Florida could soon be filing its own opioid abuse lawsuit against drug manufacturers. They’d be joining a long list of states, counties, and cities that have done the same.
Just last year, Governor Rick Scott declared Florida’s opioid crisis “a state of emergency,” due to increased overdose deaths. Lawsuits filed around the nation blame the epidemic on overprescribing and the over promoting of opioids. And, Attorney General Pam Bondi says when she files the lawsuit, her ultimate goal is to stop what she calls “bad behavior.”
“We are in the last round of interviewing outside counsel to assist us in the opioid litigation,” she said. “People have been asking whether we’re joining the multi-state [one]. I have been working with my counterparts across the country, but Florida is the third largest state in the country. We will be filing our lawsuit, just as we did in the BP Oil Spill because Florida deserves the maximum compensation for all the deaths that have happened in our state. We’re not going to be joining anyone else. We’re going to be doing our own lawsuit, just as we did in BP.”
Her comments come as U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams Thursday urged more Americans to carry naloxone, a drug that can help treat opioid overdoses.
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