Pharmacies accused of filling black market pipeline with opioids

October 5, 2021

Lawyers arguing a suit against major retail pharmacy operators allege the companies indiscriminately filled prescriptions of opioids that made their way to the black market, causing citizens in two Ohio counties to become addicted to the drugs. Mark Lanier, a lawyer for Lake and Trumbull Counties, told a federal grand jury in his opening statement that the pharmacies “dispensed [opioids] like a vending machine.” Kaspar Stoffelmayr, a lawyer for Walgreens, responded in his opening statement that, “Pharmacists don’t create demands. They don’t tell doctors what prescriptions to write.”

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