Wood County officials consider opioid lawsuit

PARKERSBURG -- The Wood County Commission's support is being sought in a growing lawsuit being filed against those who manufactured and distributed opioids over the years, allegedly leading to the state's drug abuse crisis.

Attorneys Mark Colantonio and Clayton Fitzsimmons of the Fitzsimmons Law Firm in Wheeling appeared before the commission Thursday to discuss their litigation and what they are looking to accomplish.

They are representing several counties in the state in action regarding the opioid epidemic.

They have filed a lawsuit in the northern district of West Virginia. That case was moved to federal court where all cases dealing with alleged opioid abuse filed in federal court are being overseen by a federal judge in Cleveland.

"We represent several counties in West Virginia on the opioid problem in West Virginia," Colantonio said. "The (Wood) county (Commission) was interested in obtaining information about our lawsuit and potentially joining that lawsuit."

Their firm represents 12 counties in West Virginia. There are 20 counties in litigation now over this issue.

Their law firm is trying to get the case sent back to state court.

"We want local juries and judges to hear our case," Colantonio said.

He said they should know in the next 30 days if their case will be heard in state or federal court.

The firm brought its case against the opioid manufacturers, some distributors, a few doctors and salespeople who allegedly mismarketed the opioids and others.

The commission went into executive session to discuss the details of the case with the attorneys.

The commission will take action on Monday to approve a contract to join the lawsuit and an ordinance outlining the opioid problem in Wood County.

"We have certainly had harm," Commission President Blair Couch said.

After the executive session Colantonio said the lawsuit is a way to address the problem.

Their complaint is 300-pages long.

"It reads like a book and tells the story from the beginning to how we got here now," Colantonio said.

He described the problem as being multifaceted. It happened through a combined effort of manufacturers and distributors through alleged mismarketing, misdistributing and not following up with the kinds of things they are supposed to do, he said.

"We think it is a problem that has happened over a period of years," Colantonio said. "It did not happen overnight.

"There are problems out in the community from the huge volume of opioids that have been written, disproportionate to the population. It was a clear warning signal that something was going wrong and no one was paying attention to it."

The lawsuit is a way to get money back to address the problem, he said.

"The lawsuit is an attempt by several counties to recover money they have already expended and will expend into the future for damages caused by the opioid problem in West Virginia," Colantonio said. "Everyone realizes and understands there is an opioid problem in West Virginia. There is no question about that. It is our sincere hope that doing what we are doing, we can be a positive force to solving this problem."