HARRISBURG, PA — Democratic Rep. Thomas Caltagirone has introduced a resolution that urges the governor and attorney general to initiate a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies responsible for causing the opioid epidemic.

Caltagirone said the aim of his bill is to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable, close the floodgates of new addicts coming into the prison and health care systems and recover the costs of addiction treatment.

“Despite being aware that prolonged use of opioids can lead to addiction, certain pharmaceutical companies chose to put profits before patients,” Caltagirone said. “Marketing efforts by these companies—and not any medical breakthrough—rationalized prescribing opioids for chronic pain and reversed the medical community’s understanding of the dangers of widespread opioid use.

“Some companies’ sales pitches included claims that the risk of addiction was less than 1%, despite several studies to the contrary from as early as 1992. These tactics were effective,” he said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, U.S. sales of prescription opioids quadrupled between 1999 and 2014, even as the resulting prescription-related opioid deaths followed the same trend.