Youngstown joins civil suit against pharmaceutical companies

YOUNGSTOWN — The city today joined a lawsuit filed against pharmaceutical companies connected to the opioid crisis.

In a prepared statement, Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said: “The distribution and diversion of opioids into Youngstown by the pharmaceutical industry, the lawsuit contends, caused and continues to cause the loss of life in Youngstown with the attendant financial burden including costs associated with law enforcement and public safety.”

The city is also seeking unspecified punitive damages alleging the defendants, Brown said, “acted with actual malice, wantonly and oppressively in their quest to sell dangerous drugs to Youngstown residents.

The city contends the pharmaceutical defendants "acted with a conscious disregard for rights and safety of its citizens in a manner that had great probability of causing substantial harm.”