Kentucky AG Files Suit Against Walgreens Over Opioid Crisis

Kentucky’s Attorney General Andy Bashear filed a lawsuit against Walgreens alleging the pharmacy chain looked the other way while the state was overwhelmed with suspicious opioid prescriptions.

The AG previously filed numerous lawsuits over Kentucky’s opioid crisis, but this is the first to target a pharmacy chain. Delaware previously filed suit against Walgreens as has the Cherokee nation, in a federal court in Oklahoma.

The latest suit suggests that pharmacy chains could well be the next target of expanding litigation over America’s opioid crisis.

The Walgreens suit was filed in Kentucky’s Boone County, which has been particularly hard hit by the commonwealth’s opioid crisis. Kentucky’s overdose death rate in 2016 was nearly twice the national average, federal statistics show.