West Virginia sues Rite-Aid, Walgreens over pain pill flood

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Rite-Aid and Walgreens failed to monitor and report suspicious orders of prescription painkillers in West Virginia while inundating their retail pharmacies with tens of millions of pills, according to a state lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed by Attorney General Patrick Morrisey alleges violations of the state's Consumer Credit and Protection Act and conduct that caused a public nuisance. It said the company's individual state pharmacies also had to buy pills from other distributors to keep up with demand.

West Virginia has by far the highest death rate from prescription overdoses. Nationally, the drug crisis has resulted in more than 430,000 deaths since 2000.

Morrisey said Rite-Aid and Walgreens were among the state's top 10 opioid distributors from 2006 to 2014. Rite-Aid distributed the equivalent of more than 87 million oxycodone pills and its retail pharmacies ordered another 127.5 million pills from other distributors to fulfill demand, the lawsuit said. That's about 119 pills for every resident in the state of 1.8 million people.

Walgreens distributed the equivalent of 29.6 million pills in West Virginia and its pharmacies bought another 17.6 million, the lawsuit said.

“Prescription opioid pill mills and rogue prescribers cannot channel opioids for illicit use without at least the tacit support and willful blindness of distributors, if not their knowing support,” Morrisey said in a statement. “Those who unconscionably help create our state’s opioid epidemic should be held accountable, pay for their role in the crisis and act to remediate the problem. West Virginia deserves nothing less.”

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Putnam County Circuit Court.

Walgreens spokesman Phil Caruso said in an email that Walgreens “never...