Grande Prairie Looking to Join Opioid Class Action Lawsuit

The Alberta city of Grande Prairie says that it will join an opioid class action lawsuit looking to take drug manufacturers to court for oversaturating communities with addictive painkillers.

This week, Grande Prairie’s City Committee issued a recommendation favoring the City’s participation in the opioid class action lawsuit. The proposed class action lawsuit is being filed by the Guardian Law Group and Grande Prairie would be the lead plaintiff representing municipalities throughout Canada.

The opioid class action lawsuit alleges that drug makers falsely claimed that the narcotic pain killers were safe and not addictive, when in reality, studies on the long-term effects of opioids revealed severe dangers. The complaint accuses opioid makers of duping doctors and patients into thinking the drugs would be safe and effective. In addition, the drug makers allegedly failed to promulgate adequate safeguards that would have helped mitigate the risks of addiction to the drugs.

Further, as issues of addiction and abuse became more well-known, drug makers allegedly turned a blind eye to excessively large orders, leading to communities like Grande Prairie to be saturated with the addictive prescription medication.

The proposed opioid class action lawsuit will name approximately 40 drug manufacturers as defendants. The complaint contends that these companies helped create the opioid epidemic that continues to rage in the country through false marketing and outright fraud.

Grande Prairie Mayor Bill Given told local news source, Everything GP, that joining the opioid lawsuit will set a good precedent.

“I think there’s a recognition across North America that the manufacturers of opioids took deliberate actions that led to these negative consequences out in communities. We’ve seen in the United States, many communities successfully pursue similar cases, and here in Canada, the Province of British Columbia launched a similar action in 2018 (and) last fall the Province of Alberta announced that they would be joining that class action lawsuit,” he told reporters. “Those are positive and appropriate steps, but they do not recognize the harm caused to municipalities and on municipal taxpayers in having to respond, and that’s where this action will fill that gap.”

Mayor Given also said the opioid class action lawsuit is a way that Grande Prairie can start to recuperate costs of dealing with the opioid epidemic, including increased policing, medical, and community services.

“This would allow us to number one; recoup the costs of taxpayers where we’ve been involved in dividing additional supports over the last number of years, and potentially, use any recovered costs to be able to help make improvements in the community to address this issue which continues on to this day.”

Indeed, Grande Prairie was hit hard by the opioid epidemic, according to Everything GP. The city was home to the highest rate of opioid caused deaths linked to the substance fentanyl in Alberta in 2019. In 2019, the province of Alberta suffered 431 deaths due to opioid overdose, 24 in the Grande Prairie region. These deaths set Grande Prairie’s death rate at nearly double the death rate of the next closest urban centre, Lethbridge. Lethbridge suffered a death rate due to opioid overdose at 16.3 per 100,000 people, while Grande Prairie’s reached 32.2 per 100,000.

The opioid class action lawsuit aims to reduce opioid-related deaths due to overdoses and other damage caused by widespread addiction to the substances.

Purdue Pharma, one of the leading markets of the popular opioid painkiller Oxycontin, has reportedly filed for bankruptcy in Canada. Mathew Farrell, one of the lawyers representing Grande Prairie in the proposed opioid class action lawsuit, told the Daily Herald Tribune that the complaint will give municipalities the opportunity to get a share of Purdue’s assets as they are divided during the bankruptcy process.

A number of lawsuits have been filed against opioid makers accusing them of fueling and profiting from the drug epidemic that has plagued Canadian communities for years. In 2018, the Province of British Columbia, later joined by the Province of Alberta in 2019, launched a similar opioid class action lawsuit. According to Grande Prairie’s mayor, this new opioid class action lawsuit will help cover the costs paid by municipalities related to addiction and substance abuse due to opioid addiction.

Have you or a loved one been affected by the opioid epidemic in Grande Prairie or another municipality? Tell us your story in the comment section below!

Grande Prairie and the proposed Class Members are represented by Mathew Farrell of the Guardian Law Group.

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