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November 24,2021

Andrew Campbell 

On November 23, a federal jury found three of the nation's largest pharmacy chains, CVS, Walgreens Boots Alliance, and Walmart, liable for contributing to the U.S. opioid crisis. Jurors concluded that the pharmacies contributed to a "public nuisance" in Lake and Trumbull counties in Ohio by selling and dispensing massive amounts of prescription pain pills.

For many years, millions of Americans have become addicted to legal opiate-based painkillers such as Fentanyl and OxyContin due to over-prescription and abuse. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 247,000 people died in the United States from prescription opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2019, with nearly 500,000 deaths worldwide.

Earlier on June 26, Johnson & Johnson agreed to a US$230 million settlement with the New York Attorney General regarding the pharmaceutical company's role in the opioid addiction crisis. This summer, Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, and Walmart agreed to a US$26 million settlement with two New York counties, Nassau and Suffolk. Furthermore, in state cases against opioid manufacturers earlier in November, judges in California and Oklahoma rejected the public nuisance argument.

Approximately 3,300 other cases have reportedly been filed to date in an attempt to recoup some of those costs from retailers that profited from the sale of the opioid painkillers.