The Province of B.C. has filed a class action lawsuit against more than 40 different opioid drug companies.
“It's time opioid drug companies take responsibility for the human and financial toll their products have taken on so many families across British Columbia,” said David Eby, Attorney General, in a news release on Wednesday.
“In court, we will argue that these drug companies deceptively marketed their products knowing full well the potential consequences, and as a result, British Columbia has incurred great costs,” he said.
The companies named in the lawsuit deceived both the public and healthcare professionals about the benefits and risks of opioids, according to the province.
The lawsuit is comparable to legal repercussions aimed at “Big Tobacco” in 1998.
The province will seek to recover health-care costs.
“I have sat with family members who have lost loved ones to overdose, and we are taking action to address the terrible impact overdose is having on the lives of our children, partners, and friends,” said Judy Darcy, minister of mental health and addictions, in the release.
”Drug companies must take responsibility for their role, and need to put the lives of people ahead of profits,” she said.
The province declared the opioid crisis a “public health emergency” in 2016.
July saw 134 people die of illicit-drug overdoses in B.C, the second-highest figures of any month so far this year, according to the Coroners Service.
There were 742 unintentional overdose deaths in the province between January and June of this year, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
A number of local families and individuals in Squamish have spoken out about the personal toll of the opioid crisis, including the family of 15-year-old Steffanie Lawrence, who died of a fentanyl overdose in January.
