The Opioid Reckoning (Part 1): Paul Farrell Jr.

About this episode

Paul Farrell Jr. discusses the opioid crisis in West Virginia and the largest civil litigation in American history.

The Opioid Reckoning (Part 1): Paul Farrell Jr. on Litigation, Accountability, and the System That Failed West Virginia has had the highest drug overdose death rate in the United States for over a decade. In a state with fewer than 2 million people, 780 million prescription opioids were distributed in just six years. For Paul Farrell Jr., a Huntington, West Virginia native and mass tort attorney, those numbers weren’t abstract statistics. They were neighbors. Friends. Family members. In Part 1 of this two-part episode, hosts Na-Ri Oh and Ian Wendt sit down with Paul to unpack how the largest civil litigation in American history — the opioid multidistrict litigation (MDL 2804) — came together, and how it reshaped the conversation around corporate accountability in the pharmaceutical supply chain. This is not just a legal story. It’s a story about systems failure — across manufacturers, distributors, regulators, policymakers, and healthcare stakeholders — and what happens when transparency finally forces a reckoning. In This Episode Growing up in Huntington, WV as the opioid crisis escalated The investigative journalism that exposed 780 million pills — and the moment Paul decided…

People in this episode

Hosts: Na-Ri Oh, Ian Wendt

Guest: Paul Farrell Jr.

Topics covered

• opioid crisis
• litigation
• corporate accountability
• public nuisance law
• healthcare stakeholders
• systems failure

Keywords

• opioid crisis
• litigation
• West Virginia
• public nuisance
• MDL 2804
• corporate accountability
• drug overdose

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: pharmaceutical supply chain

Places: West Virginia, Huntington, West Virginia

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