Walmart, Walgreens and CVS punished for their responsibility in opioid crisis.
A federal judge in Cleveland awarded US$650 million in damages to two Ohio counties that sued CVS, Walgreens and Walmart over the way the national pharmacy chains distributed opioids to their communities, reports PBS Newshour.
The judge said in his ruling that the money will be used to fight the opioid crisis in Lake and Trumbull counties outside Cleveland. Attorneys for the counties put the total price tag at US$3.3 billion for the damage done.
Lake County Commissioner John Hamercheck said the decision “marks the start of a new day in our fight to end the opioid epidemic”.
The counties convinced the jury that the pharmacies played an outsized role in creating “a public nuisance” in the way they dispensed pain medication during a drug crisis that has killed 500,000 Americans since 1999.
Mark Lanier, an attorney for the counties, said that during the trial the pharmacies had attempted to blame everyone but themselves.
The opioid crisis had overwhelmed courts, social service agencies and law enforcement in Ohio’s working-class corner east of Cleveland, leaving behind heartbroken families, and babies born to addicted mothers, he told jurors.
Roughly 80 million prescription painkillers were dispensed in Trumbull County alone between 2012 and 2016 – equivalent to 400 for every resident. In Lake County, some 61 million pills were distributed during that period.