California counties sue drug manufacturers over narcotics marketing

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Orange and Santa Clara counties filed suit Thursday against five of the world's largest drug manufacturers, accusing them of creating a population of addicts to reap blockbuster profits on narcotic painkillers.

Drugs such as Oxycontin and Percocet are commonly prescribed for severe pain. The Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas says they are more dangerous than the drug companies tell the public.

"These companies have misrepresented this drug so that they can increase the market for them and so that they can increase their profits," said Rackauckas.

Rackauckas filed a lawsuit against several pharmaceutical companies. He claims the companies are intentionally misrepresenting to doctors and patients just how addictive these prescription painkillers can be.

"They've advertised and they've trained and they've sent representatives out, they've done a whole campaign to reverse that knowledge," said Rackauckas.

"Oxycontin is for terminal cancer. Stop prescribing these meds to our kids, to anybody, because it's deadly," said Laguna Niguel resident Jodi Barber.

Barber hopes this lawsuit will save lives. She lost her son Jarrod after he overdosed on prescription pills. She says four of his friends also died.

"None of these kids that I know that are addicts knew that they would become addicted," said Barber. "They weren't informed by the doctors. Some of them went in with a broken finger from playing football and they became addicts."

Orange County Health Care Agency officials say there were 291 deaths in 2012 related to overdoses. That's almost 40 percent of all the accidental deaths in the county.

"It's a public health question, so that's why we need to bring this suit," said Rackauckas.

One of the companies, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, issued a statement: "Janssen is committed to ethical business practices and responsible promotion, prescribing and use of all our medications. We're currently reviewing the complaint."

Other companies Eyewitness News contacted have either not responded or said they haven't seen the lawsuit so they would not comment.