Kentucky Attorney General Sues Kroger Pharmacies Over Opioid Crisis

Kentucky’s Attorney General, Russell Coleman, filed a lawsuit against the grocery giant Kroger, alleging that its pharmacies helped fuel the state’s opioid epidemic via unlawful business practices. The lawsuit alleges that from at least 1996 (when OxyContin was approved by the FDA) through the present, “Kroger created, fueled, and maintained the opioid epidemic in Kentucky through their retail pharmacies, as dispensers of opioids to the public, as a wholesale distributor of opioids, shipping prescription opioid orders to their own pharmacies.”

The numbers are rather shocking, as noted in the complaint: “The sheer numbers of opioids distributed and dispensed by Defendant in Kentucky were suspicious on their face.” The lawsuit alleges that Kroger bought over four billion morphine milligram equivalents for Kentucky between 2006 and 2019–roughly the equivalent of 444 million opioid doses. In its role as a distributor, the lawsuit claims that Kroger shipped over 1 million opioids in Kentucky during that time. The suit alleges that Kroger’s 100-plus Kentucky pharmacies were responsible for over 11% of all opioids distributed in the state during that period. Despite the large quantity of opioids being dispensed, the lawsuit claims that Kroger never implemented an effective monitoring system to stop suspicious medication orders. The suit claims that Kroger “distributed massive amount of suspicious opioid orders of unusual size, orders deviating substantially from a normal pattern, and orders of unusual frequency” to their Kentucky pharmacies and, despite red flags, failed to notify the Drug Enforcement Agency or refuse to fill suspicious scripts. AG Coleman noted that Kroger did not report a single suspicious prescription between 2007 and 2014.

“For more than a decade, Kroger flooded Kentucky with an almost unthinkable number of opioid pills that directly led to addiction, pain, and death,” said Coleman in a statement. “Kroger, which families have trusted for so long, knowingly made these dangerous and highly addictive substances all too accessible. Worst of all, Kroger never created a formal system, training, or even a set of guidelines to report suspicious activity or abuse.” The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and asks for civil monetary penalties, injunctive relief, and an order that Kroger abate the public nuisance caused by its actions. The lawsuit notes that Kentucky was one of the states hardest hit by the opioid epidemic and has one of the highest opioid-related death rates in the country. In 2021, the state lost 2,250 residents to drug overdoses. “Kroger reaped millions of dollars in revenues while causing immense harm to the Commonwealth and its citizens,” stated the complaint. “Defendants, not the taxpayers of Kentucky, should pay for their role in creating and fueling the opioid epidemic and act to remediate the crisis.”

References

Grout K. Kroger bought equivalent of 444M opioid doses for Kentucky. News release. Kentucky.gov. Published February 12, 2024. Accessed March 8, 2024. https://www.kentucky.gov/Pages/Activity-stream.aspx?n=AttorneyGeneral&prId=1513

Commonwealth of Kentucky v The Kroger Co. 24-CI-00154 (Kentucky 2024).