The verdict does not please everyone. Pharmacies Walgreens and CVS (the two largest chains in the country), as well as those of the retail specialist Walmart were condemned, this Wednesday by an Ohio judge, to pay a fine to two counties of this State of northern United States for their role in the opioid crisis.
“A federal judge has ordered (these three companies) to pay a total of $650.6 million” to Lake and Trumbull counties, the law firm that defended the two companies said in a statement on Wednesday. counties, The Lanier Law Firm. This sum will make it possible to “finance education and prevention programs and reimburse agencies and organizations for the costs incurred in managing the crisis”, he added.
For its part, Walmart announced in a press release its intention to appeal, denouncing a trial “Riddled with legal and factual errors”.
The three retail giants in the United States, which had massively distributed painkillers in these two counties, were found guilty in November. Lawyers in two counties in Ohio had managed to convince the jury that the massive presence of opiates was indeed a public nuisance and that pharmacies had participated in it by ignoring warning signs about suspicious prescriptions for years.
An epidemic “supported by corporate greed”
County officials “simply wanted to be compensated for the burden of a drug epidemic sustained by corporate greed, negligence and lack of accountability by these pharmaceutical chains,” their attorney, Mark Lanier, said in the statement.
In the opposite camp, the drugstore chains believe that their employees are simply respecting legal prescriptions written by doctors, who prescribe substances approved by the health authorities.
Some parties – drugstore chains Rite Aid and Giant Eagle – had reached agreements with Lake and Trumbull counties to end the lawsuits in exchange for financial payments. It was the first time that drug distributors, and not producers, were held responsible for this health crisis that has caused more than 500,000 overdose deaths in 20 years in the United States, and which has given rise to to a myriad of procedures launched by local authorities.
The conviction of opiate producers based on public nuisance laws has, however, suffered setbacks, in California and Oklahoma. In addition, last summer CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid and Walmart agreed to pay a total of $26 million to two counties in New York State.