New York Judge Schedules Opioid Epidemic Trial

Rerolled from a High Times Original Article

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — A New York judge on Wednesday scheduled what could be the second state-level trial in the U.S. on the toll of opioids.

Judge Jerry Garguilo set a trial date of Jan. 20 for
claims brought by the state attorney general and the Long Island
counties of Nassau and Suffolk against a group of drug manufacturers and
distributors.

The judge has selected those claims to move ahead
while dozens of other cases he is overseeing from local New York
governments are on hold.

He is also not hearing claims against
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma or members of the Sackler family who own
it. They are attempting to settle some 2,700 claims against the company
through federal bankruptcy court. States have agreed to put their suits
against the company and family members on hold for now.

Other
companies have also been trying to reach a settlement of more than 2,000
cases across the U.S. A proposed framework under consideration with the
drugmakers Teva and Johnson & Johnson and distributors
AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson could be worth up to $48
billion in cash and treatment drugs nationally over time. But the plan
has a ways to go before it’s accepted by states and other parties.

All the companies in the national settlement talks are among the defendants in the New York case.

An
Oklahoma judge this year ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $572
million in the nation’s first opioid liability trial. Other defendants
settled before that trial.

The first federal trial had been
scheduled to start in October but was stopped when most of the
defendants reached settlements with the two Ohio counties who brought
the claims.

A federal judge has suggested moving ahead with four
different federal trials around the U.S., but the next cases have not
been finalized.

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Rerolled from High Times