The state's highest prosecutor filed a lawsuit Thursday against the owners and founders of Purdue Pharma, makers of OxyContin.

And at least one local drug addiction advocate applauds the move.

“It's about time that someone faces consequences,” said Jason Beckwith, a certified recovery specialist from Butler who has been open about his own past struggle with addiction.

OxyContin is a strong prescription pain medicine that contains an opioid and is used to manage severe pain.

'Flooded the market'

“They knew what they were doing. They flooded the market with these heavy drugs. They're definitely responsible to a certain extent,” Beckwith said.

The lawsuit filed by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro is the second in connection with the state's opioid epidemic.

The most recent suit alleges certain members of the Sackler family — owners and founders of Purdue Pharma — are liable for the damage created by the “devastation of the opioid crisis” crippling communities across America and here in Western Pennsylvania.

A May lawsuit filed by Shapiro against Purdue Pharma made similar accusations of illegal efforts to sell the drug. He called the new lawsuit a direct result of the original one.

His effort joins a growing number of similar lawsuits filed by nearly every state, as well as cities, counties, Native American tribes and others.

Shapiro honed in on the Sackler family in his latest suit.

The suit against the Sacklers was filed under seal, preventing additional details from being revealed.

Planned bankruptcy

The announcement comes a day after The Wall Street Journal reported Purdue Pharma secured support from 23 states and thousands of local governments for a multibillion-dollar deal that could enable the drugmaker to resolve much of the opioid litigation it faces through a planned bankruptcy restructuring.

“The Sackler family seems to be concerned with only one thing — keeping their hands on the ill-gotten gains they made while pumping our commonwealth full of OxyContin,” Shapiro said in a news release issued Thursday.

He further contended family members did not appear to take responsibility during negotiations for their role in the company's operating model or the opioid epidemic that followed. He said that opioids claim the lives of 12 Pennsylvanians daily.

Shapiro rejected the planned settlement announced in The Wall Street Journal, calling it “a slap in the face to everyone who has had to bury a loved one due to this family's destruction and greed. It allows the Sackler family to walk away billionaires and admit no wrongdoing.”

A battle with addiction

Beckwith couldn't agree more. He said his battles against addiction and opioids started in 1999 after a doctor prescribed him OxyContin for an injury.

“You believe someone when they went to school for eight to 10 years,” Beckwith said. “They just kept giving me refills. I had prescriptions for three years, and I kept taking it because it mitigated the psychological pain I was experiencing.”

Shapiro's May lawsuit targeted only the drugmaker, alleging Purdue Pharma's sales force completed 531,000 visits to doctors' offices and pharmacies throughout Pennsylvania, pushing OxyContin to doctors who overprescribed and even illegally prescribed the addictive opioid.

Marketing campaign

The suit also noted a marketing campaign in the state that pushed doctors to ignore early signs of addicted patients and write more prescriptions.

Beckwith shared similar sentiments. He said his doctor at the time assured him the drug was non-habit forming, and for three years Beckwith said he consumed a steady supply of legally prescribed OxyContin.

“I kept taking it. It was a bonus. I could take them and life wasn't so dark, even though my life was getting darker because of the opioids,” Beckwith said. “I didn't realize that at the time. I thought they were just giving me a release.”

The leap to heroin

Over time, Beckwith became addicted and made the “leap” to heroin in just three years.

“The leap from (OxyContin) to heroin became a lot closer,” Beckwith said. “That's a really short bridge. If you told me in 1999 to try some heroin, I would've said 'you're out of your mind.' But three years of Oxy shortened that bridge.”

Shapiro argued in his original suit that Purdue Pharma violated the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, demanding a state court issue an order preventing Purdue and any of its affiliates to engage in the same deceptive tactics.

The earlier lawsuit further requests that Purdue Pharma be forced to forfeit all profits and reimburse the state all costs associated with its investigation and prosecution of the lawsuit.

Seeks civil penalties

Moreover, the lawsuit seeks the court to order Purdue to pay civil penalties in the amount of $1,000 for each and every violation of Consumer Protection Law. This amount will increase to $3000 for each violation involving a victim age 60 or older.

In the most recent suit, the attorney general's office didn't elaborate on what the suit against the Sackler family is demanding.

As an addict counselor, Beckwith deals with the aftermath of addiction every day. In attacking “big pharma” he stressed the importance in not blaming other people for one's addiction.

“I take responsibility for my addiction,” Beckwith said. “I'm not blaming them for me but they played a role in all of it.”

Beckwith hopes that the lawsuits will create accountability for “big pharma” and let other companies know that this kind of behavior will not be accepted. Drug dealers are regularly sentenced in Butler's Court of Common Pleas and Beckwith said that the makers of OxyContin are the same.

“It's important to hold 'big pharma' accountable for pumping poison into our community,” Beckwith said. “They were a drug dealer for millions of Americans.”