Roosevelt may join in opioid litigation

PORTALES — Roosevelt County may join the wave of cities, counties and states that have sued pharmaceutical companies for allegedly marketing addictive opioid drugs in a deceiving manner.

In a regular meeting Tuesday, the Roosevelt County Commission approved a motion for County Attorney Randy Knudson and County Manager Amber Hamilton to contact attorneys “capable of representing Roosevelt county in opioid litigation” and return at a later meeting with a recommended contract.

Knudson told the commission that in a New Mexico Association of Counties meeting the week before, he was informed that several New Mexico counties — including Mora County, which has already filed a lawsuit — were filing for requests for proposal with attorneys to possibly participate in litigation against several major pharmaceutical companies.

Roosevelt County Detention Center Administrator Justin Porter said that at an attorney general’s conference in Santa Fe, it was explained that “these pharmaceutical companies were misrepresenting the product as being nonaddictive, and they were encouraging people on that basis, and then they come out and now have found out that these are addictive products.”

While Knudson said he was not well-versed enough to quantify the damage the opioid crisis has caused in Roosevelt County, but he noted that several attorneys around the country are offering to work on a no-cost basis.

“We’re not responsible for any fees or for any costs, and they get an agreed-upon percentage, a contingent fee, for any recovery they’re able to obtain for the county,” he said.

Action by the counties follows closely behind a September 2017 lawsuit by the state of New Mexico against eight opioid manufacturers and distributors.

Reuters news service reported that the lawsuit accused the manufacturers of “pushing addictive painkillers through deceptive marketing,” and the distributors of “breaching their legal duties to monitor, detect and report suspicious orders of prescription opioids.”