Speech and Testimony
County Executive Leggett’s Remarks at the Opioid Press Conference
Executive Office Building, 101 Monroe Street, CE’s Conference Room, Rockville
As prepared
Good morning.
On December 12th, I announced that the County would be investigating the culpability of opioid producers and distributors and move to take legal action for reimbursement to the County for taxpayer resources that have been, are, and will be used to respond to the crisis.
I talked about the very real damage the Opioid crisis in wreaking on individuals and communities throughout our great nation and how it affects Montgomery County.
Ask the first-responders in our Fire & Rescue Service and in our Police. Ask our front-line personnel in Health & Human Services.
The response will be the same: Death. Addiction. Broken families. Broken lives.
It is critical that we hold responsible those whose corporate actions have contributed to this crisis – both for what has happened in the past, what is happening in the present, and what we must stop from happening in the future.
I am announcing that, today, Montgomery County is filing suit in this case against a number of companies.
Before I ask our outside counsel, from the firm of Robbins Geller Rudman & David LLP, to share the details with you, I would like to invite Helen Najar who lost her 28-year-old daughter, Kelly O’Connor, to a heroin/fentanyl overdose in June 2016.
She had been addicted to opiates and moved on to heroin. She is a member of SOUL (Surviving Our Ultimate Loss), a grief support group of mostly mothers who have lost a child to overdose.
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Release ID: 18-004
Wednesday, February 7; 10:30 a.m.