Monterey County joins fight against opioid crisis
UPDATE 5/03/18 6:00pm Monterey County is joining the fight against the national and statewide opioid crisis.
County officials said they’re working with dozens of other California counties to take legal action to help mitigate and prevent current and future opioid problems.
Emergency Physician Casey Grover with Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula says “an estimated 5.8 percent of people ages 12 and over in Monterey County had an opioid use disorder, that means a person that is dependent on or addicted to opioids.”
Monterey County Counsel Charles McKee says “Doctors and patients were misled by the opioid manufactures and our citizens are paying the price with uncontrolled addiction. The taxpayer funds used to respond to the opioid epidemic are substantial.”
State counties have gathered evidence they say shows many of the nation’s largest drug manufacturers pushed highly addictive opioids onto doctors, misinforming them by claiming that patients using the drugs rarely experienced addiction.
McKee says these companies need to be held accountable “the manufacturers of opioids and distributors have an obligation under the controlled substance act of the united states that when there’s an increase in prescriptions, an increase in use that is substantial they need to look into it, they need to investigate, and they need to decide whether that needs to be reported to the regulators and wether something needs to be done about it.”
Another doctor with C.H.O.M.P. Reb Close, says “I would like for some services to come in for recovery. There are so many patients and families that have lost really their normal life and their ability to get up and take there dog on a walk at the beach or go to a coffee shop and read a book, they have lost that choice because of their dependency and addiction.”
Close says she sees the impacts first hand and all too often, “”I cannot think of the last shift I worked, where I didn’t see someone that was directly impacted by the opioid dependency and opioid epidemic that we’re undergoing.”
The County plans on officially filing sometime this week. McKee says he is hoping there is some sort of settlement rather than going to trial.
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Monterey County is joining the fight against the national and statewide opioid crisis.
County officials said they’re working with dozens of other California counties to take legal action to help mitigate and prevent current and future opioid problems.
“Doctors and patients were misled by the opioid manufactures and our citizens are paying the price with uncontrolled addiction. The taxpayer funds used to respond to the opioid epidemic are substantial,” says Monterey County Counsel Charles McKee. “The County seeks to recovery these costs because local government services have been subsidizing the impact of the opioid epidemic, which was created by irresponsible multi-billion dollar corporations which have placed profits over public safety,” said county officials.
State counties have gathered evidence they say shows many of the nation’s largest drug manufacturers pushed highly addictive opioids onto doctors, misinforming them by claiming that patients using the drugs rarely experienced addiction.
KION’s Ashley Keehn will have more on why Monterey County joined the lawsuit at 5 and 6 p.m.
