Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman announced Monday that the state will file charges against Kroger, accusing it of distributing hundreds of millions of opioid pills to Kentuckians without proper safeguards in place.
Coleman and the state’s lawsuit alleges that between 2006 and 2019, Kroger and more than 100 pharmacies in the state dispensed about 11% of all opioid pills. The complaint notes that Kroger purchased 4 billion milligrams worth of opioids in Kentucky during that period.—Approximately 444 million doses.
The company distributed nearly 194 hydrocodone tablets to Kentucky pharmacies during the same period.
The lawsuit, filed in Bullitt Circuit Court, also alleges that Kroger ignored real-time data showing unusual prescribing patterns and suspicious orders, and that despite red flags, the grocer It pointed out that it did not report a single suspicious prescription during that period.
“For more than a decade, Kroger supplied Kentucky with an almost inconceivable number of opioid pills that directly led to addiction, pain, and death,” Coleman said in a press release. “Kroger, a company that families have trusted for years, has intentionally made it easier to obtain these dangerous and highly addictive substances. Worst of all, Kroger has created an official website for reporting suspicious and fraudulent activity. We did not create a system, training, or even a set of guidelines. The scourge of addiction that permeated graduates, workers, and entire families is devastating.”
Coleman said in the announcement that Kentucky is the state hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, and that “a wave of addiction is tragically robbing thousands of Kentuckians of their potential.” .
“Kentucky has long ranked among the highest rates of overdose deaths in the country,” the AG’s office said. “More than 2,100 Kentuckians died from drug overdose or poisoning in one year alone.”
thatThis isn’t the first time a grocery store has been sued over the opioid epidemic. In May 2023, Kroger agreed to settle a similar opioid lawsuit with the state of West Virginia for $68 million, in which Walgreens paid $83 million and Walmart ($6,500 million). ($82.5 million), CVS ($82.5 million), and Rite Aid were also involved. ($30 million).
Kroger could not immediately be reached for comment on the Kentucky lawsuit, but the company said in May that the West Virginia opioid lawsuit was “without merit.”
