Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay Oklahoma $572m for fueling opioid crisis in landmark civil case

[mystery-ak]

Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay Oklahoma $572m for fueling opioid crisis in landmark civil case
by Cassidy Morrison
 | August 26, 2019 04:17 PM

Johnson & Johnson will have to pay the state of Oklahoma for fueling the opioid epidemic, a judge ruled in the country’s first civil case seeking to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable for the crisis.

Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman announced Monday that Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, must pay the state $572,102,028 for worsening the opioid crisis in Oklahoma.

“The opioid crisis has ravaged the state of Oklahoma and it must be abated immediately,” Balkman said Monday.

Oklahoma’s Attorney General Mike Hunter alleged that Janssen Pharmaceuticals peddled opioids to doctors without being forthright about the products’ addictive qualities, thus contributing to thousands of overdose deaths throughout Oklahoma. The state asked for more than $17 billion over 30 years to help prevent and treat addiction and to help those whose lives were upended due to drug use.

Hunter said Johnson & Johnson violated the state’s public nuisance statute, which is defined as unlawfully endangering someone’s health, well being, and standard of living. The public nuisance argument was the fundamental point of contention in lawsuits against big tobacco in the 1990s which ended with giants of the tobacco industry settling for a total of $246 billion over 25 years.

Johnson & Johnson has argued that its medications serve a legitimate medical purpose, unlike tobacco products, and thus do not fit the bill of a public nuisance.

Lawyers working for the state said regardless of an opiate’s medical legitimacy, Johnson & Johnson hoodwinked doctors into over-prescribing medications, leading to a deluge of pills and Duragesic fentanyl patches and thousands of subsequent overdoses.

“What we do have in Cleveland County is 135 prescription opioids for every adult," Brad Beckworth, one of the state’s attorneys, said in July’s closing arguments. "Those didn't get here from drug cartels. They got here from one cartel: the pharmaceutical industry cartel. And the kingpin of it all is Johnson & Johnson.”

more
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/johnson-johnson-ordered-to-pay-oklahoma-572m-for-aggressive-opioid-marketing-in-landmark-civil-case

[Applewood]

Sorry people, but I don't like this at all.  The companies make products that, as J&J said, serve a legitimate purpose.  J&J did not tell people to abuse the drugs. If governments want to stop the abuse, they should crack down on the pushers (crooked doctors who write unnecessary prescriptions) and the abusers themselves. 

Frankly, I don't deem the overuse of opioids as a crisis.  It's like the war on drugs -- an unnecessary government expenditure to clean up after irresponsible people who choose to get high, knowing the risks.  If you croak because you abuse drugs, then it shouldn't be my responsibility or anyone else's.

All this crackdown on opioids has done is make it more difficult for those who legitimately need these meds to get them. 

[TomSea]

Another article, Reuters reads:

Shares of J&J rose 5% following the verdict.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/oklahoma-judge-holds-jj-liable-in-opioid-epidemic-orders-572-million-damages_3056605.html?utm_source=pushengage&utm_medium=pushnotification&utm_campaign=pushengage

I'm missing something. I would not think their shares of J&J would rise in value after this news... unless, they think they could have been required to even pay much more.

[mystery-ak]

Sorry people, but I don't like this at all.  The companies make products that, as J&J said, serve a legitimate purpose.  J&J did not tell people to abuse the drugs. If governments want to stop the abuse, they should crack down on the pushers (crooked doctors who write unnecessary prescriptions) and the abusers themselves. 

Frankly, I don't deem the overuse of opioids as a crisis.  It's like the war on drugs -- an unnecessary government expenditure to clean up after irresponsible people who choose to get high, knowing the risks.  If you croak because you abuse drugs, then it shouldn't be my responsibility or anyone else's.

All this crackdown on opioids has done is make it more difficult for those who legitimately need these meds to get them.

People need someone to blame since they never take responsibility for their actions...J&J made the pills so it's their fault.

First thing I ask about pain meds with my doctor is..*are they addictive?*..I have been through several surgeries where they are needed and I have always weened myself off them when my doctor has said that I rushed it...

[berdie]

Sorry people, but I don't like this at all.  The companies make products that, as J&J said, serve a legitimate purpose.  J&J did not tell people to abuse the drugs. If governments want to stop the abuse, they should crack down on the pushers (crooked doctors who write unnecessary prescriptions) and the abusers themselves. 

