Justice Department Accuses Walgreens of Dispensing ‘Millions’ of Illegal Opioid Prescriptions

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a civil suit against Walgreens alleging that the pharmacy retailer dispensed millions of unlawful prescriptions for opioids despite “clear red flags that indicated the prescriptions were highly likely to be unlawful,” according to a statement by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. The Justice Department filed a similar suit against CVS in December 2024.

The more recent complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on Jan. 17, alleges that from approximately August 2012 through the present, Walgreens knowingly filled millions of prescriptions for controlled substances that lacked a legitimate medical purpose, were not valid, and/or were not issued in the usual course of professional practice, according to a Justice Department press release. Among the millions of unlawful prescriptions that Walgreens allegedly filled were prescriptions for dangerous and excessive quantities of opioids, prescriptions for early refills of opioids and prescriptions for the especially dangerous and abused combination of drugs known as the “trinity,” which is made up of an opioid, a benzodiazepine and a muscle relaxant.

Walgreens and CVS already have agreed to $10 billion in payments to states, local governments and tribes for their alleged mishandling of painkiller prescriptions, as well as $230 million Walgreens paid to the city of San Francisco and a reported $500 million to settle with the state of New Mexico.

The heavy fines may have contributed to Walgreens’ need to initiate a turnaround in June 2024, was well as the retailer’s October 2024 decision to shutter 1,200 stores over the next three years.

As for the most recent lawsuit, Walgreens responded with a statement on its website that said in part: “We are asking the court to clarify the responsibilities of pharmacies and pharmacists and to protect against the government’s attempt to enforce arbitrary ‘rules’ that do not appear in any law or regulation and never went through any official rulemaking process. We will not stand by and allow the government to put our pharmacists in a no-win situation, trying to comply with ‘rules’ that simply do not exist.”

The retailer’s statement added: “Walgreens stands behind our pharmacists, dedicated healthcare professionals who live in the communities they serve, filling legitimate prescriptions for FDA-approved medications written by DEA-licensed prescribers in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”