Walgreens sued for alleged role in fueling opioid crisis

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge filed a lawsuit on Monday against Walgreens, claiming that it helped fuel the state’s opioid crisis.

The drugstore chain, according to Rutledge, did not report any suspicious prescription orders at its Arkansas units and therefore exacerbated “the oversupply of such drugs and fueling an illegal secondary market”.

The attorney general noted that the crisis “has become so prevalent in Arkansas” that most of its counties, 66 of the 75, have opioid prescription rates higher than the national average. Rutledge added that with the number of opioids in the state, everyone would be able to take more than 80 pills each over the course of a year.

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The lawsuit claims that Walgreens “substantially” contributed to the epidemic “by selling, distributing and dispensing far greater amounts of prescription opioids than might be required for legitimate medical uses, while failing to report and take action to stop, suspected orders when they were identified. “

The state is now seeking an injunction “to force Walgreens to act responsibly and follow federal and state laws and indemnities for fueling” the epidemic and “civil penalties for every violation of Arkansas consumer protection laws,” according to with Rutledge.

Medication for sale at Walgreens pharmacy. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg / Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

In a statement, Rutledge acknowledged that this process “will not be able to fix all the mistakes that have been made”, although “it can bring desperately needed assistance to devastated families and communities” within Arkansas, which has been “disproportionately” affected.

However, a Walgreens spokesman told FOX Business in a statement that Walgreens “never manufactured or marketed opioids and never sold opioids to pain clinics, Internet pharmacies and ‘pill factories’ that fueled the opioid crisis. “

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“Before 2014, we only delivered opioids to our own pharmacies, and the only place where we sold FDA-approved opioid drugs was at the pharmacy counter, when presented with valid prescriptions written by doctors licensed by the DEA for legitimate medical needs,” voice added.

The spokesman said his pharmacists “always evaluate the patient, the prescriber, the medication, the applicable law and the circumstances before making an appropriate professional decision if he fills in a prescription for a controlled substance”.

Walgreens plans to “defend itself vigorously against this litigation,” said the spokesman.

WALMART REJECTS US GOVERNMENT CLAIMS OF FUEL OPIOID CRISIS

However, Walgreens is not the only company under pressure.

The Justice Department in December 2020 sued Walmart, accusing it of fueling the country’s opioid crisis by pressuring its pharmacies to fill in suspicious prescriptions for powerful painkillers.

Walmart responded by saying that the Justice Department’s investigation is “tainted by historic ethics violations.” He said the “lawsuit invents a legal theory that illegally forces pharmacists to stand between patients and their doctors, and is fraught with factual inaccuracies and handpicked and out-of-context documents.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.