The case is about the conduct of a group of companies in two Ohio counties, but far more than that is riding on the first federal trial on the opioid crisis, expected to open Monday in Cleveland. In the only opioid crisis case to go to trial so far in state court, an Oklahoma judge ruled against Johnson & Johnson and ordered the company to pay $572 million in damages. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration kept raising the quota for how many should be made even as overdoses rose. Federal distribution data released as part of the Cleveland litigation showed they moved a massive quantity of drugs. An Associated Press analysis of federal drug distribution data found that in 2012, enough prescription opioids were shipped for every man, woman and child in the U.S. to have a 20-day supply.

Source: ABC News October 21, 2019 04:29 UTC