Tennessee AG Sues Supermarket Chain for Flooding State with Opioids
February 8, 2021
Tennessee’s attorney general on Thursday sued Food City over claims that the supermarket chain’s pharmacies intentionally profited from the opioid epidemic by unlawfully selling tens of millions of prescription opioids in the state.
Attorney General Herbert Slatery filed the 208-page complaint in Knox County Circuit Court, saying more than 23% of the opioids the company’s Tennessee pharmacies sold between 2006 and 2014 were from one Knoxville store.
According to the lawsuit, for that one store, Food City bought more 30-milligram oxycodone from its main distributor from October 2011 to January 2012 than was bought by all of the pharmacies in 38 entire states and the Washington, D.C. Additionally, the company sold large amounts of opioids to people from other countries and far-off U.S. states as multiple overdoses happened in stores or their parking lots, the lawsuit states.