Food City Seeks to Spread Blame in State Opioid Suit - Articles

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Food City Seeks to Spread Blame in State Opioid Suit

Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on May 17, 2022

A suit brought by the Tennessee attorney general accuses grocery chain Food City of padding its profits through the sale of “massive quantities” of opioids with prescriptions written by high-volume providers and pill mills. The state also argues that the company offered discounts to opiate addicts, traded prescriptions for cash, ignored drug deals and drug-related crimes in its parking lots, and filled prescriptions from other countries and states. Food City is pushing back on its degree of liability, offering a list of citizens, companies, state and federal regulators and leaders it says are equally guilty in fueling the opioid epidemic. The grocery store is claiming comparative fault, arguing in a new motion that even if it intentionally sought to profiteer from opioids, there were many responsible for the creation of the epidemic. According to Tennessee Lookout, the lawsuit is the fourth in a chain of legal actions filed by Attorney General Herbert Slatery III against drug makers, distributors, prescribers and dispensers.