The Latest: Counties want opioid crisis declared ‘nuisance’

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Latest on filings in a case in which local governments seek to hold the drug industry accountable for a nationwide opioid crisis (all times local):

6:50 p.m.

Two Ohio counties are telling a judge that there’s no doubt the nationwide opioid crisis qualifies by law as a public nuisance.

The argument by Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH’-guh) and Summit counties came Friday among a flurry of filings in a case in which local governments seek to hold the drug industry accountable for the deadly scourge.

Counties told Judge Dan Polster that pharmaceutical companies have acknowledged during the course of the lawsuit that it’s the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history and has devastated families and communities.

They said drugmakers may deny their conduct was a contributing cause of the crisis or that they bear legal responsibility, but “they cannot deny that the nuisance itself exists.”

A nuisance designation would give governments legal leverage in holding drugmakers liable.

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6 p.m.

Two Ohio counties are asking a judge to find that drugmakers and distributors were not allowed to ship suspicious orders of controlled substances to pharmacies.

The request from Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH’-guh) and Summit counties came Friday among a flurry of filings in a case in which local governments seek to hold the drug industry accountable for a nationwide opioid crisis.

The motions come days after a key set of data in the cases was made public. According to a Washington Post analysis, it shows that 76 billion pain pills were shipped from 2006 through 2012, a span when overdose deaths ballooned.

Regulations on whether suspicious orders can be shipped is under dispute in the case. A ruling that those orders cannot be shipped would clear the way for governments to assert that drug companies ignored the regulations.