Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced Thursday his office reached a $44.5 million settlement with Food City over the grocery store chain’s opioid-related misconduct.
In addition to the $44.5 million payout, Food City has also agreed to “ensure future compliance by providing additional training to pharmacy staff, updating the prescription-validation process, and monitoring and reporting data related to suspicious activity,” according to Skrmetti’s office
Today, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced a $44.5 million settlement in Food City opioid case. Read more: https://t.co/2vulRA6fdI pic.twitter.com/Ef3nvbASp1
— TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) September 21, 2023
The settlement also includes an agreement by the grocery chain to “provide dedicated employment opportunities for Tennesseans recovering from opioid addiction.”
“Every entity that contributed to the opioid crisis must be held accountable. Our Consumer Protection Division remains relentless in the pursuit of justice and I am proud of their aggressive enforcement in this case,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “By paying a hefty price to resolve past misconduct, Food City provides critical resources to save lives and protect families and can now get back to the business of serving its customers and supporting Tennessee communities.”
Former Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III filed Tennessee’s lawsuit against Food City in February 2021, as previously reported by The Tennessee Star. At the time, Slatery asserted that Food City violated the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act, the public nuisance statute, and the common law by endangering public health.
“Food City made a lot of money from filling opioid prescriptions. In itself that’s not a problem. The problem is how they did it,” Slatery said.
Most of this week’s settlement will go to Tennessee’s Opioid Abatement Trust Fund to support local efforts across the Volunteer State addressing the opioid epidemic. Tennessee General Assembly established Tennessee’s Opioid Abatement Council in 2021 to “oversee the trust and ensure funds related to opioid abuse, misuse, prevention, and awareness are dispersed throughout the state.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Food City” by Thomas Hawk. CC BY-NC 2.0.
