| From September 2010 to December 2011, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey lobbied for the Healthcare Distribution Management Association, an Arlington, Virginia-based trade group that represents eight of the 11 defendants in the state's lawsuit.
The Attorney General's Office is overseeing the lawsuit, and Morrisey has said he hasn't stepped aside from the"pill mill" case.
In a recent Gallup survey, more than 28% of state residents reported using mind-altering drugs to relax nearly every day, the highest proportion in the nation.
The prescription drug epidemic has long been a problem, particularity in southern WV.
Drug Firms Want W.Va. Pill Records Kept Sealed
By Eric Eyre, Staff writer for the Charleston Gazette
Eleven out-of-state drug companies don't want the public to know the number of prescription painkillers they've shipped to "pill mill" pharmacies in West Virginia.
The drug distributors are fighting a request to unseal a lawsuit complaint that would reveal details about the pain pill shipments from 2007 to 2012.
A motion to unseal the records alleges the drug companies distributed "hundreds of thousands to millions of doses of controlled substances over short periods of time" to rogue pharmacies in Southern West Virginia. The drug distributors argue that the pill numbers are "highly confidential" and must be kept secret.
Delegate Don Perdue, D-Wayne, said West Virginians have every right to see the drug firms' reports. The prescription drug problem has devastated families across the state, he said. West Virginia has the highest drug overdose death rate in the nation.
"With this issue, we're not only called on to be transparent, we're duty-bound to pursue transparency in a situation where we have numerous deaths, addictions and a tremendous economic impact on the state," said Perdue, a retired pharmacist. "The state of West Virginia has every right to provide those statistics to the public that's paying the bills for what's happened."
Earlier this week, a special assistant attorney general representing two state government agencies filed a proposed order in Boone County Circuit Court to unseal a revised complaint that includes the companies' pill shipment records.
"The issues and costs surrounding the epidemic of addiction and abuse of controlled substances ⦠represent a matter of significant public interest," wrote Jim Cagle, the state's lawyer, in the proposed order.
The lawsuit â filed by former Attorney General Darrell McGraw in 2012 â alleges that the drug wholesalers helped fuel Southern West Virginia's prescription drug problem by shipping an excessive number of painkillers to pill mill pharmacies in the region.
The state's Department of Health and Human Resources and Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety have since joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs ...
READ REST OF THE STORY
Drug firms want W.Va. pill records kept sealed
By Eric Eyre, Staff writer for the Charleston Gazette
| 
