In first week of WV's landmark trial, witnesses describe impact of opioids on the community.

In first week of WV’s landmark trial, witnesses describe impact of opioids on the community. Distributors blame doctors, illegal drugs


Jan Rader left the defense without questions on Friday.

The Huntington Fire Chief detailed life on the frontlines of an overdose epidemic that she says wreaked “carnage” across her community. Rader was the last person to testify during the first week of a landmark trial brought by Cabell County and the City of Huntington against the “Big Three” drug distributors.

Plaintiffs argue the distributors — Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen — are responsible for approximately $2 billion in damages caused by the 80 million pain pills the companies pumped into the area over an eight-year period starting in 2006. They say the pills fueled the addiction crisis that is now driven by illicit drugs like heroin, meth and fentanyl.

“When I started my career in August of 1994, I didn’t see a lot of death. I didn’t see overdoses,” Rader said from the witness stand in the federal courtroom in Charleston. “Mid-2000s, that started changing. We started seeing overdoses. And at these scenes we would see pill bottles.”

For nearly an hour, Rader, dressed in uniform — a black suit jacket with gold buttons and Huntington Fire Department badge — described the change in the role of her department that she says is the result of increase in drug use.

Read more: https://mountainstatespotlight.org/2021/05/07/wv-landmark-trial-witnesses-describe-impact-opioids-community/