Kroger, one of the largest grocery stores in the U.S., is settling a lawsuit with Kentucky for $110 million, which the state says it will use to combat the highest death rate due to overdoses in the country.
The state’s lawsuit against The Kroger Co. focused on the in-store pharmacies and alleges the large grocery store chain helped “fuel” the opioid epidemic in Kentucky.
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman announced the historic settlement recently, saying that Kroger broke the public’s trust.
“This massive grocery chain that asked for our trust and our business allowed the fire of addiction to spread across the commonwealth, leaving pain and leaving so much brokenness in its aftermath,” said AG Coleman.
Coleman said that Kroger has agreed to help with the state’s prevention and recovery programs, and “agreed to become part of the solution.”
The $110 million settlement money includes about $18 million in attorney’s fees and costs while the remainder will be used for Kentucky’s programs to fight the rampant opioid addiction in the state.
The suit against Kroger was filed by Kentucky in February 2024, accusing Kroger of stocking and distributing about 444 million doses of opioids over six years, from 2006 to 2019. During that time, the suit says, Kroger sold 11 percent of all opioid pills in Kentucky via the company’s 100-plus pharmacies.
“But most shockingly, there was ... no internal, serious system in place at Kroger to track or report suspicious activities,” AG Coleman said. “No trainings for staff. No guidelines to prevent abuse.”
In a statement released by Kroger, the company said they “long provided associates throughout the pharmacy with robust training, as well as tools to assist pharmacists in their professional judgment.” However, the company added they are very hopeful the $110 million settlement will help ease the opioid epidemic raging in Kentucky.
The Kroger payout to Kentucky will be split as follows: $6 million paid within 30 days; after this initial payment, Kroger will make five annual payments of about $6 million every year until 2029; from 2030 to 2034, Kroger will pay Kentucky $7 million per year, followed by Kroger paying Kentucky $8 million each year from 2035 to 2038.
In 2023, Kroger agreed to another multi-state settlement in regard to lawsuits concerning the opioid crisis. That settlement, in which Kentucky did not participate, resulted in a settlement of $1.2 billion, earmarked for local and state governments.
AG Coleman said that if the state had participated in the prior multi-state lawsuit and subsequent settlement, its payout would have been about half as much.
“If we would have joined the multistate settlement,” said AG Colman, “Kentucky would have brought home close to $50 million.”
Many thousands of local and state governments in the U.S. have sued drug manufacturers, pharmacies, distribution firms and others due to the overwhelming national opioid epidemic.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that “108,000 people died from drug overdose in 2022 and approximately 82,000 of those deaths involved opioids (about 76%).” 2023 saw over 100,000 drug overdose deaths in America, which has the most drug overdose deaths of any country.
Like Kroger, other large grocery or pharmacy firms have settled massive opioid lawsuits with states. Kentucky will also receive $94 million from CVS from abatement funds and about $102 million from Walgreens from opioid settlements.
Kroger paid the state of California $122 million for a similar opioid lawsuit settlement in 2023.
Kroger, as part of the settlement, denies all wrongdoing. In an email to Supermarket News, the grocery chain wrote, “We are pleased to have reached a settlement with the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and we hope the funds will be used to combat opioid abuse in the region. However, the claims that Kroger did not have internal training or guardrails around filling prescriptions for opioids are patently false.”
