Walmart agrees to pay Ohio $114 million as part of nationwide opioid settlement

A woman pushes a shopping cart outside of a Walmart store

A woman pushes a shopping cart to enter a Walmart in Rolling Meadows, Ill. Walmart on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022 become the latest major player in the drug industry to announce a plan to settle lawsuits filed by state and local governments over the toll of powerful prescription opioids sold at its pharmacies with state and local governments across the U.S.AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Walmart has agreed to pay the state of Ohio $114 million as part of a preliminary nationwide settlement to resolve claims that the retail giant recklessly dispensed opioid prescription painkillers, Attorney General Dave Yost’s office announced Tuesday.

The money is part of a proposed $3.1 billion deal to settle thousands of opioid lawsuits from around the country. The deal requires at least 43 states to sign on by the end of the year; local governments will then have until the end of March 2023 to join the deal.

Any money Ohio gets from the settlement would go to provide treatment and recovery services to people struggling with opioid addiction.

Under the deal, Walmart also agreed to make “robust improvements” in oversight over its pharmacies, according to a Yost release.

“Anytime we can get a worldwide company like Walmart to implement systematic changes that will benefit Ohioans long-term, I’d say that’s a significant win,” Yost said in a statement. “This resolution brings meaningful relief to our communities in need. Let’s put this money to good use.”

The settlement announcement, which confirms reporting by Reuters earlier this month, comes about two weeks after two other large pharmacy chains, CVS and Walgreens, offered to pay a settlement worth a total of $10.7 billion.

The settlements, if accepted, would make the chains the first pharmacies to reach a nationwide deal over how they handled prescriptions for the pills linked to an ongoing opioid epidemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans and addicted countless others since the late 1990s. Under the deal, the companies would not admit any wrongdoing.

The companies’ offer comes after a federal judge in Cleveland ordered the three nationwide chains to pay a combined $650 million to Lake and Trumbull counties to settle claims that the chains’ actions led to overdoses, addictions and an overwhelmed community resource network. Those cases were closely watched as a bellwether case that gave an indication about how future cases would proceed.

Walgreens’ settlement offer is $5.7 billion over 15 years, while CVS agreed to pay $5 billion over 10 years, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Those offers include attorneys’ fees. It’s still unclear how much of that money would go to Ohio if those settlement terms are finalized.

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