Washington state's attorney general on Monday argued that three large drug distributors' excessive shipments of pain pills helped create the U.S. opioid epidemic, calling it the "worst man-made public health crisis in history," at the start of a trial seeking $95 billion from the companies, Reuters reported. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson made that argument as a trial got underway in the state's bid to recover more money from the distributors McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp than it would receive in a $26 billion nationwide settlement. He said the companies fell short of their legal obligations to operate systems to prevent the diversion of opioids from legitimate uses. They shipped 3.8 billion opioid doses into the state from 2006 to 2018, another lawyer for the state said. "Indeed, we know they were aware of the harms flowing from their conduct because in private correspondence company executives mocked individuals suffering the painful affects of opioid dependence," Ferguson said in his opening statement. As just one example, the state's lawyers displayed a 2011 email in which an AmerisourceBergen executive parodied the theme song to the TV show "The Beverly Hillbillies" while describing how people drove to obtain drugs at Florida pill mills. Don Migliori, another lawyer for Washington, said a systemic failure by the companies stop suspicious orders of opioids going to pharmacies "proved to be the most influential factor in the development of the opioid addiction crisis in this state."
