Tennessee sues Walgreens over opioid prescription onslaught

By JOHN RABY
Associated Press

Tennessee’s attorney general is suing Walgreens over the state’s opioid crisis. Attorney General Herbert Slatery filed the lawsuit in Knox County Circuit Court. It alleges violations of Tennessee’s Consumer Protection Act and seeks unspecified civil penalties. The suit says the drugstore chain contributed to the state’s opioid crisis by failing to maintain effective controls against the abuse and diversion of prescription pain pills. The suit said that between 2006 and 2020, Walgreens retail stores in Tennessee dispensed more than 1.1 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pills. Walgreens says it never manufactured or marketed opioids and didn’t distribute them to the pain clinics or pill mills that fueled the crisis.