COVINGTON, Ky. — Kroger will pay Kentucky $110 million in settlement funds that will ultimately go to combat the opioid crisis Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman says the business helped fuel.
Coleman filed a lawsuit against Kroger in Bullitt Circuit Court in February 2024, citing the company had over-provided opioid doses to Kentuckians during the opioid crisis.
"This is blood money purchased by the lives of your loved ones," Coleman said. "It reminds us of the seriousness of being a steward of these dollars."
According to Coleman, Kroger filled opioid prescriptions at more than 100 pharmacy locations between 2006 through 2019, distributing roughly 444 million doses in Kentucky during that time. Coleman said it accounts for around 11% of all opioid pills dispensed in Kentucky during that period.
In a statement, a Kroger spokesperson said the company is pleased to have settled.
"We will continue to do our part to fight opioid misuse across the U.S. while providing access to fresh, affordable food to families," a Kroger spokesperson said, in part, in a statement.
"For over a decade, Kroger tragically fed the flames of the drug addiction fire that rages across every county of our Commonwealth," Coleman said. "But this devastation isn't the end of the story. Kentucky is resilient and we get back up, no matter how many times we are knocked down."
Coleman said as Kroger was filling prescriptions for millions of doses of opioids, there was no internal monitoring system in place within the company to report suspected abuse.
As a distributor and dispenser, Kroger had access to real-time data revealing unusual prescribing patterns, Coleman's office said. Despite such “red flags,” Kroger did not report a single suspicious prescription in Kentucky between 2007 and 2014, the AG's office said.
In a statement sent to WCPO by a Kroger spokesperson Thursday, the company said those claims are "patently false."
"The claims that Kroger did not have internal training or guardrails around filling prescriptions for opioids are patently false," the spokesperson said. "The company has long provided associates throughout the pharmacy with robust training, as well as tools to assist pharmacists in their professional judgment, including being the first major retail pharmacy to integrate state prescription drug monitoring directly into our pharmacy system."
The suit alleged Kroger bought more than four billion morphine milligram equivalents of opioids for Kentucky between 2006 and 2019, roughly equivalent to 444 million opioid doses. The company distributed almost 194 million hydrocodone pills to its Kentucky pharmacies between 2006 and 2019, the suit said.
The settlement amount of $110 million will nearly double the amount of settlement funds Kentucky expected to receive from the recent multi-state opioid settlements, Coleman said.
"These settlement dollars will have a massive impact on Kentucky," said Coleman.
Per the arrangement created in Kentucky by law, half of the settlement funding received will go to cities and counties within the Commonwealth, and the other half will go to the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission.
However, before that happens roughly $18 million will go toward paying the Commonwealth's lawyers, according to a statement from a Kroger spokesperson.
"We hope the remaining approximately $90 million in abatement funds will be used to combat opioid misuse and abuse in Kentucky communities," said the spokesperson in an email.
The Bluegrass State has been hard hit by the nation's overdose crisis, and a series of Kentucky attorneys general from both political parties — including now-Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat — aggressively pursued legal action against companies that make or distribute opioid-based medication. Coleman, a Republican who took office at the start of 2024, continued the trend with his suit against Kroger.
Overdose fatalities in Kentucky surpassed 2,000 again in 2022 but were down from the prior year, Beshear said in a 2023 announcement. Increased use of fentanyl — a powerful synthetic opioid — is blamed as a key factor behind the state’s chronically high overdose death toll.
The Kroger settlement is just one of eight available to Ohio communities through the National Opioid Settlement. Other settlements include Johnson and Johnson, Walmart and Walgreens. In all, the settlements will pay out to communities across the state more than $51 billion.
In 2023, Kroger agreed to settle other lawsuits related to the opioid crisis, paying local and state governments up to $1.2 billion. In a strategy that's since paid off, Coleman said, the state of Kentucky chose not to participate.
"Given the widespread presence, the 11% distribution number from Kroger, I wasn't willing to allow states like California and New York to get the larger payouts at Kentucky's expense," Coleman said.
Coleman said the class action settlement would only have netted Kentucky around $50 million.
Find Kroger's full statement here:
“We are pleased to have reached a settlement with the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and we hope the funds will be used to combat opioid abuse in the region. However, the claims that Kroger did not have internal training or guardrails around filling prescriptions for opioids are patently false. The company has long provided associates throughout the pharmacy with robust training, as well as tools to assist pharmacists in their professional judgement, including, being the first major retail pharmacy to integrate state prescription drug monitoring directly into our pharmacy system.
Our more than 100 pharmacies across Kentucky provide our customers with access to expert care, often in areas where healthcare is difficult to access. We will continue to do our part to fight opioid misuse across the U.S. while providing access to fresh, affordable food to families.”
Watch Live:
