KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Jackson County, Missouri Wednesday joined scores of other agencies across the county in filing suit against the companies that made and distributed opioids.
The suit, filed in federal court, says the drug makers and distributors caused the county to bear the costs of treating patients and the impacts on the health care system.
“Government entities, and the services they provide their citizens, have been strained to the breaking point by this public health crisis,” the county wrote in the briefing. “Jackson County has filed this suit to bring the devastating march of this epidemic to a halt and to hold defendants responsible for the crisis they caused.”
Among the defendants listed in the suit is the maker of Oxycontin, Purdue Pharmaceuticals.
The Associated Press reports 16 other agencies in Missouri and Kansas have filed similar suits.
