Dedham Joins Lawsuit Against Opioid Makers, Distributors

DEDHAM, MA — The Town of Dedham will join a class-action lawsuit aimed at manufacturers and distributors of opioids for promoting the use of opioids above the therapeutic need and triggering a crisis. The selectmen voted at a recent meeting to join the lawsuit which now includes more than 100 Massachusetts towns.

The town is the most recent to join the lawsuit, which aims to recover damages suffered due to the opioid crisis. The attorneys involved in the lawsuit are working on contingency, meaning that they only get paid if the lawsuit is successful or results in a settlement, in which case they would be entitled to a percentage of the reward.

If successful, the town could receive relief for funds spent on the opioid crisis, including Narcan and public safety training. The attorneys are working on contingency, meaning that they only get paid if the lawsuit is successful or results in a settlement, in which case they would be entitled to 25 percent of the settlement and up to 10 percent in expenses.

Selectman Dennis Teehan, who is a doctor, said that the way the medicines have been marketed to doctors and patients is a contributing factor to the crisis.

"The way they were mass marketed and showing up in offices like mine with catered lunches and sort of this whole paradigm of getting this into our lexicon, into our thinking of aggressively treating pain...it's been a big factor," Teehan said.

Selectman Dennis Guilfoyle works on Bardston Street in Boston, near Southhampton Street and Massachusetts Avenue which has become known as the Methadone Mile. He said in that area there are three methadone clinics which serve anywhere from 600-1,000 people a day.

"That's a neighborhood where they walk. I hate to say it because it's a terrible disease but it's the night of the living dead," Guilfoyle said.

According to town counsel, there were 27 known overdose deaths in Dedham between 2012 and 2017 and more than 124 opioid-related response calls in 2016 and 2017.

Image: File Photo