County To Get $3 Million From Kroger In Opioid Settlement

Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

Milwaukee County’s attorneys have reached another settlement agreement with a company involved in the opioid crisis.

The county and local governments across the country sued the supermarket chain The Kroger Company for the way its pharmacies distributed the dangerous and addictive narcotics, ignoring “red flags of fraud or overprescribing.”

Under the settlement, the county will receive approximately $3.06 million. Statewide, communities will collect $21.6 million in settlement payments from the corporation.

In total, the retail giant is settling for approximately $1.2 billion paid to governments across the country. It is also agreeing to policy changes aimed at ensuring pharmacy operations are adequately investigating and considering “Red Flags” when filling prescriptions. The company will also be required to provide annual reports to the states involved in the suit detailing how many and what prescriptions for controlled substances — like opioids — it has filled.

The Kroger settlement is the latest to come from multi-district litigation taken against pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies and other companies that played a role in the opioid crisis. The lawsuits have argued that manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioids knowingly misled the public about the risks associated with the drugs and paid little attention to suspicious orders and prescriptions.

To date, the lawsuits have led to approximately $51 billion in settlements for communities across the country, according to a recent statement from attorneys for the plaintiffs.

The first settlement for Milwaukee County resulting from the multi-district opioid litigation came in 2021 with a handful of drug manufacturers and distributors. The county netted approximately $71 million. It was the largest settlement ever recovered by a county or municipality in state history. The county later agreed to a second, $56 million settlement with large pharmaceutical companies like Walgreens, Walmart and CVS among others. These funds are being paid out to the county over a period of 18 years.

Chunks of each settlement are being used to pay attorney fees for outside counsel working on the case. The rest of the funding is being used to support existing substance abuse programs and to create new services and even research.

The Milwaukee County Board will consider the settlement in July. During the same cycle, supervisors will hear what county officials plan to do with approximately $8 million already collected from previous settlements; programs ranging from mobile access to substance abuse treatments to emergency housing for people struggling with homelessness and addiction.

The county is also a party to ongoing litigation against the infamous opioid producer Purdue Pharma. However, a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court has placed a settlement agreement for the case in jeopardy.