Nate Raymond

(Reuters) -Washington’s Attorney General argued Monday at the beginning of a $95 Billion trial that the excessive shipments by three drug distributors of pain pills caused the worst man-made public healthcare crisis in American history. This led to the U.S.’s opioid epidemic.

As a result of a state lawsuit to collect more money from distributors McKesson Corp, (NYSE:), the Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson used that argument. Cardinal Health Inc (NYSE -) and AmerisourceBergen Corp (NYSE -) Corp received more in a nationwide $26 billion settlement.

According to him, the law required companies to have systems in place to stop the illegal diversion of prescription opioids. Another lawyer said that they shipped in 3.8 billion opioids to the state between 2006 and 2018.

Ferguson stated in his opening statement that “Indeed we know that they knew the harms flowing out of their conduct because private correspondence company executives ridiculed individuals suffering from the pains of opioid dependence.”

Ferguson stated to Michael Scott, King County Superior Court Judge Michael Scott, that while the state did everything it could to combat the outbreak of the disease in the country’s aftermath, the company owners should still be responsible for the nuisance they caused.

Washington seeks $38.2B to pay for treatment, other programs, and billions in forfeited profits and penalties. According to the distributors who have denied any wrongdoing they want a “wildly inflated recovery” exceeding $95 billion.

On Monday, lawyers representing the companies will deliver opening statements.

Companies deny wrongdoing. They argue the increased use of pills is due to increasing prescriptions. Additionally, they argue that the distribution of controlled drugs is not sufficient to support a public nuisance case.

There have been more than 3300 cases filed by mostly state and local governments seeking to hold the companies and individuals responsible for an opioid abuse crisis that led to almost 500,000 deaths from overdoses over two decades.

Washington state would have been eligible for $527.5 million if it had joined a proposed $26 billion global deal, under which the distributors would pay up to $21 billion https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-opioids-litigation-idTRNIKBN2ER25S and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:) would pay $5 billion.

Ferguson, a Democrat has criticized this settlement for not being “nearly good enough”, saying that the $30 million the state and communities would each receive on an average annually basis was inadequate to deal with the devastating effects of the epidemic.

The state became one of eight not to participate https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-opioids-litigation-idTRNIKBN2G00J1 in the distributors’ nationwide accord and opted to proceed to trial.

Recent setbacks for nuisance claims have seen plaintiffs in other opioid cases suffer setbacks. Oklahoma’s top court on Tuesday overturned a $465 million judgment https://www.reuters.com/business/oklahoma-court-overturns-465-million-opioid-award-against-johnson-johnson-2021-11-09 against J&J, and a California judge this month ruled in favor of four drugmakers in a case brought by several large counties.