The Justice Department is suing Walmart, alleging that the company illegally distributed controlled substances through its pharmacies, which contributed to the opioid crisis in the United States.
The civil suit filed Tuesday points to the role that Walmart pharmacies may have played in the crisis of filling out opioid prescriptions and distributing controlled substances illegally to pharmacies during the height of the opioid crisis. Walmart operates more than 5,000 pharmacies in its stores in the United States.
The Justice Department alleges that Walmart violated federal law by selling thousands of prescriptions for controlled substances that the pharmacists “knew were invalid,” said Jeffrey Clark, acting assistant attorney general in charge of the civil division of the US. Department of Justice.
Federal law required Walmart to find and report suspected controlled substance orders to the Drug Enforcement Administration, but prosecutors accuse the company of failing to do so. Walmart could not be immediately reached for comment.
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“Walmart knew its distribution centers were using an inadequate system to detect and report suspicious orders,” said Jason Dunn, the United States attorney in Colorado. “Walmart reported virtually no suspicious orders for many years as a result of this inadequate system. In other words, the Walmart pharmacies ordered opioids in a way that was essentially unsupervised or regulated. “
Clark said Walmart has “violated important provisions of the Controlled Substances Act designed to prevent such controlled substances, including prescription opioids, from being diverted for misuse and abuse.”
The AP reported news of the lawsuit ahead of the Justice Department’s public announcement, citing a person who could not publicly discuss the matter prior to the announced move. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
The Justice Department lawsuit comes nearly two months after Walmart filed its own pre-emptive lawsuit against the Department of Justice Attorney General William Barr and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In its lawsuit, Walmart said the Department of Justice investigation, which began in 2016, identified hundreds of doctors who wrote problematic prescriptions that Walmart pharmacists should not have filled out. But the lawsuit claims that nearly 70% of doctors still have an active file with the DEA.