CVS Health, Walmart and Walgreens Played Role in Opioid Crisis

By Robert Preidt and Robin Foster
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Nov. 24, 2021 (HealthDay News) — CVS Health, Walmart and Walgreens contributed to opioid overdoses and deaths in two Ohio counties, a federal jury in Cleveland discovered Tuesday.

The first jury verdict in an opioids case got here within the carefully watched take a look at case and will show encouraging to plaintiffs in hundreds of lawsuits throughout the United States utilizing the identical authorized technique — that the businesses contributed to a “public nuisance,” The New York Times reported.

That argument was rejected this month by judges in California and Oklahoma in circumstances towards opioid producers.

The Ohio case is the primary time the retail aspect of the drug trade has been held accountable within the U.S. opioid disaster, the Times reported. CVS Health, Walmart and Walgreens are three of the nation’s largest pharmacy chains.

Following the decision, the trial decide will resolve how a lot every of the pharmacy chains must pay Lake and Trumbull counties in northeastern Ohio, the Times reported.

The counties’ attorneys stated the three corporations turned a blind eye to suspicious opioid orders for years. Eventual oversight necessities have been “too little, too late,” stated Mark Lanier, the counties’ lead trial lawyer, the Times reported.

Overdose deaths from unlawful opioids have reached file ranges through the COVID-19 pandemic, new U.S. authorities knowledge present, the Times reported.

More data

Visit the National Institute of Drug Abuse for extra on opioids.

SOURCE: The New York Times