During opening statements Tuesday in the state of New York’s multidefendant opioid lawsuit, attorneys for the plaintiffs emphasized the role opioid manufacturers and distributors played in creating a public nuisance for the people of Long Island and New York as a whole.

Along with John Oleske, senior enforcement counsel to the New York state attorney general, Jayne Conroy of Simmons Hanly Conroy and Hunter Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik told jurors that the defendants’ old emails and marketing materials would demonstrate their culpability in the opioid crisis.