{"id":419,"date":"2021-03-09T18:00:39","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T18:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/cpil-blog\/?p=419"},"modified":"2021-04-23T01:09:58","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T01:09:58","slug":"justice-department-sues-walmart-over-its-role-in-the-opioid-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/cpil-blog\/2021\/03\/09\/justice-department-sues-walmart-over-its-role-in-the-opioid-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Department Sues Walmart over its Role in the Opioid Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Anna Schwartz<\/h3>\n

United States of America v. Walmart Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Easy, LP,<\/em><\/strong> Case No: 1:99-mc-09999 (D. Del. 2020)<\/strong>. On December 22, 2020, the United States Department of Justice filed a complaint<\/a> in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware against Walmart for unlawfully dispensing and distributing substances in violation of the Controlled Substance Act (CSA).<\/p>\n

The civil complaint alleges that Walmart knowingly filled thousands of opioid prescriptions that were not issued for \u201clegitimate medical purposes\u201d or within the \u201cordinary course\u201d of pharmacy practice. The complaint also alleges that Walmart received hundreds of thousands of suspicious opioid orders that it failed to report as required by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).\u00a0 The Justice Department alleges that these actions helped to fuel the prescription opioid crisis. For example, one case cited in the complaint describes that a Walmart pharmacy in Pennsylvania continued to fill thousands of prescriptions for a known \u201cpill mill\u201d doctor who is now under indictment after five patients died.<\/p>\n

Previously, on October 22, 2020, Walmart filed a complaint for declaratory relief<\/a> to head off the Justice Department\u2019s claims in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. In the preemptive countersuit against the U.S. Department of Justice, Attorney General William Barr, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and its acting administrator, Walmart argued that its pharmacists blocked thousands of questionable opioid prescriptions as part of the company\u2019s good faith effort to help address the opioid crisis. Walmart argued in the complaint that allowing the Justice Department to hold Walmart liable for CSA violations would turn pharmacists into \u201cdoctor police,\u201d forcing pharmacists to come between doctors and patients in a way Congress never intended. Finally, in the complaint for declaratory relief, Walmart argued that the Justice Department tried to shift blame for the DEA\u2019s own failures to police doctors. Despite these arguments, on February 4, 2021, the Texas court dismissed<\/a> Walmart\u2019s request for a federal declaration, finding that the court had no subject-matter jurisdiction. \u00a0Walmart filed a notice of appeal<\/a> of the court\u2019s dismissal on March 5, 2021.<\/p>\n

In the Department of Justice\u2019s current lawsuit, if Walmart is found liable for violating the CSA, it could face civil penalties of up to $67,627 for each unlawful prescription filled and $15,691 for each suspicious order not reported. Thus, Walmart\u2019s civil penalties for nationwide violations of the CSA could total billions of dollars. Furthermore, the suit\u2019s outcome may impact the pharmacy industry as a whole by imposing new duties on pharmacists to question licensed doctors on controlled substance prescriptions.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Anna Schwartz United States of America v. Walmart Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Easy, LP, Case No: 1:99-mc-09999 (D. Del. 2020). On December 22, 2020, the United States Department of Justice filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1013,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136828],"tags":[136846,9922,137184,134334,132973,137185],"coauthors":[132864],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-litigation-board-of-pharmacy","tag-doj","tag-litigation","tag-opion","tag-pharmacists","tag-pharmacy","tag-prescription"],"yoast_head":"\nJustice Department Sues Walmart over its Role in the Opioid Crisis - Consumer Protection Policy Center - Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/cpil-blog\/2021\/03\/09\/justice-department-sues-walmart-over-its-role-in-the-opioid-crisis\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Justice Department Sues Walmart over its Role in the Opioid Crisis - Consumer Protection Policy Center - Blog\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Anna Schwartz United States of America v. 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