Judge: Walgreens contributed to opioid disaster in SF

By Juliet Williams | Linked Press

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal decide ruled Wednesday that Walgreens can be held responsible for contributing to San Francisco’s opioid crisis for above-dispensing opioids for years with no correct oversight and failing to determine and report suspicious orders as required by legislation.

San Francisco Metropolis Attorney David Chiu stated the pharmacy chain “continually violated what they ended up demanded to do below the federal Managed Substances Act,” failing to observe opioid prescriptions, protecting against pharmacists from vetting prescriptions and “nor did they see the several pink flags of physicians and other people who were substantially above-prescribing.”

“Pharmacists have been pressured to fill, fill, fill,” he mentioned, “and as a result, Walgreens stuffed our streets with opioids.”

U.S. District Decide Charles Breyer dominated that for 15 years, Walgreens dispensed hundreds of 1000's of drugs, inevitably contributing to the city’s hospitals staying overwhelmed with opioid sufferers, libraries getting compelled to shut due to the fact of syringe-clogged bogs, and syringes littering children’s playgrounds in San Francisco.

A Walgreens spokesman said the chain is unhappy in the end result, which he said is not supported by the details and the regulation.

“As we have stated in the course of this process, we in no way made or marketed opioids, nor did we distribute them to the ‘pill mills’ and web pharmacies that fueled this crisis,” spokesman Fraser Engerman stated in a statement. “The plaintiff’s attempt to take care of the opioid disaster with an unparalleled enlargement of public nuisance legislation is misguided and unsustainable. We seem forward to the option to handle these troubles on charm.”

Various drug suppliers and pharmacies opted to settle with the town earlier as section of the circumstance, together with opioid makers Allergan and Teva, which agreed to spend $54 million on the eve of closing arguments in the trial, leaving Walgreens as the sole defendant.

Wednesday’s ruling did not involve a ruling on monetary damages, which will be established in a long run trial.

Drug overdose deaths have surged in the state, which include in San Francisco. Mayor London Breed declared a point out of crisis final year in the Tenderloin community, expressing a thing experienced to be finished about the large focus of drug dealers and people consuming medicine in general public.

The city attorney’s office environment states San Francisco saw a practically 500% enhance in opioid-related overdose deaths concerning 2015 and 2020 and that on a standard working day, roughly a quarter of visits at the Zuckerberg San Francisco Standard Healthcare facility Crisis Office are opioid-related.