In 1997, Mississippi made national news by becoming the first state to settle a lawsuit against four tobacco companies. They paid the state $3.4 billion over 25 years to reimburse smoking-related health-care costs.
The Washington Post observed last week that another Mississippi lawsuit has the potential to change the way America fights a medical crisis of this decade: The continued increase in addiction and overdose deaths from prescription opioid medication.
Attorney General Mike Moore, with assistance from Flowood attorney John Davidson, has sued eight pharmaceutical companies, alleging that they have promoted drugs like hydrocodone by understating the health risks and overstating the benefits — in violation of state law.
Washington Post editorial writer Charles Lane’s column said the lawsuit, based in Hinds County, could force the pharmaceutical companies to produce internal records. That could repeat what happened to tobacco companies 20-plus years ago, when it became clear that cigarette makers knew of their products’ health risks but never made it public.
The Mississippi lawsuit could serve as a tiebreaker. Last year in California, a judge dismissed a lawsuit against drug companies, ruling that any decision would wrongly usurp the authority of the Food and Drug Administration. But last month, a judge in Chicago rejected that argument and allowed a lawsuit to proceed.
Lane noted correctly that Hood, who has political ambitions; and the trial lawyer, who has a huge financial incentive to win the case, are imperfect advocates of the public interest. But he also is correct in saying that both regulators and legislators across the country have failed to act decisively on a serious health issue.
“They fell under the influence of the very interest groups — especially the drugmakers — they were supposed to regulate,” Lane wrote.
There is a clear case to make: The Associated Press recently reported that drug companies and their allies spent $880 million over 10 years to lobby against tougher opioid restrictions. It will be interesting to see if a Mississippi court forces the companies to do what the other two branches of government would not.
Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
