NWCDN Members regularly post articles and summary judgements in workers’ compensations law in your state.
Select a state from the dropdown menu below to scroll through the state specific archives for updates and opinions on various workers’ compensation laws in your state.
Contact information for NWCDN members is also located on the state specific links in the event you have additional questions or your company is seeking a workers’ compensation lawyer in your state.
It is no secret that opioid addiction is a major problem in this county. In 2017, President Trump declared the opioid crisis a national emergency, and states have started fighting back. The Oklahoma attorney general recently announced a $270 million settlement the state reached with Purdue Pharma, the largest manufacturer of prescription opioids. Nevada, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Tennessee also filed suit against Purdue Pharma alleging violations of state consumer protection laws by falsely denying or downplaying the addiction risk while overstating the benefits of opioids. Several municipal and county governments in New York are also pursuing litigation against leading opioid manufacturers, including Purdue Pharma, to recover the medical, public health, and law enforcement costs related to opioid abuse.
It seems doctors have heeded the public outcry, as opioid prescriptions are down. A study done by the California Workers’ Compensation Institute found that previously, nearly 33% of medications prescribed in its system were opioids. Now, opioids account for about 18% of the medications.
The fact that opioid prescriptions are down does not mean we are out of the woods. Efforts to curb unnecessary opioids should not result in simply replacing those drugs with others that may carry their own risks. The drug group that now accounts for a growing share of workers’ compensation prescriptions has its own set of risks, side effects, and potentially dangerous drug interactions. Benzodiazepines, for example, are highly addictive and have been implicated in overdose deaths. Originally prescribed as tranquilizers, they are found in multiple therapeutic drug groups, such as anticonvulsants and NSAIDs. Recent research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that prescriptions for these drugs for conditions such as back pain, chronic pain, anxiety, and insomnia are increasingly common.