El Paso County has been asked to join hundreds of cities and counties that are suing major pharmaceutical companies, blaming them for exacerbating a nationwide epidemic of opioid abuse and overdoses and demanding compensation for the costs.

The proposition has left county officials with the difficult task of calculating the exact amount of taxpayer dollars that have been lost to the opioid crisis through social services, law enforcement activities and other government functions.

In late January, Huerfano County became the first and only Colorado county to file a lawsuit against big-name drug manufacturers and distributors, said Stephen Ochs, one of the lawyers representing that county and local governments in other states that have filed similar claims.

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, the small southeastern county accused defendants – including McKesson Corp., Janssen Pharmaceuticals of Johnson & Johnson and Purdue Pharma – of using deceptive advertising and marketing strategies to overstate the benefits of opioids and understate the risk of addiction. The lawsuit claims “past economic damages exceeding $750,000” and estimates future damages of more than $1.5 million, citing money the government spent on “police, fire, medical and other public services.”

Ochs, who said his Colorado Springs-based firm has approached nearly half of the state’s 64 counties about filing their own complaints, is one of several attorneys that have reached out to the county offering representation in the opioid litigation.

But the county is far from deciding whether or not it will become a part of the movement, said county spokesman Dave Rose.

“What we’re looking at now is, does the county have any damages associated with this?” said El Paso County Commissioner Mark Waller.

Waller said he’s yet to see any convincing evidence that there is.

In an executive session Thursday, the county coroner and the Department of Human Services presented to commissioners the data they had related to opioids, Rose said.

The coroner reported that 10 percent of deaths from 2012 to 2016 have “links to opioids,” Rose said in an email. Last year, 77 deaths were connected to the drugs, Rose said.

In 2016, the Department of Human Services reported that 12 infants had been exposed to opioids. But aside from that information, the department has little else to offer on the topic, Rose said. There’s no way of knowing if those who apply for economic assistance, such as food stamps, are using the drugs, he said.

Commissioners have directed the county attorney’s staff to request data from the District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Office, Rose said.

A report released last month by the Community Health Partnership, a coalition of organizations dedicated to improving the community’s well-being, found that opiates contributed to the deaths of 120 people in El Paso County in 2016. The organization’s CEO, Aimee Cox, told The Gazette that more than 30 million opioid pills were dispensed in El Paso County in 2016, equaling 767 prescriptions per 1,000 residents. With that came increased first responder, emergency room and substance abuse treatment costs, she said.

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman is working as part of a bipartisan coalition of dozens of other state attorneys general to investigate pharmaceutical companies’ role in the epidemic. In September, the coalition served investigative subpoenas to several companies, asking for information about their business practices, Coffman’s office said in a press release. State attorneys general, including those in hard-hit Ohio and Kentucky, have filed lawsuits against drug manufacturers and distributors, according to media reports.

Janssen Pharmaceuticals spokeswoman Jessica Castles Smith called the allegations “baseless and unsubstantiated” in a statement.

“Our actions in the marketing and promotion of these medicines were appropriate and responsible,” she said, adding that the labels on the company’s opioid pain medicines include information about risks and benefits.

Nationwide, more than 400 governments – represented by different legal teams – have filed complaints similar to Huerfano County’s lawsuit in federal courts. Through a process known as multidistrict litigation, those lawsuits are being consolidated and transferred to a U.S. District Court in Cleveland, where a single judge will preside over them all, Ochs said.

The Healthcare Distribution Alliance, a national trade association representing wholesale distributors including McKesson, denies the companies aggravated the crisis.

“Given our role, the idea that distributors are responsible for the number of opioid prescriptions written defies common sense and lacks understanding of how the pharmaceutical supply chain actually works and is regulated,” the association’s senior vice president, John Parker, said in a statement. “Those bringing lawsuits would be better served addressing the root causes, rather than trying to redirect blame through litigation.”

Distributors report all opioid orders to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which sets annual production rates for controlled substances and regulates the entities that handle and prescribe the drugs, according to the association.

Ochs estimates that the crisis is costing El Paso County “millions of dollars a year.”

Governments commonly spend money to meet a variety of citizen needs related to the opioid crisis, including housing inmates who are crowding local jails, providing guardian services to children whose parents suffer from addiction and equipping first responders with life-saving opioid antidotes for those overdosing on the drugs.

Those prescribed the drugs initially for pain management can become addicted and, when their prescriptions run out or they can no longer afford to buy drugs like OxyContin on the streets, they often resort to using heroin, Ochs said.

“What has happened is these pharmacy companies make a tremendous … profit on the addiction of the citizens of our community. The only way to stop this is to hold them accountable financially,” said Colorado Springs attorney Pat Mika, who’s working with Ochs to represent local governments in the opioid cases. “Our goal is to do everything we can to hit them where they feel it so that we will stop the advertisements, we will stop the unfettered distribution of these drugs, and that they will change their practices.”

Ochs said that, for jurisdictions represented by his team, there are no risks. Those governments won’t have to pay them unless there’s a verdict or judgment in the plaintiff’s favor. And, if the judge sides with the pharmaceutical companies, the attorneys will cover any resulting costs or expenses for their clients, Ochs said.

While there’s no deadline for the county to file it’s complaint, Ochs and Mika said the sooner the county files, the better its chances are to recover some of its losses. “There is no downside. All there is an upside. If we win, they win. If we lose, they don’t have to pay any of the costs associated with this,” Mika said. “We don’t want El Paso County – or any other county that we have spoken with – to be left behind.”

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Contact Rachel Riley: 636-0108