Jury finds CVS, Walgreens, Walmart at fault in part of Ohio’s opioid crisis

Three major retailers helped flood two Ohio counties with addictive opioids, a federal jury said Tuesday in a first-of-its-kind verdict that could serve as a possible indicator for thousands of cities and counties that blame the companies for part of the nation’s opioid crisis.

Lake and Trumbull counties said the decision was “a milestone victory” after a months-long federal trial against CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, which have denied wrongdoing. The three companies say they plan to appeal the verdict.

U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in

Cleveland is expected in the spring to decide how much the companies will pay the two counties, according to the counties’ attorneys, who estimate the toll of the epidemic to cost about $1 billion for each of the counties.

“For decades, pharmacy chains have watched as the pills flowing out of their doors cause harm and failed to take action as required by law,” the counties’ legal team said in a statement. “Instead, these companies responded by opening up more locations, flooding communities with pills, and facilitating the flow of opioids into an illegal, secondary market. The judgment today against Walmart, Walgreens and CVS represents the overdue reckoning for their complicity in creating a public nuisance.”

The counties in a blue-collar, manufacturing-heavy region have argued that the companies created a public nuisance - an argument that has faced recent pushback from two other courts in Oklahoma and California.

In response to Tuesday’s verdict, Walgreens said “significant legal errors” were committed by allowing the jury trial to proceed.

“The plaintiffs’ attempt to resolve the opioid crisis with an unprecedented expansion of public nuisance law is misguided and unsustainable,” spokesman Fraser Engerman wrote in a statement. “We look forward to the opportunity to address these issues on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.”

Walmart’s representative said the company would appeal the verdict, citing an instance during the trial when a jury member brought in a flier about naloxone and was dismissed.

“But the simple facts are that opioid prescriptions are written by doctors, not pharmacists; opioid medications are made and marketed by manufacturers, not pharmacists; and our health care system depends on pharmacists to fill legitimate prescriptions that doctors deem necessary for their patients,” CVS spokesman Mike Deangelis wrote in a statement.