{"id":8204,"date":"2020-06-22T09:32:26","date_gmt":"2020-06-22T13:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:10028\/uncategorized\/coronavirus-leads-to-more-drug-overdose-deaths\/"},"modified":"2020-06-22T09:32:26","modified_gmt":"2020-06-22T13:32:26","slug":"coronavirus-leads-to-more-drug-overdose-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/article\/coronavirus-leads-to-more-drug-overdose-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus Leads to More Drug Overdose Deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

The coronavirus outbreak is making yet another serious problem even worse, fatal drug overdose deaths are up 50 percent<\/a><\/u> in Nassau County, and other nearby jurisdictions report similar statistics.<\/p>\n

Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Rydersaid the spike is due to people self-medicating with a combination of painkillers and alcohol.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are out of work, people are depressed, they are drinking more, they are using drugs more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He reminded people that, despite the coronavirus outbreak, treatment options are available.<\/p>\n

Officials also unveiled a new initiative, Diversion Opening Opportunities for Recovery Services (DOORS), to connect addicts with the resources they need.<\/p>\n

Thousands of cases<\/a><\/u> are pending in courts across the country related to the opioid crisis.<\/p>\n

Dangerous Painkillers<\/h2>\n

Many prescription painkillers, such as Fentanyl, are more potent and addictive than heroin. Self-medicating with these drugs and alcohol is even worse.<\/p>\n

This combination greatly increases the risk of a heart attack<\/a><\/u> or another fatal incident.<\/p>\n

Other victims develop cardiomyopathy.<\/p>\n

This long-term condition weakens the heart muscle. In many cases, cardiomyopathy is also fatal, especially if the victim had a pre-existing condition or another illness vulnerability.<\/p>\n

Generally, the circumstances leading to drug overdose are quite innocuous.<\/p>\n

A doctor closely supervises pain pill intake. But as mentioned, these medicines are so strong that the patient often gets addicted.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s especially true if, as is often the case, pill intake continues unabated even after the pain fades. In these situations, patients only experience opioid highs.<\/p>\n

To feed their addictions, many people turn to heroin and other street drugs.<\/p>\n

Or, they might visit semi-illegal \u201cpill mills\u201d where doctors write prescriptions and do not ask questions. Still other times, well-meaning people give addicts their leftover pain pills, thinking they are doing the right thing.<\/p>\n

Frequently, cash-strapped cities and counties must pick up the pieces of addiction.<\/p>\n

These governmental units must provide emergency services, healthcare services, and other services they cannot afford. More on that below.<\/p>\n

Legal Responsibility<\/h2>\n

In a crisis of this magnitude<\/a><\/u>, there is usually enough blame to go around. That\u2019s certainly the case in New York.<\/p>\n

There is some evidence that drug companies knowingly sold dangerous products.<\/p>\n

Beginning in the 1990s, Purdue Pharma and its competitors basically engaged in an arms race to produce the strongest possible painkiller.<\/p>\n

These companies reasoned that they could charge more money for more potent medicine. And, for most companies, profits are the only thing that matters.<\/p>\n

Not coincidentally, in the 1990s, the government changed the prescription drug advertising rules. For the first time, Purdue Pharma and its ilk could market their wares directly to consumers.<\/p>\n

A disproportionate number of these advertisements appeared in low-income communities where addition was already a problem.<\/p>\n

Amidst all this crisis, some drug shipment companies ignored their responsibilities under the Controlled Substances Act.<\/p>\n

Per the CSA, drug shipment companies are not just truck drivers. They have a duty to inquire as to the nature of, and need for, the products they ship.<\/p>\n

Their willful blindness paid off, at least in the short term.<\/p>\n

Drug shipment companies made much more money than drug manufacturers during the go-go 1990s and 2000s.<\/p>\n

The professionals at Napoli Shkolnik make these companies, and other negligent companies, pay for what they did.<\/p>\n

Some Legal Options<\/h2>\n

One way we make defendants pay is by representing counties and other governmental units adversely affected by the opioid crisis.<\/p>\n

Coronavirus has put these matters on hold from a procedural standpoint. But our team is still at work.<\/p>\n

Public nuisance actions are usually a good option in these situations.<\/p>\n

Paul J. Napoli successfully used this legal strategy in the 1999 Fen Phen settlement. The manufacturer agreed to pay $3.75 billion<\/a><\/u> and pull this dangerous product off store shelves.<\/p>\n

Twenty years later, the Fen Phen lawsuit is still one of the best examples of a public nuisance action.<\/p>\n

Essentially, public nuisance claims state that the company created a dangerous hazard which substantially affected a large number of people at the same time.<\/p>\n

These claims are quite complex.<\/p>\n

Defective product claims also work well. Manufacturers are strictly liable for the injuries their dangerous products cause.<\/p>\n

Fault, negligence, and other concepts are only relevant in terms of damages. As for liability, victim\/plaintiffs must only establish cause.<\/p>\n

In all these situations, damages usually include compensation for economic losses, such as medical bills and services provided, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering.<\/p>\n

Additional punitive damages are usually available as well, if there is clear and convincing evidence that the defendant intentionally disregarded a known risk.<\/p>\n

The coronavirus crisis has fed the opioid addiction crisis.<\/p>\n

For a free consultation with an experienced personal injury attorney in New York<\/a><\/u>, contact Napoli Shkolnik . We do not charge upfront legal fees in defective product or other injury claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The coronavirus outbreak is making yet another serious problem even worse, fatal drug overdose deaths are up 50 percent in Nassau County, and other nearby jurisdictions report similar statistics. Nassau…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[940,942,959,966,992,993,816,875],"class_list":["post-8204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opioid-crisis","tag-prescription-problems","tag-opioid-crisis","tag-opioid-epidemic","tag-opioid-litigation","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-defective-products","tag-bad-drugs"],"acf":[],"page_builder_type":"gutenberg","gutenberg_data":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}