Ohio Supreme Court rules pharmacies not liable in opioid case

Ohio's Supreme Court ruled last week that pharmacy chain operators CVS, Walmart and Walgreens could not be held liable for fueling an opioid epidemic in two Ohio counties that won a $650.9-million judgment against them (Source: “Pharmacies prevail in appeal of $650-million opioid award in Ohio,” Reuters, Dec. 10).
 
The Ohio Supreme Court held on a 5-2 vote that a state law barred Lake and Trumbull counties' claims that pharmacy chains' dispensing of addictive pain medications created a public nuisance that the companies should be forced to remediate.
 
Justice Joseph Deters, writing for the majority, said the court recognized that the deadly epidemic had touched the lives of people throughout Ohio and "undoubtedly has far-reaching consequences for their communities and for the state as a whole."

"Creating a solution to this crisis out of whole cloth is, however, beyond this court's authority," Deters wrote.
 
Most opioid lawsuit cases have been resolved through large nationwide settlements, which now total about $46 billion, but the Ohio counties were among those who opted out of those deals and pressed forward with their own trials or settlements. A federal jury in Cleveland concluded in 2021 that an oversupply of addictive pain pills and the diversion of those opioids to the black market created a public nuisance in the counties, and that the pharmacies helped cause it.