Kroger Pharmacies agrees to pay $110M to KY for role in opioid epidemic, AG says
Kentucky will receive millions of dollars in a settlement with Kroger Company for the company’s role in distributing opioids in the state without safeguards, Attorney General Russell Coleman announced Thursday.
Kroger has agreed to pay $110 million to Kentucky for their part in the opioid epidemic. The money will go toward treating addiction in the commonwealth.
Half the funds will go to the local governments, with the other half going to the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Commission, which oversees the disbursement of opioid settlement funds. The group was created in 2022 to distribute the $842 million awarded from opioid companies.
The commission awarded $12 million to 50 organizations in 2024.
Kentucky was hit particularly hard by the opioid epidemic that began in the 2010s as doctors generously prescribed addictive pain medications. States across the U.S., including Kentucky, have spent recent years looking to recoup the financial strain of the epidemic. In 2023 alone, there were 1,984 overdose deaths in Kentucky.
In February 2024, just a month into his tenure as the state’s top law enforcement official, Coleman filed the suit, which alleged that between 2006 and 2019, more than 100 Kentucky Kroger pharmacies were responsible for more than 11% of all opioid pills dispensed in the state.
“I ran for this seat to get back in the fight to push back on the crisis, holding all of those accountable who make those deadly drugs access,” Coleman said Thursday. “Whether it is someone on the corner, someone in a white coat, or someone in a corporate board room.”
Coleman alleged Kroger violated the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act and was a public nuisance.
The 60-page complaint, filed in Bullitt County Circuit Court, said Kroger, over the course of 13 years, brought 444 million opioid doses into their 100 Kentucky pharmacies.
That is one hundred doses of opioids for every man, woman and child in the state, according to Coleman.
Kroger pharmacies also distributed 194 million hydrocodone pills during that same period, according to the lawsuit. Most surprisingly, Coleman said, Kroger did not have an internal monitoring system to track suspicious activity, no training and no way to prevent abuse.
In November 2024, Kroger settled with 30 other states for $1.37 billion for the grocery chain’s role in the opioid crisis. Kentucky chose not to be included in multi-state litigation. If they had, the payout would have been based on the state’s population — not the level of harm brought forth by opioids.
If they had participated, Kentucky would have received $50 million.
Coleman said the settlement started a new chapter with the grocery chain, who he said, chose to be a part of the solution.
This story was originally published January 9, 2025 at 11:26 AM.
