Last month, a Tennessee judge dismissed a lawsuit that labeled Big Pharma opioid manufacturers as drug dealers of opioids. This is the result of lawsuits filed by 14 prosecutors of 47 Middle and East Tennessee counties against several opiate manufacturers and distributors in 2017.
Eighth Judicial District Circuit Court Judge John D. McAfee ruled that it was legal for drug manufacturers like Purdue Pharma to produce and market FDA-approved medications and sell them through distributors registered with The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He dismissed the argument made by the prosecutors that the defendants in the opioid litigation are part of an "illegal drug market" as per Tennessee's Drug Dealer Liability Act (DDLA). The Act allows innocent third parties to sue drug dealers responsible for their damages. The "innocent third parties" mentioned in the lawsuit include opioid-addicted babies born in Tennessee’s Campbell County.
The judge wrote in his decision that, "the Court disagrees with the plaintiff's assertion that because of the Manufacturer Defendants' business and marketing practices, the otherwise legal production and distribution of opioid medications become illegal by overproducing and by the subsequent criminal conduct of other unrelated actors." The opioid crisis which was declared as a national health emergency in 2017 has affected Tennessee more than any other US state, except West Virginia. Out of 42,000 opioid deaths in 2016 in the nation, 1,186 were from Tennessee.
