The mayor of a suburban Seattle town is suing the maker of the opioid pain medication OxyContin, claiming the pharmaceutical company knowingly allowed pills to be funneled into the black market, ultimately arriving on the city's streets.

City of Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson is suing Purdue Pharma in federal court for gross negligence and nuisance because, according to Stephanson, Purdue Pharma's "drive for profit" led to the company "supplying OxyContin to obviously suspicious pharmacies and physicians and enabling the illegal diversion of OxyContin into the black market." According to news reports, the lawsuit was prompted by a newspaper article that ran last year in the Los Angeles Times, which claimed the company knew about the illegal trafficking of its pills in Los Angeles and did nothing to stop it. Stephanson says Everett has spent millions of dollars combating OxyContin and heroin abuse.

“Our community has been significantly damaged, and we need to be made whole,” said Stephanson.

The lawsuit doesn’t say how much money the city is seeking, but the mayor says Everett will attempt to quantify its costs in coming months.

“We look forward to presenting the facts in court,” the company countered in a statement.

—Source:  rep-am.com