Major pharmacies face first federal trial over role in nation's opioid crisis

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

In a span of eight years, 10 pharmacies dispensed nearly 49 million prescription pain pills in two counties near Cleveland — enough to provide about a dozen doses to each man, woman and child who lived there every 12 months.

Now Lake and Trumbull counties are set to face off against four of the nation’s largest chain pharmacies in a federal trial that could serve as a litmus test for thousands of cities and counties looking to hold them accountable for their role in the nation’s opioid crisis.

The counties in a blue-collar, manufacturing region of Ohio claim CVS, Walgreens, Giant Eagle and Walmart failed to stop mass quantities of opioid drugs from reaching the black market, fueling hundreds of overdose deaths amid one of the worst public health crises in the nation’s history.

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The setting of the trial is especially grim: Overdose deaths in 2021 are set to eclipse the toll tallied when the case was filed about three years ago, Gallucci said. Nationwide, overdose deaths involving opioids reached 69,710 in 2020, a share of the more than 500,000 opioid overdose deaths since 1999. While prescription dispensing has tapered with stricter enforcement, heroin and synthetic fentanyl have contributed to to an increasing number of deaths.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/major-pharmacies-face-first-federal-trial-over-role-in-nations-opioid-crisis/ar-AAP5MR1

[ProfessorGAC]

1. "Prescription Dispensing Has Tapered"

Ya think?
My wife was easily able to get a 30 day supply of Norco every 6 weeks. (Obviously, she was not overusing.)
First, they didn't do refills anymore.
Then, to get new, the doctor wouldn't call or fax them in. Had to go pick up scrip at the office.
Then, the stores started time locking their safes so one had to go to the pharmacy at the right time or wait a few hours.
Then, the doctors quit writing the scrips at all.
My wife is on her SECOND pain specialist and hasn't been prescribed pain meds for more than 3 years.
It's a grotesque overreaction to the meds themselves instead of clamping down on the problem doctors & pharmacies.
Doctors seem afraid to prescribe them now.
Around here, it's way beyond tapering off.