Texas, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nevada and Pittsburgh [complaints, PDF] filed lawsuits on Tuesday against Purdue Pharma LP [corporate website] and other opioid painkiller makers, alleging the companies contributed to the current opioid crisis by misrepresenting the risks of their drugs.

Attorneys General of the states allege that Purdue deceptively marketed its drug to profit, thereby violating state deceptive trade laws by falsely denying or minimizing the risk of addiction.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accuses [press release] Purdue of violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by misrepresenting the high likelihood of their drugs leading to addiction. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi accuses [press release] Purdue, and other manufacturers and distributors whom she filed suit against, of “profiting from the pain and suffering of Floridians” through a “campaign of misrepresentations and omissions.” Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery alleges [press release] Purdue violated a settlement from 2007 and Purdue knew that drugs were illegally being sold to patients and that patients were dying from overdoses. The other Attorney Generals are proposing similar allegations.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control, more than 63,600 people died of drug overdose [JURIST op-ed] in the USin 2016—an average of 174 deaths per day. In 2016, more than 42,000 overdose deaths, or 72 percent, were related to opioids, which includes prescription painkillers such as Vicodin, Lortab, Percocet and OxyContin, as well as illicit drugs such as heroin and fentanyl. In October President Donald Trump formally declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency.

These states join a long list of other states and counties suing [JURIST news archive] opioid painkiller makers and distributors. Also on Tuesday Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, and a permanent injunction against eight pharmaceutical companies for the resulting crisis from deceptive marketing practices; thereby joining the list.