Posted on 11/06/2024 4:50:53 PM PST by algore
Oregon is set to receive $40 million in a settlement agreement with Kroger, the parent company of Fred Meyer and QFC, to resolve lawsuits over its alleged role in helping fuel the opioid epidemic.
The payment finalizes a deal Kroger reached last September to settle most of the claims made by states, local governments and Native American tribes that accused the grocery chain’s pharmacies of contributing to the opioid epidemic. While Kroger did not admit to any wrongdoing or liability as part of the deal, the grocer agreed to pay up to $1.37 billion over 11 years.
As part of the deal, Kroger will pay $1.2 billion to state and local governments and $36 million to Native American tribes to fund programs preventing opioid addiction. The company also agreed to pay $177 million to cover lawyers’ fees and costs. Payments are expected to start in 2025.
“The funds provided will help communities across Oregon respond to and recover from the opioid crisis, though the damage done and the lives lost can’t be undone,” Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said in a statement Tuesday.
Slightly more than half of Kroger’s payout to Oregon (about $22 million) will go to city and county governments, and the rest (about $18 million) will go to the state to address the drug crisis. The state board created by the Oregon Legislature in 2022 — known as the Opioid Settlement Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Board — is in charge of spending the state’s share.
Under the settlement, Kroger’s pharmacies will also have to more closely monitor and report suspicious activity related to opioid prescriptions. In Oregon, Kroger operates 53 retail pharmacies under the Fred Meyer and QFC banners.
In a statement, Kroger said it “will continue to combat opioid abuse” and that the settlement payouts will support “opioid abatement efforts nationwide.”
Other national retailers including Walgreens, CVS and Walmart have also recently agreed to similar settlements over selling opioids.
"That Kroger is a bad mother....SHUT YO' MOUTH!...What? I'm jus' talkin' 'bout Kroger!"
I thought Oregon legalized drug use including opioids!?
If so that should be a basis of a defense for Kroger.
Kroger didn’t write the damned prescriptions! I love how not a single doctor has been sentenced for this disaster.
Kroger is guilty of deep pockets. No point in shaking down companies that are poor.
My advice to Kroger: Pay what you must from the settlement, as unfair as it might be.
Then get out the hell out of Oregon. Close every grocery store and pharmacy you have in the state. What you can’t carry away, destroy with a sledge hammer.
Come to think of it, that’s my advice to any store in any state that Harris carried in 2024.
This what government, all government, eventually morphs into. They become coercive entities constantly searching for new ways to confiscate money made in the productive segment of the economy (private sector) and transfer it into coffers they can easily loot.
Kamala’s brother was/is instramental in channeling govt settlements into special interest groups instead of into the general coffers of the US govt.
The litmus test Oregon watchdogs should apply to Oregon is, whether these Kroger settlements will be applied to the coffers of the state for the benefit of all citizens, redisributed in part to the families who lost family members to addiction, or whether these settlements will, in fact, also be quietly disbursed to enrich the principal members of special interest groups.
How much will the Sinaloa cartel pay for the fentanyl overdoses?
A DOCTOR WRITES THE PRESCRIPTION
A PHARMACY FILLS THAT PRESCRIPTION...
WHERE SHOULD THE BLAME LIE???
Ah, a worthy charity.
Unless they could prove that Kroger dispensed opioids without physician prescriptions, this is a travesty. A pharmacy should not be in the business of second-guessing the prescribing physician.
If you would like more information about what’s happening in Oregon, please FReepmail me. Please send me your name by FReepmail if you want to be on this list.
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