MADISON COUNTY, Ky. — More and more communities affected by the nation’s barreling opioid epidemic are focusing on accountability and are taking their concerns straight to the source — the opioid distributors.

In Kentucky, the Madison County Fiscal Court this week joined the fiscal courts of 18 other Kentucky counties in filing separate lawsuits against the nation’s top three distributors of opioid drugs, claiming the distributors have created a public nuisance and are guilty of negligence in failing to properly handle suspicious orders of controlled substances.

The Kentucky counties join more than 20 states, cities and counties that have, in recent years, filed similar civil suits against opioid distributors, manufacturers and drugstore chains believed to be responsible for the growth of possibly the worst drug problem the nation has faced to date.

Madison County’s suit, filed Tuesday in federal court, claims the distributors have unlawfully sold millions of prescription opioids in the county, which resulted in the drugs entering the illicit market.

AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, Cardinal Health, Inc., and McKesson Corporation are named as defendants in the suit; the three companies control about 85 percent of the market nationally for prescription opioid distribution, according to the suit.

The suit states that federal law created in 1970 imposes duties on wholesale distributors of controlled substances to monitor, identify, halt and report suspicious orders, which include orders of an unusual size, orders of unusual frequency or orders deviating substantially from a normal pattern. All three of the named defendants have been investigated or fined by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency for failure to report suspicious orders, the lawsuit states.

Earlier this year, two West Virginia counties filed a similar suit, as the state has been especially hard-hit by the epidemic, according to the Washington Post.

Madison County Judge/Executive Reagan Taylor said he believes the distributors should be held accountable.

“This didn’t happen overnight,” Taylor said. “People not being responsible for what they are supposed to be responsible for has played a role in this.”

Madison County has been deluged with opioids.

Between 2013 and the middle of 2017, more than 22.7 million doses of prescription opioids were dispersed in Madison County, according to the suit.

According to Madison County Coroner Jimmy Cornelison, there were 24 confirmed drug-related deaths in 2017 through mid-June. Of those 24, 10 were heroin/fentanyl-related.

Last year, Kentucky had 1,404 overdose deaths, according to the state’s 2016 Overdose Fatality Report.

The Madison County Fiscal Court voted in August to look into filing suit against the distributors, shortly after a summit held by the Kentucky Association of Counties at which officials with the association educated county judges on legal options available to them in the fight against opioids.

Since that summit, several other Kentucky counties have filed suit against the three distributors. Those filing last week include Bell, Boyle, Fleming, Pendleton, Shelby, Lincoln, Henry, Nicholas, Pendleton, Garrard, Harlan, Knox, Union, Boone, Anderson, Leslie, Carlisle and Whitley counties. The Louisville Jefferson County Metro Government filed suit in August.

Madison County’s suit seeks damages necessary to recoup the costs incurred by the county as a result of the nuisance, and damages “necessary to eliminate the hazard to public health and safety” and for abatement, and a monetary award.

Taylor said the influx of opioids in the county has been detrimental.

“This drug epidemic has cost us a whole lot,” Taylor said. “It’s cost us lives; it’s cost us financially.”

McKinney writes for the Richmond, Kentucky Register.