County Hires Law Firm to Sue Those Responsible for Drug Epidemic

CREST HAVEN – In the current drug (opioid) war, it seems that freeholders have taken heart from a quotation by Sir Winston Churchill, and fight back.
“We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” It was given to bolster the spirits of the British as they were confronting Nazi bombings and more.
The words of Acting Prosecutor Robert Johnson were fresh in freeholders’ ears from earlier at Nov. 28 caucus meeting.
As in war, there was a casualty report, killed and wounded in action.
Johnson spoke of 30 fatal overdoses, 177 overdoses and 152 uses of Narcan to revive those who overdosed on heroin and those statistics were until Nov. 2. Since then the numbers have likely increased.
Daily, police radio dispatches report overdoses in many towns. Some reports tell of patients who are unconscious and unresponsive, many due to heroin. It is not uncommon to hear three to five of those reports some days.
With each of those calls, a variety of government services may be used, from police and emergency medical technicians to nurses who pronounce victims deceased.
A check of prescription prices for a dose of Narcan in various pharmacies found the cost ranges from $135 to $150 per dose.
If a patient needs rehabilitation services, those too may be billed to the county.
Because such costs are rising with the epidemic proportion of opioid use, the board authorized the New York law firm of Simmons Hanly Conroy “to evaluate the county’s legal options to recover appropriate governmental costs and other damages from all and any responsible party or parties, including pharmaceutical manufacturers.”
According to the resolution, “This may include, but is not limited to pre-suit investigation and the initiation of litigation of a court of competent jurisdiction.”
There is “no cost to the county associated with this engagement unless the (firm) recovers monetary award in favor of the county. In the event of such recovery, the (firm) shall be entitled to payment of its costs incurred on the county’s behalf and 25 percent of the total of the recovery.”