Burying a child is every parent’s worst nightmare, but thousands have already had to do so because of the opioid epidemic. Our country has never seen a public health crisis quite like this ongoing tragedy, which is unprecedented in its death toll. As an opioid lawyer TN has turned to, I’ve seen how awful it is.
According to the Health Resources & Services Administration, 116 people die every day from opioid overdoses. It’s taken time, but the deceptive pharmaceutical companies responsible for the crisis are finally being held accountable.
The seeds of this crisis were planted two decades ago, when pharmaceutical giants heavily marketed opioids. They minimized the risk of addiction, leading doctors to believe they were safe to prescribe. In 1999 alone, opioid prescriptions increased by 10 million.
How Are Pharmaceutical Companies Responsible?
Purdue Pharma aggressively promoted the painkiller OxyContin, feigning innocence once the drug’s addictiveness was made known. This year, however, the New York Times reported that Purdue knew about the abuse of OxyContin within a year of the drug’s introduction. Prosecutors who spoke to the New York Times recommended that Purdue Pharma executives be indicted on felony charges.
This week, Indiana became the latest state to sue Purdue over its role in this crisis. The state’s Attorney General, Curtis Hill, told a local publication, “Purdue Pharma bears significant responsibility for the opioid crisis here in Indiana because it promoted widespread overprescribing through a deceptive and misleading marketing campaign.”
The state had more than enough reason to take action: the opioid overdose rate in Indiana increased 75% from 2011 to 2017, when more than 1,700 people in the state died of overdoses.
It’s true that many of the recent overdoses — not only in Indiana, but throughout the country — involve illegal opiates like fentanyl and heroin, but abuse of those drugs is intertwined with the rise of prescription abuse. Many studies suggest that abusing legally prescribed opioids may open the door for heroin addiction. Heroin is cheaper and actually easier to obtain than prescriptions, so many people who are first described OxyContin, Vicodin, and other painkillers switch to illegal substances.
Innocent babies have to pay.
If a mother uses opiates while pregnant, her child could be born addicted to the drug. Its very first days are spent in agonizing withdrawal because of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). There are thousands of NAS cases right here in Tennessee. If you or a loved one has been hurt by taking a prescription drug, contact our offices to dicsuss your options with a dangerous drugs lawyer Memphis, TN families turn to and trust.
Get help from an opioid lawyer TN trusts.
The NAS cases I’ve worked on as an opioid lawyer TN trusts aren’t easy. This is some of the most devastating work I’ve seen throughout my career. I am outraged and ready to fight for your rights. If you believe your adopted child was exposed to opioids during pregnancy or breastfeeding, or that you suffered from NAS as an infant, please call (901) 327-1212 or contact us online for a free consultation.