Opioid Distributors Say City of Chicago’s Lawsuit Undermines Lawmakers’ Efforts to Regulate Drugs

CLEVELAND — Drug distributors named as defendants in the federal opioid multidistrict litigation have moved to dismiss the City of Chicago’s lawsuit, arguing that it is the legislature’s job to regulate prescription opioids, and allowing cities to do so via the judicial system would undermine those efforts.

In their June 8 motion to dismiss filed before Judge Dan A. Polster of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp., Cardinal Health Inc., and McKesson Corp. further argue that the City has failed to show proximate causation because the misuse or diversion of opioids after they …