In a closely watched test case, a federal jury in Cleveland on Tuesday found that three of the nation's largest pharmacy chains, Walmart and Walgreens, substantially contributed to the crisis of opiate overdoses and deaths in two Ohio counties, the first time the retail segment of the drug industry has been
The trial judge will make a determination on how much each company should pay. Data released last week by the federal government shows overdose deaths from illegal drugs have reached record levels.
The jury's verdict in the first case of its kind may be encouraging to other people who are using the same legal strategy in thousands of lawsuits nationwide.
The same argument was rejected twice this month by judges in California and Oklahoma, who ruled that the companies activities were too removed from the overdoses and deaths, and that this application of public nuisance law had been stretched beyond recognition.
The legal theory was used by lawyers to argue that for years, the pharmacies turned a blind eye to many red flags about suspicious orders, both at the local counter with patients and at the corporate headquarters.
