«Breaking News» Florida sues Walgreens, CVS over opioid sales

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday that she added Walgreens and CVS to a state-court lawsuit, alleging the companies added to the state and national opioid crisis

Florida is suing the nation's two largest drugstore chains, Walgreens and CVS, alleging they added to the state and national opioid crisis by overselling painkillers and not taking precautions to stop illegal sales.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced late Friday that she has added the companies to a state-court lawsuit filed last spring against Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, and several opioid distributors.

Bondi said in a press release that CVS and Walgreens 'played a role in creating the opioid crisis.' 

She said the companies failed to stop 'suspicious orders of opioids' and 'dispensed unreasonable quantities of opioids from their pharmacies.' 

On average, about 45 people die nationally each day because of opioid overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

'We will continue to pursue those companies that played a role in creating the opioid crisis,' said Bondi, who has been mentioned as a possible replacement by President Donald Trump for recently ousted U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. 

Scroll down for videos 

Bondi said in a press release that CVS and Walgreens 'played a role in creating the opioid crisis' (stock image)

She said the companies failed to stop 'suspicious orders of opioids' and 'dispensed unreasonable quantities of opioids from their pharmacies' (stock image)

'Thousands of Floridians have suffered as a result of the actions of the defendants.'

CVS spokesman Mike DeAngelis called the lawsuit 'without merit' in a statement Saturday. 

He said the company trains its pharmacists and their assistants about their responsibilities when dispensing controlled substances and gives them tools to detect potentially illegal sales.

'Over the past several years, CVS has taken numerous actions to strengthen our existing safeguards to help address the nation's opioid epidemic,' DeAngelis said.

Walgreens said Saturday it doesn't comment on pending lawsuits.

Until a law enforcement crackdown at the beginning of the decade, Florida was known for its so-called pain mills. 

Drug dealers from throughout the country would send associates to store-front clinics where unscrupulous doctors would write opioid prescriptions for bogus injuries and illnesses. 

At one point, 90 of the nation's top 100 opioid prescribers were Florida doctors, according to federal officials.

Roughly 45 people in the US die daily because of opioid overdoses, the CDC reports (stock image)

After receiving the prescriptions, the phony patients would buy the pills from Florida pharmacies - state law says pharmacists must refuse to fill prescriptions they suspect are not for a valid purpose. 

Most of the opioids would then be taken out of state to be resold illegally at huge markups, creating a drug crisis in many communities throughout the Eastern United States.

According to the lawsuit, Walgreens has dispensed billions of opioid dosages from its Florida pharmacies since 2006. 

The Illinois-based chain is the nation's largest drugstore chain and has more than 13,200 stores globally.

The company distributed 2.2 million opioid tablets from its store in Hudson, a Tampa-area town of 12,000, and in one unidentified town of 3,000, sold 285,000 pills in a month, the lawsuit says. In some stores, its opioid sales jumped six-fold in two years. 

The company paid $80 million five years ago to resolve a federal investigation that centered on inadequate record keeping of its Florida opioid sales that allowed the pills to reach the black market.

Florida's accusations against CVS were more general, saying it sold 700 million opioid dosages between 2006 and 2014, including outsized sales in Hudson and two other nearby towns. The Rhode Island-based chain has more than 9,800 stores.

Link hienalouca.com

https://hienalouca.com/2018/11/18/florida-sues-walgreens-cvs-over-opioid-sales/
Main photo article




Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday that she added Walgreens and CVS to a state-court lawsuit, alleging the companies added to the state and national opioid crisis

Florida is suing the nation’s two largest drugstore chains, Walgreens and CVS, alleging they added to the state ...

It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.

Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.

Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca





https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/11/18/15/6341520-6401205-image-m-32_1542554344796.jpg