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RESOLUTION <br />DECLARING THERE TO BE AN OPIOID CRISIS IN CABARRUS COUNTY <br />and <br />DECLARING THE CAUSES OF THE CRISIS TO BE A PUBLIC NUISANCE <br />WHEREAS, the Cabanus County Board of Commissioners ('Board") has the statutory <br />authority pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. §153A-121 to take actions necessary <br />to protect the public health, safety and welfare of the citizens and residents <br />of Cabarrus County; and <br />WHEREAS, the Board has been made aware of the existence of a significant number of <br />cases involving opioid abuse, addiction, morbidity and mortality in the <br />County; and <br />WHEREAS, the Board has also been made aware of the impacts of opioid abuse, <br />addiction, morbidity and mortality on the citizens and residents of the <br />County and of the impacts on services provided by the County to its citizens <br />and residents, including but not limited to human services, emergency <br />medical services, public health services through the Cabanus Health <br />Alliance, law enforcement and emergency services; and <br />WHEREAS, there is significant evidence to suggest that manufacturers and distributors <br />of opioids have aggressively marketed their sale to physicians under the <br />guise that prescribing these opioids is medically necessary for virtually any <br />ailment that causes pain and with the assurance that prescribing large <br />doses of opioids creates little or no risk of addiction; and <br />WHEREAS, such tactics if proven true are violations of various federal and state laws <br />designed to monitor and control the dispensing of opioids and constitute <br />tortious acts creating liability of such manufacturers and distributors to the <br />County and its citizens and residents for the physical and financial harm <br />caused;and <br />WHEREAS, in addition to the prescribing of opioids as described above, whether lawful <br />or otherwise, there is significant evidence to suggest that a large number of <br />such prescribed opioids get diverted to persons who use them but for whom <br />such drugs have not been prescribed and who take such drugs <br />recreationally and often to support an addiction; and <br />G-5 Page 219 <br />