Ohio's Attorney General has maintained his stance against thousands of cities that have joined together in a lawsuit against opioid companies.

Attorney General David Yost released the following statement Thursday after a federal judge allowed the joint community lawsuit:

"This process is fundamentally flawed because it binds people to buy a pig in a poke. Every community has to make a determination whether they're in or out before they even know what the deal is. Local governments will have to make a big decision. And if they do nothing, that is their big decision – they're in, whether it's good, bad or ugly."

Yost filed a lawsuit two weeks ago in federal appeals court.

Earlier in September Yost said attempts to force drugmakers to pay should come in a single state action to allow equal distribution of the money across Ohio.

In recent years, almost 2,000 local governments have sued over the opioid epidemic.