FILE - This Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017 file photo shows an arrangement of pills of the opioid oxycodone-acetaminophen, also known as Percocet, in New York. Cities and counties of all sizes have sued companies that make and distribute prescription opioids. Among the plaintiffs so far: Philadelphia; the state of Ohio; Princeton, West Virginia; the Cherokee Nation; and a consortium of counties across Wisconsin. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison)
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND (AP) - Ohio's attorney general says he's encouraged by the start of talks to pursue a settlement with pharmaceutical companies and distributors facing more than 250 federal lawsuits over the nation's opioid epidemic.
Attorneys general from six states, representatives from other states and dozens of attorneys from both sides gathered Wednesday in U.S. District Judge Dan Polster's courtroom in Cleveland to make presentations and answer the judge's questions.
Polster has been assigned to broker a national settlement. He closed his courtroom to the public and media Wednesday.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, asked by Polster to speak on behalf of states that have sued the industry in state court, says Polster is "dead serious" about a reaching a resolution.
Around 42,000 people in the U.S. died from opioid-related overdoses in 2016.
FILE - This Jan. 11, 2018 file photo shows judge Dan Polster in his office in Cleveland. Polster has called the opioid addiction epidemic â100 percent man-madeâ and asserted that other branches of government have âpuntedâ on solving it. Polster has made clear that he wants to use the cases before him as a way to forge a solution to the opioid crisis _ not just a legal resolution. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, file)
The Associated Press
FILE - In this Nov. 8, 2017 file photo, Steph Gaspar, a volunteer outreach worker with The Hand Up Project, an addiction and homeless advocacy group, cleans up needles used for drug injection that were found at a homeless encampment in Everett, Wash. The U.S. Centers of Diseases Control and Prevention says 42,000 people died of overdoses in 2016 from opioids, a class of drug that includes powerful prescription painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin; illegal heroin; and fentanyl, a strong synthetic drug sold both through prescriptions and on the street. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
The Associated Press