Nova Scotia joins national lawsuit against opioid manufacturers

Nova Scotia is joining a national lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies that produce opioids.

Health Minister Michelle Thompson introduced legislation Thursday to bringthe Opioid Damages and Health-care Costs Recovery Actinto line with similar actsin other provinces.

British Columbia, which has been struggling for years with a major opioid epidemic, is leading the legal fight. A certification hearing is scheduled to begin at the end of next month in a B.C. court, in an effort to turn the lawsuit into a class action.

"We know that there are hundreds of Nova Scotians who are living with addictions, and the ways in which opioids were marketed, really, were not appropriate," Thompsonsaid.

"As a result of that, harm was done.So do I have a number or figure?No.But I think many of us know that opioids have caused harm and death in our province and across Canada.And so that's why we're joining this suit."

According to Thompson's department, 63 Nova Scotians died from opioid overdoses last year.

The province is distributing free naloxone kits to try to prevent fatal overdoses. So far, 32,365 kits have been distributed.

Agnes MacNeil,the Justice Department lawyer spearheading Nova Scotia's efforts in thelegal fight,said it's too soon to say how much money Nova Scotia would be looking for, if the lawsuit is successful.

"There's a lot of cost estimates being prepared," MacNeil said outside the legislature.

"The largest provinces with the biggest problems are generally Ontario and B.C. are at the top. So they have done a lot of work in terms of estimating the cost related to the opioid epidemic and we're using that as a base to create estimates for the proportionally to the other provinces."

Last year, the lawsuit, which was filed in 2018,achieved a partial victory with a tentative settlement with Purdue Pharma, the maker of the addictive opioid OxyContin. However, the legal action continues against other drug-makers and distributors.

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