SB273 HFA Hornbuckle Fluharty Pushkin and Byrd 3-6

Delegates Hornbuckle, Fluharty, Pushkin and Byrd move to amend the bill on page twenty-eight, after section nine, by inserting a new section, designated section ten, to read as follows:

Ҥ16-54-10. Opioid epidemic accountability; establishing a crime against the state, its people and humanity.

(a) Effective January 1, 2019, every opioid manufacturer or wholesaler distributing opioids in this state who has previously or is currently selling opioids in this state shall report to the office the total amount of dosages it has distributed to each pharmacy in this state from the first day of January 2007 until the last day of December 2017.  Once the office has collected a complete count of the number of opioids in the state sold during the 10-year time period, it shall then calculate the percentage of the total attributable to each entity. Once that percentage is established, for purposes of this section, it shall be deemed the entity’s Opioid Crisis Participation Percentage.

(b) The office shall take all reasonable measures to confirm that the disclosure required by this section is accurate. In the event that the disclosure is inaccurate, the office may institute a civil action in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County and, if proven by a preponderance of the evidence that the disclosure was inaccurate, the entity shall pay a civil penalty in an amount equal to $100.00 for every opioid dosage that was not accurately disclosed.

 (c) Because of the loss of life that and addiction of thousands of West Virginia’s that occurred because of distribution of opioids in this state during the ten-year time period has cost the state thousands of lives through death and addiction, and billions of dollars in health, criminal justice and societal costs, the Legislature finds that this horrible event occurred because of the grossly negligent acts of certain opioid manufacturers and wholesalers who distributed hundreds of millions of these pills in this state in that ten-year period, that every opioid pharmaceutical manufacturer or wholesaler that with careless disregard of the safety and proportionality of its distribution of opioids in this state, during the ten-year period beginning January 1, 2007, and ending December 31, 2017, is guilty of gross negligence, and if found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction of such gross negligence, is guilty of a crime against our state, its people and humanity,  and upon conviction thereof, is required to register with the Office and is subject civil penalty and shall be fined no less than $1 million and no more than $100 million.

(d) Notwithstanding any other code provision to the contrary, all assessments and civil penalties collected under the provisions of this section shall be deposited in the Ryan Brown Addiction Prevention and Recovery Fund, created in §16-53-2 of this code, and the funds shall be used in the manner required by that section.

(e) The provisions of this section shall have no force or effect on and after January 1, 2039”