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April 26, 2017

Cherokee Nation Sues Wal-Mart, CVS, Walgreens Over Tribal Opioid Crisis

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opioid crisis

The Cherokee Nation is suing top drug distributors and pharmacies — including Wal-Mart — alleging they profited greatly by “flooding” communities in Oklahoma with prescription painkillers, leading to the deaths of hundreds of tribal members.

Todd Hembree, attorney general for the Cherokee Nation, says drug companies didn’t do enough to keep painkillers off the black market or to stop the overprescription of these powerful narcotics, which include OxyContin and Vicodin. “They flooded this market,” Hembree says. “And they knew — or should’ve known — that they were doing so.”

Walgreens, CVS Health and Wal-Mart are all named in the suit, along with the nation’s three largest pharmaceutical distributors: AmerisourceBergen, McKesson and Cardinal Health. They act as middlemen between pharmacies and drugmakers, distributing 85 to 90 percent of the prescription painkillers that some see as fueling a growing opioid epidemic in the U.S.

When reached for comment, one of the defendants, Cardinal Health, sent a statement to NPR saying the suit was a mischaracterization of facts and a misunderstanding of the law. “We believe these lawsuits do not advance the hard work needed to solve the opioid abuse crisis — an epidemic driven by addiction, demand and the diversion of medications for illegitimate use.”

But the Cherokee Tribe says these companies regularly filled large, suspicious prescriptions within the Cherokee Nation’s 14 counties in northeastern Oklahoma. It also says the companies turned a blind eye to patients who doctor-shopped and presented multiple prescriptions for the same medication. Oklahoma, where 177,000 tribal members live, leads the nation in opioid abuse. Almost a third of the prescription painkillers distributed in that state went to the Cherokee Nation.

“There are safeguards that are supposed to be followed — federal laws — that they turn a blind eye to because their profits are much more important to them,” Hembree says. “We were being [overrun] by the amount of opioids being pushed into the Cherokee Nation.” A spokesperson for Walgreens told NPR the company declines to comment on pending litigation. CVS Health said in a statement, “We have stringent policies, procedures and tools to ensure that our pharmacists properly exercise their corresponding responsibility to determine whether a controlled substance prescription was issued for a legitimate medical purpose before filling it.” The other companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Read more at NPR.org

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