I was invited to update the Sarasota Ministerial Association this past Wednesday on our lawsuit against big pharma. The Association has been helpful in our efforts to address chronic homelessness and their members have been called upon far too often to console families following a drug overdose death.

To update everyone else, the City of Sarasota is one of 1,600 cities, counties, states and Native American Tribes involved in litigation against Big Pharma over their two decades role in the over-prescribing of opioids in pursuit of big profits. This practice has created the worst drug epidemic in U.S. history.

With what began in 1996 as a drug for severe pain related to cancer, Purdue Pharma and other drug companies expanded the use of Oxycontin and marketed opioids as ubiquitous painkillers, which could be safely prescribed for even moderate pain, with a less than 1 percent chance of addiction. Those claims were not backed by science and addictions skyrocketed. Meanwhile, sales of Oxycontin grew quickly from $50 million in 1996 to well over $1 billion by 2000. Profits soared.

In 2017 the Center for Disease Control estimated there were nearly 60,000 opioid-related overdose deaths. As prescriptions began to be reduced, black market opioid products began to fill the void.

Cities are parties in this litigation because as with so many things, city and county employees are on the ground and on the front lines in dealing with problems. Police, fire, EMS and public hospitals are typically the first to respond to drug overdose emergencies and you, the taxpayer, have been absorbing the costs of this “man-made plague”.

Our multi-district suit is scheduled for trial in Ohio this September.

We obviously don’t know what the outcome will be, but just this week the first big case was settled in Oklahoma where a state case was settled out-of-court for $270 million. $12 million of the settlement will go to Oklahoma cities and towns.

It’s too early to know what may happen with our case, but Florida is a much larger state than Oklahoma.

If Florida cities prevail in our case against Big Pharma, policy makers should strongly consider using settlement funds to build the facilities necessary to effectively treat addictions. Our aging jails are full, and Florida remains 50th of 50 states in funding mental health and related substance addiction programs. Keep your fingers crossed we win.

The Ministerial Association has committed their prayers.

Tom Barwin is Sarasota City Manager. Email him at Thomas.barwin@sarasotafl.gov.