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A6 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 14 January 2020
Oklahoma attorney general sues distributors of opioids

By KEN MILLER a distributor." Amerisource- maintains the award should
Associated Press Bergen said in a statement be reduced by $355 million
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — that "beyond our reporting to offset pretrial settlements
Oklahoma Attorney Gener- and immediate halting of reached with other drug-
al Mike Hunter on Monday potentially suspicious or- makers. The state reached
brought a lawsuit against ders, we refuse service to settlements last year of
three distributors of opi- customers we deem as a $270 million with drugmak-
oids after winning a lawsuit diversion risk." er Purdue Pharma and $85
against one drug manufac- Cardinal Health said in a million with Israeli-owned
turer and reaching pretrial statement that it is pre- Teva Pharmaceuticals.
settlements in other cases. pared to "vigorously" de- An $8.75 million settlement
Hunter filed the lawsuit fend itself at trial, adding was reached last week
in Cleveland County Dis- it's "confident that the facts with Endo Pharmaceuticals
trict Court against Cardi- presented will show we Inc. and Par Pharmaceuti-
nal Health Inc., McKesson take our role and the re- cal, Inc., both subsidiaries
Corp. and AmerisourceBer- sponsibility that comes with of Dublin-based Endo Inter-
gen Corp. In this May 29, 2019, file photo, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike it seriously, work hard ev- national.
Hunter watches a video deposition in Norman, Okla., during the
"Oklahoma is in crisis. ... The state's trial against drugmakers blamed for contributing to the ery day to get it right, and The Oklahoma lawsuit
source of this crisis is the opioid crisis. make changes when we comes after Michigan in
flood of prescription opi- Associated Press find ways to improve." December sued opioid dis-
oids that has inundated The suit comes after Hunt- tributors Cardinal Health,
Oklahoma for the past two panies distributed opioids cotic conservatism when er won a lawsuit in August McKesson Health, Ameri-
decades," the lawsuit says. primarily to hospitals and they flooded the country against opioid manufac- sourceBergen, and Wal-
"It is a man-made crisis. It pharmacies and were ob- with opioids," Hunter said turer Johnson & Johnson, green Co.
was brought into being by ligated to have a systems during a news conference which was ordered to pay Opioids, including heroin
the pharmaceutical indus- of checks and balances announcing the suit. $465 million. and prescription drugs,
try." to alert them if there was McKesson said in a state- Both Hunter and Johnson were a factor in a record
The lawsuit said the de- a sharp, unexplained in- ment Monday that "any & Johnson have appealed 48,000 deaths across the
fendants "distributed what crease in opioid orders. suggestion that (the com- the ruling. U.S. in 2017, according to
can only be called a major "We will show that these pany) drove demand for Hunter's office says the the Centers for Disease
oversupply of opioids into companies repeatedly ig- opioids in this country re- award is only enough to Control and Prevention.
Oklahoma." nored red flags and in do- flects a fundamental misun- pay for one year of the Oklahoma recorded about
Hunter's spokesman, Alex ing so played a major role derstanding and mischar- state's opioid abatement 400 opioid deaths that
Gerszewski, said the com- in breaking the dam of nar- acterization of our role as plan. Johnson & Johnson year.q

Judge refuses to second-guess

family separations at border

like criminal history, com- 90 minutes. The ruling was ministration bears the bur-
municable diseases and a rare instance of the San den if it attempts to sepa-
doubts about parentage. Diego judge siding with rate families based on an
He found no evidence the administration. In June accusation that the adult
that the government was 2018, he halted the prac- is not the child's parent,"
abusing its discretion. tice of separating families said ACLU attorney Lee
"It is an invitation that is po- under a "zero tolerance" Gelernt. "We are evaluat-
tentially massive in scope, policy to deter illegal im- ing the decision to deter-
invades an area that is migration and ordered mine next steps on how to
particularly within the that about 2,800 children ensure that children are
In this July 16, 2019, file photo, people wait to apply for asylum
in the United States along the border in Tijuana, Mexico. province of the executive be quickly reunited with not separated from their
Associated Press branch to secure the na- family. Lack of adequate parents based on minor in-
tion's border, and goes be- tracking systems at the fractions."
By ELLIOT SPAGAT gressions including traffic yond this court's class cer- time made reunification a The Justice Department
Associated Press offenses. tification and preliminary monumental task. didn't immediately re-
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A U.S. It asked the judge in July injunction orders, which The judge later ordered spond to a request for
judge ruled Monday that to rule on whether the were focused on the ad- the administration to comment.
the Trump administration is government was justified ministration's practice of identify more than 1,500 The judge noted that the
operating within its author- in separating 911 children separating families at the additional children who administration acknowl-
ity when separating fami- during the first year after border for the purpose were separated earlier in edged it erred by separat-
lies stopped at the Mexico the judge halted the gen- of deterring immigration, Trump's presidency, start- ing a mother who needed
border, rejecting argu- eral practice in June 2018. and failing to reunify those ing in July 2017. The gov- emergency surgery and a
ments that it was quietly U.S. District Judge Dana families," Sabraw wrote in ernment is providing in- father who was HIV-posi-
returning to widespread Sabraw indicated he was a 26-page decision. formation to the ACLU, tive. He rejected the AC-
practices that drew inter- uncomfortable second- In a partial victory for the which, in some cases, has LU's contention that some
national condemnation. guessing government de- ACLU, the judge said the volunteers going door to accusations of gang af-
The American Civil Liber- cisions to separate chil- government must settle door in Guatemala. filiation were unfounded,
ties Union argued that the dren on grounds that par- any doubts about parent- The ACLU said it was con- saying that the govern-
administration was splitting ents were considered unfit age before separating sidering its next move. ment relies on "objective
families over dubious al- or dangerous, or in other families by using DNA tests "The court strongly reaf- evidence, not allegations
legations and minor trans- limited circumstances that deliver results in about firmed that the Trump ad- or intuition." q