TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Dec 23, 2020

The U.S. Justice Department sued Walmart yesterday, accusing it of fueling the nation’s opioid crisis by pressuring pharmacies to fill potentially suspicious prescriptions for the painkillers, the Associated Press reports. The government alleges Walmart violated federal law by making it difficult for pharmacists to follow the law (which requires pharmacies to report suspicious orders to the Drug Enforcement Administration), putting “enormous pressure" on them to fill a high volume of prescriptions, and prohibiting blanket refusals for suspicious orders. Walmart operates more than 5,000 pharmacies in its stores around the country. It rejected the government’s allegations saying the investigation was “tainted by historical ethics violations." Read the full article in the Citizen Tribune.