CLEVELAND — Three retail pharmacy chains recklessly distributed massive amounts of pain pills in two Ohio counties, a federal jury said Tuesday in a verdict that could set the tone for U.S. city and county governments that want to hold pharmacies accountable for their roles in the opioid crisis.
The counties blamed pharmacies operated by CVS, Walgreens and Walmart for not stopping the flood of pills that caused hundreds of overdose deaths and cost each of the two counties about $1 billion, their attorney said.
Seems rather misplaced, to me. It's not as though the pharmacy staff were holding the druggies down and stuffing oxycodone or other addictive drugs into their gullets. At some point, it seems as though the blame here should fall upon the doctors who prescribe the stuff and the druggies who overindulge.
This was the first time pharmacy companies had completed a trial to defend themselves in a drug crisis that has killed a half-million Americans over the past two decades. How much the pharmacies must pay in damages will be decided in the spring by federal judge.
Pharmacists don't sell the stuff out the back door; they fill prescriptions that people bring to them. They don't have any control over how they're ultimately used.
Lake and Trumbull counties were able to convince the jury that the pharmacies played an outsized role in creating a public nuisance in the way they dispensed pain medication into their communities.
There ought to be an intelligence standard for juries, but I imagine that would be too hard to enforce - more's the pity.
The opioid crisis has overwhelmed courts, social services agencies and law enforcement in Ohio’s blue-collar corner east of Cleveland, leaving behind heartbroken families and babies born to addicted mothers, Lanier told jurors.
In my view, they're barking up the wrong tree.
