TEXAS, USA — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office announced an $83 million settlement with Kroger related to claims about the supermarket company’s alleged role in contributing to the opioid epidemic, marking his team’s latest victory in an ongoing effort to hold corporations accountable.
Paxton’s office announced the settlement on Thursday, notifying local governments in Texas that they can now register to receive “benefits and opioid remediation funds to which they are entitled” through the settlement. That deadline is Dec. 29.
“We’ve worked relentlessly to hold major pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies accountable for their role in the national opioid epidemic that has created so much suffering in our State,” Paxton is quoted as saying in a release. “This settlement is an important step in our ongoing efforts to securing justice for Texas.”
The settlement with Kroger, finalized on Oct. 29, also requires Kroger to create a Controlled Substance Compliance Program, providing a copy of its policies to Texas within 60 days. As part of that program, the company must also “maintain a telephone and electronic submission hotline” allowing employees or anyone else to report any suspected “inappropriate or illegitimate” distribution of drugs. Site visits will also be required to make sure program policies are being followed.
Kroger is also required to shell out more than $12.1 million in attorney’s fees to Texas.
Texas has previously reached opioid-related settlements with Johnson & Johnson, Allergan, CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, among other companies. In all, those settlements have amounted to a combined $3 billion, according to Paxton’s office.
Since 1999, the number of overdose deaths involving prescription opioids has steadily risen – though not necessarily each successive year – topping out at more than 17,000 such deaths in the U.S. in 2017, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Globally, the Centers for Disease Control say, nearly 82,000 people died from opioid overdose in 2022.