintiff, then the money will go right to your general fund and you can decide where it should go.”
Clallam County Commissioners Mark Ozias, Randy Johnson and Bill Peach also serve as voting members of the Board of Health.
Jefferson County has not been asked to file a lawsuit against drug makers, Frank said.
While Jefferson County’s opioid problem is “still significant,” it pales in comparison to the Clallam County epidemic in terms of death rate and impacts, Frank said.
The litigation being filed by many cities and counties is being consolidated in federal court.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster of Cleveland is presiding over more than 200 cases filed by local governments against drug manufacturers and distributors.
A conference on the settlement is scheduled for Wednesday in Cleveland.
“The judge is really pushing this thing fast,” Ko told the Clallam County health board.
“I think he’s really interested in trying to get some sort of global resolution.”
The proposed litigation is separate from the lawsuit that state Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed against Purdue Pharma last September.
Ferguson’s lawsuit accuses the Oxycontin maker of fueling the opioid problem in Washington.
“Maybe some of that will trickle down to Clallam County, but for Clallam County to be compensated for the damages that it is suffering, it really needs to bring its own case,” Mensher said.
“Each jurisdiction that thinks it’s been harmed has to come to the table via filing a lawsuit and take part in the litigation there.”
Mensher and others at the Board of Health meeting compared the proposed opioid litigation to lawsuits that were filed against tobacco companies for deceptive marketing.
“Counties really didn’t participate as players in the tobacco litigation, and a lot of counties sort of feel that they got the short end of the stick in the tobacco settlement,” Mensher said.
“Some states got a pretty handsome war chest, and it’s probably benefited counties in some ways, but the counties themselves didn’t get any of that money directly.”
On Friday, Skagit County and three cities located within it — Mount Vernon, Burlington and Sedro Woolley —filed a federal lawsuit in Seattle Friday against Purdue Pharma, Endo and Janssen, three of the primary manufacturers of prescription painkillers.
Skagit County Chief criminal deputy prosecutor Rosemary Kaholokula said the companies provided false information to doctors and patients about the safety of the drugs. She said that more than 125,000 opioid prescriptions were written in Skagit County in 2014 — more prescriptions than there are residents of the county.
The drug companies have disputed the allegations.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