Frankly, I don't deem the overuse of opioids as a crisis.  It's like the war on drugs -- an unnecessary government expenditure to clean up after irresponsible people who choose to get high, knowing the risks.  If you croak because you abuse drugs, then it shouldn't be my responsibility or anyone else's.

All this crackdown on opioids has done is make it more difficult for those who legitimately need these meds to get them.

I agree. This is another one of those lack of responsibility issues.

[Bigun]

Sorry people, but I don't like this at all.  The companies make products that, as J&J said, serve a legitimate purpose.  J&J did not tell people to abuse the drugs. If governments want to stop the abuse, they should crack down on the pushers (crooked doctors who write unnecessary prescriptions) and the abusers themselves. 

Frankly, I don't deem the overuse of opioids as a crisis.  It's like the war on drugs -- an unnecessary government expenditure to clean up after irresponsible people who choose to get high, knowing the risks.  If you croak because you abuse drugs, then it shouldn't be my responsibility or anyone else's.

All this crackdown on opioids has done is make it more difficult for those who legitimately need these meds to get them.

Can't do that! No money in it!  Got to go after the ones with the deep pockets whether they actually did anything wrong or not.  J& J will win this on appeal but the shysters involved will have already been paid.

[Applewood]

Can't do that! No money in it!  Got to go after the ones with the deep pockets whether they actually did anything wrong or not.  J& J will win this on appeal but the shysters involved will have already been paid.

I sure hope J&J does win on appeal. I think J&J already was hit with a big judgment over its talcum powder.  These judgment will drive up all drug prices and maybe send companies into bankruptcy. 

[Texas Yellow Rose]

Sorry people, but I don't like this at all.  The companies make products that, as J&J said, serve a legitimate purpose.  J&J did not tell people to abuse the drugs. If governments want to stop the abuse, they should crack down on the pushers (crooked doctors who write unnecessary prescriptions) and the abusers themselves. 

Frankly, I don't deem the overuse of opioids as a crisis.  It's like the war on drugs -- an unnecessary government expenditure to clean up after irresponsible people who choose to get high, knowing the risks.  If you croak because you abuse drugs, then it shouldn't be my responsibility or anyone else's.

All this crackdown on opioids has done is make it more difficult for those who legitimately need these meds to get them.

  I agree. What about the doctors who keep on writing the prescriptions?!! Can't blame them, huh!!

[TomSea]

I think I read a previous article on J and J and the opioids. I for one, won't just blindly accept that they did no wrong. Isn't that what a trial is about? Are people aware of the facts? Do they think they can do no wrong?

I just did a news search and it was talking about paying billions and billions. Perhaps, this is a positive for the company.

They are going to appeal:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/johnson-johnson-appeal-flawed-opioid-205900687.html

Also:

Witness targets Johnson and Johnson's role in opioid crisis
Expert: Firm's role may be 'worse' than Purdue's
By Wayne Drash, CNN
Posted: 2:22 AM, June 12, 2019  Updated: 2:22 AM, June 12, 2019

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - One of the nation's top experts on opioid addiction said Tuesday that Johnson & Johnson's role in the current epidemic may be even "worse" than that of Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin.

Dr. Andrew Kolodny, the co-director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at Brandeis University, made the comments during the 11th day of the historic trial in Oklahoma that is aimed at holding Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries responsible for the state's opioid epidemic.

"Until I had an opportunity to review discovery documents," Kolodny testified, "I really was not aware of how bad Johnson & Johnson was."

https://www.news4jax.com/health/witness-targets-johnson-and-johnsons-role-in-opioid-crisis

I'll try to reserve judgement until I find out more.

[Sanguine]

Sorry people, but I don't like this at all.  The companies make products that, as J&J said, serve a legitimate purpose.  J&J did not tell people to abuse the drugs. If governments want to stop the abuse, they should crack down on the pushers (crooked doctors who write unnecessary prescriptions) and the abusers themselves. 

Frankly, I don't deem the overuse of opioids as a crisis.  It's like the war on drugs -- an unnecessary government expenditure to clean up after irresponsible people who choose to get high, knowing the risks.  If you croak because you abuse drugs, then it shouldn't be my responsibility or anyone else's.

All this crackdown on opioids has done is make it more difficult for those who legitimately need these meds to get them.

I completely agree with everything you wrote, @Applewood. 

