SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – A federal judge has ruled that Walgreens can be held liable for its role in San Francisco's opioid crisis after it failed to "perform adequate due diligence" in dispensing and prescribing drugs from its pharmacies.
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Senior District Judge Charles Breyer – the brother of recently retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer – wrote in a decision Wednesday that the pharmacy giant "substantially contributed" to the city's opioid epidemic by failing to meet its "regulatory obligations to take reasonable steps to prevent the drugs from being diverted and harming the public."
Lawyers representing San Francisco "proved that it is more likely than not that Walgreens pharmacies dispensed large volumes of medically illegitimate opioid prescriptions that were diverted for illicit use," Breyer wrote in Wednesday's ruling. Walgreens must now face another trial which will determine how much the company owes San Francisco.
"This decision gives voice to the thousands of lives lost to the opioid epidemic," San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said in a press release. “This crisis did not come out of nowhere. It was created by the opioid industry, and local jurisdictions like San Francisco have had to shoulder the burden for far too long."
A Walgreens spokesperson told KCBS Radio in an emailed statement that the company was "disappointed with this outcome" and will appeal. The spokesperson said that Walgreens "never manufactured or marketed opioids, nor did we distribute them to the 'pill mills' and internet pharmacies that fueled this crisis."
"The plaintiff's attempt to resolve the opioid crisis with an unprecedented expansion of public nuisance law is misguided and unsustainable," Fraser Engerman, a company spokesperson, wrote in an email. "We look forward to the opportunity to address these issues on appeal."
Drug overdose deaths have climbed in San Francisco, with more residents dying of overdoses from prescription opioids last decade than from fentanyl and heroin combined. Opioid overdoses have been the leading cause of death of unhoused San Franciscans since 2016, and the city estimated in 2019 that nearly 5% of residents were experiencing opioid addiction.
Of the nearly 2.5 million opioid prescriptions Walgreens filled out between 2006 and 2020, an expert testified that more than half had red flags indicating that the prescription was at risk of later being illegally sold.
Walgreens distributed, on average, more than 80,000 prescriptions with red flags every year during that span. A pharmacy expert testifying for the city found "evidence of an appropriate effort to resolve red flags in fewer than 5% of" more than 2,000 prescriptions issued in the city during the previous decade that she reviewed.
"We have seen the devastating impacts of opioid addiction in our most vulnerable communities and this decision is an important step forward in our efforts to save lives," Dr. Grant Colfax, the San Francisco Department of Public Health's director, said on Wednesday. Colfax added that the "case will provide more resources to continue our work with partners to ensure that our efforts to prevent overdose deaths and address substance use disorders are successful."
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