Was It 'Reasonable' To Ship 81 Million Opioid Pills To This Small West Virginia City?

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/30/ [login to see] /was-it-reasonable-to-ship-81-million-opioid-pills-to-this-small-west-virginia-ci
The outcome of a landmark federal opioid trial in West Virginia that reached closing arguments this week rests on two legally thorny questions.

Was it "unreasonable" for three of America's biggest corporations — the drug wholesalers AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson — to ship roughly 81 million highly addictive opioid pills to pharmacies in one small Rust Belt city on the Ohio River?

If that was a reckless thing to do, does the addiction crisis in Huntington and surrounding Cabell County, W.Va., amount to a "public nuisance" that the companies must help remedy?

The answers to those questions will now be decided by U.S. District Judge David Faber in Charleston, W.Va.

His ruling, not expected for at least a month, could set legal precedents that shape corporate accountability for the opioid epidemic raging in thousands of communities across the United States.