Among the many items on the agenda for Monday’s meeting of the Carter County Commission is a presentation by a regional law firm on a potential lawsuit against distributors of opioid medication.

During the June Commission meeting, the commissioners heard from attorney Crystal Jessee, who along with her husband attorney Tom Jessee is working with counties to pursue litigation against companies who distribute opioid pain medication as a way to help combat the opioid epidemic plaguing the state.

During last month’s presentation, Crystal Jessee told the commissioners that the lawsuit proposed by her and her husband is vastly different than the lawsuit recently filed by three local District Attorneys General against the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the pain medications.

“We don’t want Pharma. We want the distributors,” Jessee said.

Jessee told the commissioners that under the Federal Controlled Substances Act prescription medication distributors are required to track and report drug prescription rates. Distribution companies have failed to follow that federal law when it comes to those reporting requirements, Jessee said.

“There are 14 distributors nationwide,” Jessee said. “We are going after the big three.”

According to reports from the Associated Press, the federal government has already been involved in penalizing distributors for failing to properly report suspicious levels of prescriptions being written for opioids.

In January, McKesson Corp., the largest pharmaceutical distributor in the U.S., agreed to pay a $150 Million fine to the federal government. In December 2016, Cardinal Health reached a $44 Million settlement with the federal government regarding reporting issues. In January, Cardinal Health agreed to a $20 Million settlement with the state of West Virginia in a lawsuit against the distributor by the state related to the opioid epidemic there.

Jessee said the lawsuit she is proposing would follow the pattern of the successful lawsuit brought by West Virginia, which was brought as a public nuisance claim.

Following her presentation last month, the Commission went into a closed session with County Attorney Joshua Hardin to get his guidance on the proposed lawsuit.

When the Commission returned to open session, they voted 22-2 to postpone debate on the matter until the July meeting to allow Hardin time to research the issue in more detail.

The Carter County Commission will meet on Monday, July 17, at 6 p.m., in the courtroom located on the second floor of the Carter County Courthouse.