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Kentucky AG Sues Walgreens Over Opioid Crisis

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Kentucky’s Attorney General is suing pharmacy giant Walgreens for contributing to its opioid epidemic by dispensing “opioids at such an alarming rate and volume that there could be no legitimate medical purpose associated to their use,” stated the lawsuit released yesterday.

“My job is to hold accountable anyone who harms our families,” said the state’s Attorney General Andy Beshear. “While Walgreens’ slogan was ‘at the corner of happy and healthy,’ they have significantly harmed the health of our families in fueling the opioid epidemic.”

He made the statement at a press briefing on Thursday.

Kentucky joins states like states like Florida, which is suing opioid manufacturers like Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Delaware, which filed a lawsuit naming Purdue Pharma, CVS and Walgreens.

Walgreens “overrode its own safeguard systems and raised its own opioid order thresholds” and created “public nuisance of historic proportions” in Kentucky starting in 2006, the suit alleges.

The Attorney General’s office cannot release the number of opioid pills Walgreens has dispensed in the state since 2006 due to a confidentiality agreement. Walgreens declined to comment because of the pending litigation.

Kentucky had the third highest drug overdose death rate in the nation in 2015, according to the lawsuit against Walgreens. Only West Virginia and New Hampshire had higher rates. Kentucky reported over 1,400 overdose deaths in 2016.

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