Lawsuits filed Monday on behalf of the Avoyelles and Rapides sheriffs are among the first in Louisiana against pharmaceutical companies that attorneys say bear blame for an opioid crisis that public entities are ill equipped to handle.

The Lafayette law firm Laborde Earles filed the 73-page lawsuits Monday morning in district courts. Both name companies and individuals and include a host of allegations, including that the defendants “knew that, barring exceptional circumstances, opioids are too addictive and too debilitating for long-term use for chronic non-cancer pain lasting three months or longer.”

Read more at The TownTalk