Walmart (NYSE:WMT) Files Lawsuit Against Federal Government Over Its Links To The Opioid Crisis

Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) has filed a lawsuit against the US federal government seeking clarity on legal responsibilities and roles of Pharmacies and pharmacists in filling opioid prescriptions. The retailer wants to strike a pre-emptive blow against an opioid-related suit.

Walmart sues federal government

In the lawsuit filed on Thursday, the company said that the DoJ wants to scapegoat the company over the federal government’s regulatory and enforcement flaws in fighting the opioid crisis. The company says that the justice department officials want to sue it, claiming that pharmacists should have not filled opioid prescriptions, even those that looked valid. Walmart indicated that the government is seeking tough financial penalties against it over its role in the opioid crisis.

In a statement, Walmart said that they are suing the government because no law requires pharmacists to interfere in prescriptions given by a doctor to the level the DoJ wants. The lawsuit names the Attorney General William Barr and the department as respondents and also the DEA and its administrator Timothy Shea. Walmart wants clarification from a judge that there is no lawful basis for the government to seek civil damages from the company for valid prescriptions.

DoJ seeking civil damages from Walmart for its role in the opioid crisis

Currently, Walmart operates over 5,000 in-store pharmacies across the US and has indicated that the government’s threatened action could be unprecedented. Walmart says that the government is yet to indicate if the company filled altered prescriptions or their pharmacists have an inappropriate association with doctors or patients. The company says in the suit that the DEA and DOJ at the back of their profound failures are now seeking to impose unworkable requirements on pharmacists retroactively. The requirements are not anchored in any law and are beyond what the pharmacists are trained and licensed to carry.

Last week a court in West Virginia ruled that the retailer should turn over information about investigations into its opioid role in the opioid crisis. Opioid addiction claimed 400,000 lives between 1999 and 2017.