thegreenhand
Bluelight Crew
Walgreens prescriptions added to San Francisco's opioid epidemic - judge
Dietrich KnauthReuters
10 Aug 2022
Excerpt:
Aug 10 (Reuters) - Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA.O) contributed to the opioid epidemic in San Francisco through its sale of prescription drugs in the city, a federal judge concluded on Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco said that Walgreens failed to properly investigate suspicious opioid orders for nearly 15 years. The amount the pharmacy chain must pay will be determined in a later trial.
Walgreens' pharmacists filled hundreds of thousands of suspicious opioid prescriptions from 2006 to 2020 with pharmacists not given time, staffing or resources to properly investigate red flags, Breyer wrote.
San Francisco in 2018 sued Walgreens, as well as several drug manufacturers and distributors, over the opioid epidemic in the city, saying they created a "public nuisance" by flooding the city with prescription opioids and failing to prevent the drugs from being diverted for illegal use.