SAN FRANCISCO -- On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that Walgreens overdosed on highly addictive drugs for years without proper oversight and supervision. The judge ruled that he could be held responsible for contributing to the San Francisco opioid crisis. Failure to identify and report suspicious orders as required by law.
San Francisco prosecutor David Chiu said the pharmacy chain "continuedly violated mandates under the Federal Controlled Substances Act," failed to track opioid prescriptions, prevented them from examining the prescription, saying, "Neither did they see it." Many red flags for doctors and others who were dramatically overprescribing.
"Pharmacists were pressured to go full, full, full," he said.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer stated that from 2006 to 2020, “San Francisco's Walgreens Pharmacy dispensed hundreds of thousands of red flag opioid prescriptions without proper due diligence. Tens of thousands of these prescriptions were created by physicians with questionable prescribing patterns.
He said a large number of illegal opioid prescriptions had caused hospitals in the city to overflow with opioid patients and libraries to fill toilets with syringes. A Walgreens spokesman said the chain was disappointed with the results, which were not backed up by facts and law.
"We also did not distribute them to the 'Pill Mills' or internet pharmacies that contributed to this crisis," spokesman Fraser Engerman said in a statement. Plaintiffs' attempts to solve the opioid crisis through unprecedented legislative expansion are misguided and unsustainable, and we look forward to the opportunity to address these issues on appeal."
} In 2018, San Francisco sued Walgreens and pharmaceutical companies and distributors over the worsening opioid epidemic in the city, saying they caused "public nuisance" by flooding the city with prescription opioids. A total of $114 million, including $54 million that opioid makers Allergan and Teva agreed to pay on the eve of closing arguments in the trial, leaving Walgreens as the sole defendant.
20} Wednesday's ruling did not include a monetary judgment.The opioid epidemic has been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the United States over the past two decades, counting deaths from prescription pain relievers such as OxyContin and generic his oxycodone. Illegal drugs such as heroin and illegally manufactured fentanyl.
The surge in death toll has led to more than 3,000 lawsuits against him by state and local governments, his Native American tribes, unions and hospitals. filed. Ital and Other Bodies in State and Federal Courts Over Opioid Compensation. In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin district last year, saying something needed to be done about the crowds of drug dealers and people who consume drugs in public places. .
San Francisco saw a nearly 500% increase in opioid-related overdose deaths between 2015 and 2020, according to the city's attorney's office. It is said that about one-fourth of the patients who visit related to opioids.
In 2020, he had 712 deaths from drug overdoses, compared with 257 deaths from COVID-19, according to the city's health department.
A significant proportion of San Francisco's estimated 7,800 homeless people — many of whom are tented in the Tenderloin — suffer from chronic addiction or severe mental illness, often both. is. Some people are ranting in the streets naked and in need of medical assistance.
Pharmacy chains are less likely to be sued than opioid manufacturers and wholesalers who distribute the drugs more widely. Last year, a federal jury in Ohio found that CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart recklessly distributed large amounts of painkillers in her two counties in Ohio.
In May, Walgreens reached a $683 million settlement with the state of Florida, suing the company for improperly dispensing millions of pain relievers that contributed to the opioid crisis. I was. Walgreens has not admitted to wrongdoing in its contract with Florida and plans to pay the state over 18 years.
The company also faces lawsuits in states such as Alabama, Michigan and New Mexico.
His Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., based in Deerfield, Illinois, operates a network of approximately 9,000 drugstores in the United States. Walgreens and other prescription drug distributors face dozens of lawsuits over the opioid crisis.
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His AP writer Tom Murphy from Indianapolis contributed to this report.
