WARREN, Ohio - Trumbull County is taking big name pharmacies to court, claiming they helped fuel the opioid epidemic.

The county wants the chains to pay up for the costs the county is having to absorb from the legal system to children services.

Trumbull and Lake counties are seeking $1 billion in damages from the pharmacies.

The federal trial in Northern U.S. District Court in Cleveland Monday afternoon. 21 News is told Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board Executive Director April Caraway is traveling to Cleveland this week to testify.

Trumbull County's legal team argues pharmacies including CVS, Walgreens, Giant Eagle and Walmart helped to flood local communities with prescription painkillers, but pharmacies are claiming they were only following doctor's orders.

They're expected to argue that they were following legal requirements when filling the prescriptions.

Trumbull County claims the pharmacies helped fuel the opioid crisis that saddled them with higher costs from courts, to the jail, foster care and law enforcement.

Data obtained by the Associated Press shows 80 million prescription pain pills were dispensed in Trumbull County by the pharmacies from 2012 to 2016.

The TAG Drug Task Force stresses that the drug epidemic in Trumbull County is only getting worse. The task force averages anywhere from 150 to 250 cases a year and is often juggling multiple investigations at a time.

TAG Task Force Leader Tony Villanueva tells 21 News that they're seeing an uptick in counterfeit pills sold on the street. The pills disguised as oxycodone are suspected to contain fentanyl, but are undergoing lab tests for official confirmation.

The death toll from the opioid epidemic hit its peak in 2017 with 135 fatal drug overdoses.

In 2020, numbers during the pandemic inched higher with 116 drug overdose deaths.

Among that number, only four deaths were not linked to fentanyl.

Since July, 65 overdose deaths were reported so far in 2021, with 20 more cases pending.

The trial in Cleveland will test whether other communities can go after the pharmacies for damages related to the opioid epidemic. 

A similar suit involving Summit and Cuyahoga counties settled out of court.