For one hour inside the federal courthouse in Seattle, Purdue Pharma and its controversial painkiller OxyContin were at the center of a novel legal argument: Is the legal maker of an opioid responsible for the havoc caused by its illegal sale and use?
"Our city has been damaged by this crisis," Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson said. "And we desperately need help."
Stephanson says a Los Angeles Times investigation followed the black market trail of legally produced OxyContin from the city of Angels to the streets of Everett.
"Is it Purdue's fault that the city of Everett has been damaged by what people have done with the product they legally make?" the mayor was asked.
"I think that is really the crux of this case," Stephanson said. "And we believe that Purdue knew that their product was going into the black market, had an obligation to report that and didn't do it."
Lawyers for Purdue would not talk on camera.
But in court, they argued that the company sells OxyContin directly to a wholesaler, not to users; that in order for anyone to sue, there "must be direct injury between the person suing the person being sued."
Stephanson insists that is the case here. And Purdue needs to help the city solve a problem it helped cause.
"And part of that solution will be determined in the months to come in terms of what's it going to take to make us whole," he said. "How are we going to get help for those on the street? And how we're going to improve our collective quality of life?"
But first, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez must decide whether the case should go forward. He is expected to issue a ruling in the next few weeks.
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