Walmart, CVS and Walgreens must pay $650 million for filling prescriptions to pill mills in opioid crisis

BY PAUL JUNOR

News was released regarding the landmark ruling, which ordered pharmacy chains Walmart, CVS and Walgreens to pay a total of $650 million for their involvement in abetting the opioid crisis.

On Monday, August 22^nd, 2022, the report noted that a federal judge in Ohio ascribed culpability to the pharmacy chains for filling prescriptions although it was apparent that colluding doctors were involved in pill mills. Barry Meier, author of “Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic,” was interviewed by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now regarding his coverage of the opioid crisis.

Amy starts the interview by noting, “This is the first federal ruling against the pharmacy chains for their roles in the opioid crisis. Other cases have focused on opioid makers and wholesalers that distribute the addictive painkillers. The ruling follows a federal jury’s verdict in November that found the pharmacy chains’ sale of these drugs caused severe harm to communities and violated Ohio’s public nuisance laws.” She states further, “In the lawsuit, Lake County and Trumbull County allege the pharmacies abused their position of special trust and responsibility as dispensers of the drugs and fostered a black market for prescription opioids.”

Amy asked Barry to respond to the precedent-setting settlement against the drugstore chains. Barry states, “I think it’s extraordinary. It’s high time all players in this terrible chain of manufacture, and prescribing are held responsible for their actions. I mean, I hear what these pharmacy chains are saying, that they bear no responsibility, but they were happy to rake in all of the cash when their outlets were kind of recklessly dispensing these drugs, or at least that’s what the decision of the jury was. So now, it’s time to pay the piper and to use some of this money to repair some of the damage.”

Amy quotes a statement from Walmart which reads, “Instead of addressing the real causes of the opioid crisis, like pill mill doctors, illegal drugs and regulators asleep at the switch, plaintiffs’ lawyers wrongly claimed that pharmacists must second-guess doctors in a way the law never intended and many federal and state health regulators say interferes with the doctor-patient relationship.”

Barry responds that he observed that many pharmacists were aware that doctors were prescribing illegal prescriptions for OxyContin for $40 or $50. He notes, “That is, did they exercise due diligence in determining whether this was a prescription that should be filled or should not be filled.” Amy asked Barry how the money would be distributed. Barry responds, “So, the question becomes, you know if we are going to reduce these deaths and reduce addiction, it’s basically a battle that has to be fought on a lot of different fronts. There’s got to be reduced prescribing of these drugs, more intelligent dispensing of these drugs, but also stepped-up law enforcement interdiction of illegal opioids on the street or, you know, what’s the goal here. Is the goal to save lives? If the goal is to save lives, we may have to think about scenarios where addicts can get drugs in legal settings so they don’t go out and kill themselves getting them in illegal  settings.”