$84.1 Million for 125 Massachusetts Municipalities in National Opioid Litigation

In late 2017, Greenfield became the first Massachusetts municipality to sue opioid manufacturers and distributors for the costs the crisis had imposed on local government. Attorney Peter Merrigan of Sweeney Merrigan Personal Injury Lawyers took on Greenfield's case and began building a broader coalition. Over the next several years, the firm's client roster grew to 125 cities and towns across the state.

The harm that drove those cases was measured in emergency calls, police overtime, Narcan purchases, and funeral arrangements. Communities of all sizes had absorbed costs that their budgets never anticipated as prescription opioids flooded the region. Federal law had long required distributors to monitor and report suspicious orders of controlled substances to the Drug Enforcement Administration under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. The lawsuits alleged that Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen had failed to make those reports, allowing pill volumes to climb without the required oversight. Merrigan explained publicly that any month showing a substantial uptick in opioid orders should have triggered a report, and that none came.

The claims against Johnson and Johnson took a different track. Municipalities alleged the company had engaged in false and deceptive marketing, misrepresenting the addictive risks of opioid products while pushing them aggressively through the medical system. The 125 communities Merrigan represented joined a national litigation coordinated across thousands of local-government cases filed against the same defendants.

In January 2022, Merrigan filed a second action, this time on behalf of 124 Massachusetts municipalities against the consulting firm McKinsey and Company. The complaint alleged McKinsey had helped opioid manufacturers design marketing strategies that accelerated the crisis at the community level despite knowing the harms involved. That case proceeded on a separate track from the distributor and manufacturer litigation.

The core litigation resolved through a $26 billion national settlement. Massachusetts received $526 million from that agreement. Under the distribution structure, 40 percent of the funds went to cities and towns and 60 percent to a state abatement trust fund. The 125 municipalities represented by Sweeney Merrigan recovered $84.1 million in aggregate. Payments began in spring and summer 2022, spread across an 18-year payout schedule for the distributors' share and a 9-year schedule for Johnson and Johnson's portion. Designated uses include harm reduction supplies, treatment access, recovery housing, and outreach to people with active addiction.