Memphis may sue Big Pharma over opioid crisis

The Memphis City Council could vote in October to push the city to sue some of the nation's biggest pharmaceutical companies in an effort to recoup opioid-related costs.

Council member Edmund Ford Jr. plans to draft and present a resolution to a council committee Oct. 3. in support of a lawsuit, he told colleagues Tuesday. Tennessee and Shelby County are also looking to join a growing number of municipalities and states suing the companies for their contributions to the nation's opioid crisis. Opioids, including painkillers, are drugs affecting the brain's pain and pleasure sensors.

More:Tennessee overdose deaths jump 12% in 2016, as opioid crisis rages

The crisis is thought to have cost Memphis and Shelby County sizeable amounts, although those numbers are still being calculated, according to the local attorneys Thomas Greer of Bailey & Greer and Michael Working of Working Law Firm. Ford, who teaches along with Working's wife at Central High School, invited the attorneys to make a presentation to the council about the crisis and the ongoing legal fallout.

More:Tennessee, other states hit opioid makers, distributors with subpoenas

Reach Ryan Poe at poe@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter at @ryanpoe.