velma comments on Albertsons must pay $900 million for fueling opioid epidemic in Washington state, judge rules

Albertsons must pay $900 million for fueling opioid epidemic in Washington state, judge rules (www.reuters.com)

submitted 23 hours ago by velma@sh.itjust.works to c/washington@lemmy.world

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Nov 5 (Reuters) - Albertsons (ACI.N), opens new tab must pay the state of Washington $900 million for helping fuel an opioid epidemic in the state by failing through its pharmacies to prevent the misuse of addictive ‌painkillers, a state court judge ruled on Thursday. King County Superior Court Judge Janet Helson in Seattle issued the decision after presiding over a non-jury trial in a lawsuit the state's attorney general filed in 2022 against the grocery retailer, which operates in Washington mostly under the Safeway brand.

"The opioid crisis has really been an equal opportunity monster, bringing its destruction not only to urban areas, but to many small towns and rural areas throughout our state and impacting people in all walks of life," she said.

Helson said the evidence presented during the nine-week trial showed that Albertsons played a substantial role in causing that epidemic by ⁠failing to maintain adequate systems to police against suspicious drug orders being fulfilled.

Helson said the company filled prescriptions from so-called "pill mill" doctors who were "prescribing ridiculous amounts of opioids to patients." More than 5.5 million pills were dispensed as a result of prescriptions from five prescribers whose licenses were eventually suspended, she said.

Albertsons in a statement expressed disappointment in the ruling and said it was considering an appeal. It had denied wrongdoing and argued that pharmacists were not required to question the judgment of a patient's doctor unless there was a compelling reason to suspect a prescription was illegitimate.

"We are proud of our pharmacists and their dedication to the patients and communities they serve, and we will continue to support our customers and communities across Washington through responsible pharmacy operations," the company said.

[–] velma@sh.itjust.works [S] 2 points 8 hours ago

Albertson’s is not the first or only corp that Washington State has sued over the opioid crisis. Going after prescribers and going after corps aren’t mutually exclusive.

Albertsons filled prescriptions more than 6.5 million times without showing that pharmacists had confirmed doctors wrote them for legitimate medical purposes, according to the state.

This led to them being diverted for illicit use as an epidemic roared across Washington, and the nation. Here, opioid overdoses have claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Pharmacists are legally required to identify drug diversion and report suspicious orders to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to the state. Brown said company policies “actively discouraged” pharmacists from doing their due diligence.

As examples of this diversion, the state cited cases of Albertsons pharmacies dispensing thousands of pills to single customers. In one month, a customer at a Kent pharmacy got over 5,000 opioid pills, for example.

At one store, a family medicine doctor accounted for 60% of all the oxycodone dispensed, an attorney for the state said at trial. The company, in some cases, didn’t allow pharmacists to decline to fill prescriptions from these “pill mill” doctors, unlike other pharmacies. One store reportedly filled prescriptions for someone known to sell his drugs.

Store employees also stole pills, according to the state. A Safeway employee in North Bend reportedly swiped more than 70,000 opioid pills over two years before getting caught. The store agreed in 2017 to temporarily suspend filling controlled substance prescriptions after an investigation found the store hadn’t notified the DEA of the missing hydrocodone tablets until months after Safeway learned of the pilfering. The inquiry found a widespread practice of Safeway failing to report missing or stolen pills. Safeway agreed to pay $3 million in that case.

Other thefts include 12,000 pills from a Leavenworth pharmacy and 19,000 in Olympia. This was due to lackluster tracking of its inventory of controlled substances, Brown argued.

Stores were chronically understaffed, leading to overworked pharmacy employees. This made it “impossible” to review prescriptions to ensure they were above board, according to evidence presented during the lengthy trial. One pharmacist warned the company that, due to these conditions, “mistakes can easily be made to put someone’s life at risk,” according to the attorney general’s office.