And, to add to that, we now know that much/most of the illicit opioids are coming here from China via Mexico.

[austingirl]

Sorry people, but I don't like this at all.  The companies make products that, as J&J said, serve a legitimate purpose.  J&J did not tell people to abuse the drugs. If governments want to stop the abuse, they should crack down on the pushers (crooked doctors who write unnecessary prescriptions) and the abusers themselves. 

Frankly, I don't deem the overuse of opioids as a crisis.  It's like the war on drugs -- an unnecessary government expenditure to clean up after irresponsible people who choose to get high, knowing the risks.  If you croak because you abuse drugs, then it shouldn't be my responsibility or anyone else's.

All this crackdown on opioids has done is make it more difficult for those who legitimately need these meds to get them.

 

[corbe]

   Been There, Done That, got the T-Shirt.

[Victoria33]

Sorry people, but I don't like this at all.  The companies make products that, as J&J said, serve a legitimate purpose.  J&J did not tell people to abuse the drugs. If governments want to stop the abuse, they should crack down on the pushers (crooked doctors who write unnecessary prescriptions) and the abusers themselves.  Frankly, I don't deem the overuse of opioids as a crisis.  It's like the war on drugs -- an unnecessary government expenditure to clean up after irresponsible people who choose to get high, knowing the risks.  If you croak because you abuse drugs, then it shouldn't be my responsibility or anyone else's. All this crackdown on opioids has done is make it more difficult for those who legitimately need these meds to get them.

@Applewood

You are right about this.  Here is the big lie: "hoodwinked doctors into over-prescribing medications"   We don't have delivery boys being doctors.  We don't have women playing with dolls as doctors.  Want to get in medical school?  Good luck passing the tests.  A doctor isn't going to fall for some drug salesman convincing him to give all the patients opioids.

I will allow for some doctors over-prescribing but not that many.
What they are not doing is telling the patient what happens if they take more than they should.  Pain meds relaxes the muscles - take too many and your lungs relax too much and stop working and you die.  Older folks whose brains have become slow, could take double or triple the amount and not realize it and they die.


Fentanyl patches are dangerous because they are so strong and easy to get into your system.  My husband was on them for a bone disease and the pain doctor told me not to touch them as it could get in my skin that easily.  Cops wear face masks if they suspect they are around that drug.

[Applewood]

@Victoria33

I think a number of addicts doctor shop -- got from doctor to doctor to get scrips for their opioids.  I suppose a number of doctors often don't know that a patient has already received prescriptions from another doctor to get his or her "fixes."  It's easier if a doctor is affiliated with a hospital and can access a patients' records.  Most of my doctors are affiliated with one hospital, but my primary has no access to these records because he is independent.  Unless my other doctors provide him with their records (or I do), he has no way of knowing that another doctor has already prescribed opioids to me. 

I also think that many of these addicts did not start out getting opioids for a really painful condition, then became addicted.  A doctor once told me that the medical establishment really has no test to determine whether a patient is in pain.  Essentially, doctors have to take a patient's word for it.  So an addict shows up at a doctor's office, tells him he is in pain and the doctor essentially has to believe him. 

A really good place to get opioids is the hospital.  When I had surgery a few months ago and was in a little bit of pain, I asked for Tylenol.  Well, I was given the lowest dosage possible which didn't work.  So I asked for extra strength.  I said I didn't want an opioid.  Instead of the extra strength Tylenol, I was given an "opioid-like" medication.  "Opioid-like," my foot.  This med made me just as loopy as any opioid.  I couldn't wait to get home and take the extra strength Tylenol.  And the hospital insisted I take home a scrip for the "opioid-like" med.  I never filled the scrip.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Hard for me to believe that the conservative state of Oklahoma is the new leader for ambulance chasers.

[Victoria33]

@Applewood

I will tell you one technique an emergency room uses.to ferret out those who just want to get pain pills and leave.  I had to work in an emergency room when training for my EMT license.
The doc on duty had me help him.  A woman came in, said she had a migraine headache and needed pain pills.  He said to her, "We have a new way to stop migraine headache.  It's a shot, and your pain will be gone."  She refused the shot and left.  He told me a migraine is such bad pain, real patients will want the  shot right then.  Pill seekers will leave.

