Mississippi takes opioid distributors to court over epidemic

Published 4:40 pm Thursday, December 6, 2018

JACKSON (AP) — Mississippi is suing three opioid distributors for failing to prevent the diversion of those drugs into the state.

The complaint, filed in Hinds County Circuit Court, against Cardinal Health, McKesson Corp. and AmerisourceBergen Corp. alleges the companies breached their legal duties to “monitor, detect, investigate, refuse, and report suspicious orders of opioids.”

Attorney General Jim Hood, in a news release, says that is a violation of the Mississippi Consumer Protection Act.

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The complaint alleges that if the companies had done what they were legally obligated to do, the opioid epidemic would not be what it is today.

Hood says in 2017 alone, Mississippi had enough opioids supplied to provide 61 pills for every man, woman, and child in the state.