Judge rules Walgreens contributed to San Francisco opioid crisis

A Walgreens store in San Francisco
(Image credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Walgreens "substantially contributed" to San Francisco's opioid epidemic by failing to prevent misuse of the highly addictive painkillers, The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle report.

Walgreens handled nearly 1 in 5 oxycodone and hydrocodone pills distributed nationwide at the height of the opioid crisis. It was the only drug company sued by San Francisco that didn't settle. The case went to trial in April.

"Walgreens has regulatory obligations to take reasonable steps to prevent the drugs from being diverted and harming the public," U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote in the ruling. "The evidence at trial established that Walgreens breached these obligations." A later trial will determine how much Walgreens will have to pay the city. A Walgreens spokesperson said the company would appeal.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.