Walmart Being Held Responsible For Role In Opioid Crisis
Walmart, Walgreens, and CVS are all behind held accountable for their roles in facilitating the nation's opioid crisis
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The opioid crisis that has plagued the United States is as harrowing as it is disheartening. With more and more details emerging regarding companies’ roles in enabling the crisis to occur and then perpetuating it, it’s certainly enough to give anyone pause. However, more entities are slowly beginning to be held responsible for their role in the facilitation of the opioid crisis. Walmart, along with CVS and Walgreens, have been ordered to pay out a collective $650 million.
The decision to hold Walmart, CVS and Walgreens accountable in the opioid crisis came out of a jury verdict after a trial was held in Ohio. The $650 million in collective fines applies to only two counties in Ohio – Lake, and Trumbull. According to the Wall Street Journal, all three companies are appealing the court ruling.
Walmart, CVS, and Walgreens all asserted that their pharmacies and the personnel who work in them had nothing to do with perpetuating the crisis. The companies each stated that the folks filling those prescriptions were simply doing their job. “We strongly disagree with the Court’s decision regarding the counties’ abatement plan, as well as last fall’s underlying verdict. Pharmacists fill legal prescriptions written by DEA-licensed doctors who prescribe legal, FDA-approved substances to treat actual patients in need,” emphasized Michael DeAngelis, CVS’ executive director for corporate communications.
The lawyers who represented the two Ohio counties in the case feel differently, however. Speaking about the hand Walmart, CVS, and Walgreens had in the crisis, they said that they did nothing to thwart the overtly emerging crisis. The lawyers on the case pointed out that between the two counties over 140 million opioid pills were shipped there. Collectively, the counties only house around 430,000 residents. “Today’s decision means that the Lake County and Trumbull County communities will soon receive the long overdue recovery funds they need to address the effects of the opioid epidemic locally,” highlighted the group of attorneys in a statement.
It remains uncertain whether or not Walmart, CVS, or Walgreens will triumph in their appeal. However, Ohio is not the only state actively seeking retribution against these pharmacies. For example, in San Francisco, Walgreens was recently charged with directly contributing to the opioid crisis by willingly filling suspicious prescriptions.
Walmart, CVS, and Walgreens may be being prosecuted for their involvement in the opioid crisis but the pharmaceutical companies involved are not getting off easily either. In July of last year, a group of pharmaceutical companies, including the likes of Johnson & Johnson, were involved in a $26 billion settlement. Those companies were ordered to pay out those monies to multiple states across the nation.
Ultimately, it’s good to see that companies like Walmart are being held responsible for knowingly facilitating a nationally debilitating crisis. A crisis, that many individuals and states are still presently trying to navigate and rebound from. “These companies are rending the fabric of society apart. They should not only show remorse, they should show they need to rectify what they’ve done. And they won’t do it. So the judge is doing it,” said one of the head lawyers on the case.
