Huerfano County suing over opioid epidemic

Huerfano County looks like a normal small town in Colorado, where main street is just two lanes and people leave their doors unlocked.

But in reality, many of the people living there are addicted to pain medications like Vicodin and Oxycontin.

And county leaders aren’t going to take it anymore. County Commissioner Max Vezzani said they’re joining litigation, targeting companies in the opioid supply chain. “It’s unknown territory for us for sure, but we also felt it was a big enough issue for our county that we should take action,” Vezzani said. Attorney Pat Mika and two other law offices are helping the county lead the charge. “It’s time that we take a stand and make accountable those pharmaceutical companies and distributors who have misrepresented, mislead, falsely advertised the effects of opioids,” Mika said. The 73-page law suit accuses pharmaceutical companies of being negligent and using aggressive sales tactics to bring large amounts of opioids into the San Luis Valley. “Big pharmacy companies have admitted guilt in terms of fraudulent kinds of marketing,” Vezzani said. Per capita, the county is ranked third in the nation for the number of opioid addicts.

“Huerfano County has been among the worst for over 10 years,” said Vic Meyers from the Huerfano County Health Department. And this public health crisis is taking a huge bite out of municipal budgets. The lawsuit states that at least $750,000 has been spent on opioid related expenses and that includes the sheriff’s office. “Unless we hit them in their pocketbook and return to the communities the resources that they’re losing everyday from this epidemic, then nobody is going to be safe,” Mika said. The hope is to treat the people who live in the county and stop the growth of opioid use in the county.

P hiladelphia and Delaware filed lawsuits this month. N ew York has filed similar suits.