This law was passed by the Michigan legislature in 1995. It was corrupt then, but, when cronies are important legislation passes anyway even without sound reasons.
State legislatures pass these erroneous laws all the time. They do it to attract businesses and are usually considered giveaways at the time companies are courted to hopefully bring jobs to the area.
This 1995 law is just a giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry for whatever reason was deemed important. Today, Michigan now stands alone and cannot carry out the will of the people to end the abuse of drug company sales which facilitates abuse. The responsibility to the American people have now fallen to law enforcement which carries Narcan in their cars or on their person. That is a burden to a society that is a direct result of massive sales of pain medications.
The current Michigan legislature needs to realize its folly and pass new laws that will protect the people, law enforcement and ultimately relieve the costs of saving lives and treating people in rehab. The sooner this is addressed the better and the current lawsuits have to be incorporated as "having good standing" with the new legislation.
June 14, 2018
By Karen Bouffard
A one-of-a-kind law (click here) is likely to prevent Michigan communities and the state from winning lawsuits to reclaim the millions of dollars they've spent fighting the opioid epidemic, legal experts say.
The 1995 Michigan Product Liability Act grants pharmaceutical companies nearly absolute immunity from lawsuits filed by consumers and has kept the state of Michigan from suing over dangerous or deadly drugs. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette was then a state senator who co-sponsored the bill, but now says he is open to reconsidering the law.
At least 50 Michigan communities — from Detroit, Saginaw and Lansing to Grand Traverse County and Escanaba — have filed lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, arguing in part that the companies aggressively promoted their products by falsely claiming the drugs aren't addictive.
Nationally, about 700 state and local governments have filed similar lawsuits, and the cases have been consolidated into multi-district litigation to expedite their consideration this fall by Judge Dan Aaron Polster in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in Cleveland. ...
