S GA cities join opioid lawsuit

S GA cities join opioid lawsuit

As state officials continue to struggle with how best to confront the opioid epidemic that is plaguing its citizens, a handful of South Georgia communities are taking matters into their own hands.

The cities of Tifton and Bainbridge, along with Decatur, Cook, and Crisp counties, have joined a federal lawsuit carried by the Northern District of Ohio that alleges that pharmaceutical companies used aggressive persuasion to convince doctors to prescribe their highly addictive and potentially dangerous painkillers.

The defendants, which include pharmaceutical giants AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, Cardinal Health, Inc., and McKesson Corporation, are expected to fight back vigorously against the claims in a case that will draw eyes from around the nation.

Georgia is not alone in the fight against opioid addiction, and now it has representation in federal court on a new front in a war that is only just getting started.