[corbe]

@Victoria33

I think a number of addicts doctor shop -- got from doctor to doctor to get scrips for their opioids.  I suppose a number of doctors often don't know that a patient has already received prescriptions from another doctor to get his or her "fixes."  It's easier if a doctor is affiliated with a hospital and can access a patients' records.  Most of my doctors are affiliated with one hospital, but my primary has no access to these records because he is independent.  Unless my other doctors provide him with their records (or I do), he has no way of knowing that another doctor has already prescribed opioids to me. 

I also think that many of these addicts did not start out getting opioids for a really painful condition, then became addicted.  A doctor once told me that the medical establishment really has no test to determine whether a patient is in pain.  Essentially, doctors have to take a patient's word for it.  So an addict shows up at a doctor's office, tells him he is in pain and the doctor essentially has to believe him. 

A really good place to get opioids is the hospital.  When I had surgery a few months ago and was in a little bit of pain, I asked for Tylenol.  Well, I was given the lowest dosage possible which didn't work.  So I asked for extra strength.  I said I didn't want an opioid.  Instead of the extra strength Tylenol, I was given an "opioid-like" medication.  "Opioid-like," my foot.  This med made me just as loopy as any opioid.  I couldn't wait to get home and take the extra strength Tylenol.  And the hospital insisted I take home a scrip for the "opioid-like" med.  I never filled the scrip.

   Of course Addicts Dr. shop @Applewood I did for years, at least 1 of those Dr's is doing hard time in Texas, the other has had his medical license revoked, he became an addict himself.  The last two years I wasn't even going to Dr's, too much hassle,  just buying them on the street, obummer priced me out of the market and I QUIT.  Sure I will take them, occasionally, out of sheer pleasure (I'm always in pain) but they are no longer a priority in my life like Winstons, Shiner (and bad women) are.

[mystery-ak]

The town I live in is small..we have two good hopitals.

My husband works in the Catholic Hospital ER...they know all the addicts by sight and name. When they run out of money and can't buy on the street they head to the ER...luckily the ER dr will not give them drugs except for advil and or tylenol...that's when the fun starts as my husband has to escort them off the premises sometimes kicking and screaming.

He has been attacked, hit and kicked many times by these *patients* wanting their fix...several have court orders to stay off the premises or they will be arrested...

[Victoria33]

   Of course Addicts Dr. shop @Applewood I did for years, at least 1 of those Dr's is doing hard time in Texas, the other has had his medical license revoked, he became an addict himself.  The last two years I wasn't even going to Dr's, too much hassle,  just buying them on the street, obummer priced me out of the market and I QUIT.  Sure I will take them, occasionally, out of sheer pleasure (I'm always in pain) but they are no longer a priority in my life like Winstons, Shiner (and bad women) are.

@corbe

I have never felt any "pleasure" 'high/low whatever" from my required pain pills.  They, along with a shot in my shoulder every three months, make me free of pain.  I asked the ortho doc about this - why I felt nothing from the pills.  He said, "That is because you have real pain and your body response is, you have no pain.  If someone does not have real pain and takes the pills, they will feel them in another way.

[corbe]

   It's not lost on me @Victoria33 that ultimately the responsibility lies with the Addict and his/her destructive ways towards themselves and the ones that Love them.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

I wonder why the state of Oklahoma does not file suit against the cartels where a lot more deaths and crime are involved in the selling of illegal drugs to citizens of the state?

[mystery-ak]

I wonder why the state of Oklahoma does not file suit against the cartels where a lot more deaths and crime are involved in the selling of illegal drugs to citizens of the state?

Why not the doctors or pharmacies where the scrips were filled....

[Sanguine]

Why not the doctors or pharmacies where the scrips were filled....

I don't think this is going to stand upon appeal.

[Victoria33]

@corbe
@Cyber Liberty
@Applewood

Corbe, you said, "but they are no longer a priority in my life like Winstons, Shiner (and bad women) are."

That is your whole problem - you should be using Marlboro Menthol 100s, gold box, which is light.  Bet you a penny, you are smoking heavy duty Winstons, short length.  (I am kidding about this, of course.)

Shiner Bock is okay for a down to earth guy like you; it is Corona Light for me, wonderful taste.

I have one good man (not the bad kind as you look for with women), he is like all other men - useful for picking up heavy objects and killing spiders.
You are a good person, corbe.

[corbe]

   So are you @Victoria33 I always find something, be it knowledge or humor, in your musings.