Bexar County today officially filed a lawsuit against the big opioid companies and distributors, accusing them of causing and continuing the opioid crisis which is costing Bexar County taxpayers millions, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
"A law similar to the cigarette lawsuits," County Judge Nelson Wolff said. "Deception within that industry."
Wolff says Bexar County will not join with other cities, counties, and states, but will file their own lawsuit, and will file in state, not federal court.
"If we had gone the federal route, we would have been part of a larger group," Wolff said. "Not much of the money would have tricked down, and we would have gotten very little."
Wolff says Bexar County has been hit without regard to income, race, or ethnicity when it comes to opioid abuse, with EMS calls,hospital admissions and deaths from opioid addiction up in all parts of the county, from the richest to the poorest.
The 1997 lawsuit against the big tobacco companies, for knowingly harming consumers by distributing products they knew were harmful, netted cities and counties $14 billion in damages.