Walgreens contributed to San Francisco opioid crisis, judge rules

San Francisco — A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Walgreens can be held responsible for contributing to San Francisco's opioid crisis for over-dispensing highly addictive drugs for years without proper oversight and failing to identify and report suspicious orders as required by law.

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said the pharmacy chain "continually violated what they were required to do under the federal Controlled Substances Act," failing to track opioid prescriptions, preventing pharmacists from vetting prescriptions and not seeing "the many red flags of physicians and others who were dramatically over-prescribing."

"Pharmacists were pressured to fill, fill, fill," he said, "and as a result, Walgreens filled our streets with opioids."