Cleveland, Ohio

A US federal judge has ordered America's three largest pharmacy chains to pay $650 million in damages to two Ohio counties for fuelling an opioid crisis. The counties won a landmark lawsuit against national pharmacy chains CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, claiming the distribution process caused severe harm to communities.

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The money will be used to combat the opioid crisis in Lake and Trumbull counties, outside Cleveland. Attorneys for the counties had put a value of $1 billion for the damage done to each of the counties. Lake County will receive $306 million over 15 years, while Trumbull County will get $444 million. US District Judge Dan Polster ordered the companies to pay nearly $87 million to cover the first two years.

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Polster slammed the three companies in the ruling, saying they “squandered the opportunity to present a meaningful plan to abate the nuisance".

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The opioid crisis has overwhelmed courts, social services agencies and law enforcement in Cleveland, Ohio, destroying families and leading to the birth of babies born to addicted mothers, Mark Lanier, an attorney for the counties, told jurors.

Lake County Commissioner John Hamercheck in a statement said that the ruling "marks the start of a new day in our fight to end the opioid crisis".

The companies are planning to appeal against the judgment. 

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Walmart said in a statement that the counties' attorneys "sued Walmart in search of deep pockets, and this judgment follows a trial that was engineered to favour the plaintiffs' attorneys and was riddled with remarkable legal and factual mistakes. We will appeal."

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Notably, the opioid crisis in the US has become a huge problem with millions of people becoming addicted to opiate-based painkillers such as fentanyl and OxyContin over the last 20 years. Painkiller overdoses between 1999 and 2019 have killed nearly half a million people.

The attorneys of the pharmacy chains have always said that they had policies to control the flow of pills if their pharmacists got suspicious. Additionally, they would notify authorities about suspicious orders from doctors. They also said the doctors were responsible for controlling how many pills were prescribed for legitimate medical needs and not their pharmacies.

(With inputs from agencies)