Mayor Bill de Blasio.. announced the City had filed a lawsuit...in New York State Supreme Court to hold manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioids to account for their part in the City’s ongoing deadly opioid epidemic.  The lawsuit aims to recover half a billion dollars in current and future costs the City will incur to combat this epidemic.  In 2016, more than 1,000 people in New York City died in a drug overdose which involved an opioid, the highest year on record...The City joins hundreds of municipalities across New York State and the nation as it seeks to hold opioid manufacturers and distributors accountable for their illegal actions...[T]he lawsuit alleges that the opioid crisis caused by manufacturers’ deceptive marketing, and distributors’ flooding of prescription painkillers into New York City has placed a substantial burden on the City through increased substance use treatment services...manufacturers sought to create a false perception that using opioids to treat chronic pain was safe for most patients and that the drugs’ benefits outweighed the risks.  This was perpetrated through a coordinated, sophisticated and highly deceptive promotion and marketing campaign...Distributor defendants...have failed to use these tools to warn public officials about suspicious orders...[Also refers to Cardinal Health, Cephalon, Endo, Watson]