TAHLEQUAH, Okla. -- Opioid use among the Cherokee Nation has become so prevalent that 70 percent of the Cherokee foster children in Oklahoma have had to be placed in the homes of non-Indians.
"We are losing a generation of our continuity," said Todd Hembree, attorney general of the Cherokee Nation and a descendant of a revered 19th-century chief. He said that at weekly staff meetings, he keeps hearing about babies in opioid withdrawal and youngsters with addicted parents, all being removed from families.
That fear of losing the tribe's heritage is driving an unusual legal battle. Like authorities in dozens of cities, counties and states, including New Jersey, Ohio and Oklahoma itself, Hembree has sued big opioid distributors. Attorneys general from 41 states recently joined forces to investigate similar options.
But instead of going to state court, Hembree filed his case in the Cherokee Nation's tribal court.
The Cherokee suit argues that pharmacy chains Wal-Mart, Walgreens and CVS Health, as well as giant drug distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen, flouted federal drug-monitoring laws and allowed prescription opioids to pour into the Cherokee territory at some of the highest rates in the country. Such neglect, Hembree claims, amounts to exploitation of a people.
The companies have responded by asking a federal judge to deny the tribe's authority to bring the case. They argue that a tribe cannot sue them in tribal court, much less enforce federal drug laws. They have questioned whether a Cherokee reservation even legally exists.
"We believe this lawsuit has no merit," a CVS spokesman said.
Both sides have mobilized battalions of prominent lawyers.
But Hembree argues that over a five-year period, drug distributors ignored red flags and allowed alarming quantities of prescription opioids -- in 2015 and in 2016, 184 million pain pills -- to pour into the region.
A ruling is expected soon and, regardless of the outcome, will almost certainly be appealed.
"They know Native Americans have higher rates of addiction," Hembree said.
A Section on 12/17/2017