Judge to decide damages over opioid crisis

CLEVELAND — How much money should CVS, Walgreens and Walmart pharmacies pay two Ohio counties in damages to help them ease the effects of the opioid crisis?

That’s the question in front of a federal judge in Cleveland, who began hearing testimony on Tuesday after a jury found the three giant pharmacy chains responsible last fall for recklessly distributing massive amounts of pain pills in Lake and Trumbull counties. It was the first time pharmacies in the U.S. have been held responsible for the opioid crisis.

Plaintiff ’s attorneys said before trial that each county needs about $1 billion to repair the damage caused by the flood of pills, which caused hundreds of overdose deaths.

Around 80 million prescription painkillers were dispensed in Trumbull County between 2012 and 2016 — 400 for every county resident — while 61 million pills were dispensed in Lake County during that five-year period — 265 pills for every resident.

Back in November, a jury in U.S. District Judge Dan Polster’s courtroom sided with the counties and agreed that the way the pharmacies dispensed pain medication played an outsized role in creating a public nuisance.

Now the counties are expected to present testimony from doctors to discuss the harm suffered by those communities, the opioid crisis’ impact on child welfare and other county agencies, and an abatement plan created for the counties.

Across the U.S., many lawsuits filed by governments over the toll of the drugs have been resolved in recent years — most with settlements, and some with judgments or verdicts in trials. So far, drug makers, distributors and pharmacies have agreed to settlements totaling well over $40 billion, according to an Associated Press tally.

Trials are underway in courts in West Virginia, Florida and California.

There were nearly 500,000 deaths caused by legal and illegal opioids between 2000 and 2019, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.