"For years now, CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid have been selling addictive pain medications such as OxyContin, Oxycodone, and other opioid prescriptions with the same ease as toothpaste and snacks." -- cece burger, sixth grade
Toothpaste, snacks, but most importantly prescriptions—all of these things can be bought at your neighborhood, Rite Aid, Walgreens, or even CVS. It is as simple as ordering and picking it up, and that is also the problem. For years now, CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid have been selling addictive pain medications such as OxyContin, Oxycodone, and other opioid prescriptions with the same ease as toothpaste and snacks. And if it is that easy to order such strong substances, that is a large problem.
“In 2021, approximately 80,411 people died from an overdose involving an opioid,” said the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While that may have been in 2021, the number of opioid overdoses are still at an all-time high. And with all of these local, accessible drug stores selling opioids, basically anyone, this issue is not getting better on its own.
“Walgreens has agreed to pay $230 million to San Francisco for its role in the city’s opioid epidemic following last year’s landmark trial that found the pharmacy chain liable for not performing proper screenings,” reported Fierce Healthcare . And while Walgreens might be a multimillion dollar company, that $230 million dollars is not a small cost. Along with Rite Aid, CVS is also being sued for millions of dollars.
“From 2006 to 2014, San Francisco County saw 163,645,704 opioids distributed, enough for 22 pills per person per year, according to the city attorney’s office,” reported in the same article.
The thing with corporate giants is that you can’t just take them down, after all we are the little people. “I believe the fine is fair, because it’s illegal, and very over all dangerous. And not okay, because it killed a lot of people,” said Ruby Deetz a 7th grade Literary Arts student at Oakland School for the Arts.
In 2022, Walgreens and CVS joined together to pay 10 billion dollars in smaller lawsuits and local government lawsuits. That same year Walmart’s Pharmacy paid 3 billion dollars in similar lawsuits. That same year, CVS was also said to pay 5 billion over the next 10 years, starting this year. Whether or not this plan has been working, is still unknown. In 2022 CVS also paid smaller lawsuits 4.9 million dollars.
Even with the lawsuits and lawyers, all of these major pharmaceutical companies aren’t going bankrupt from the loss of billions of dollars. If everything went back to normal somehow, after all of this, they would most likely move on and not look back. But it would take a lot for these corporate giants like Walgreens and CVS to somehow get more money from customers, the problem is there are no customers to be found.
During the pandemic the revenue prices dropped, and they have not gotten higher even after the pandemic was over. Pharmacies have been competing with big companies that ship directly to your house, sometimes in a matter of hours, such as Amazon, and customers of these pharmaceutical companies are leaving with the mentality that they can just order their prescriptions, and whatever else they might need from a place like Amazon. This leaves brick and mortar pharmacies with an unstable amount of customers. There is not enough money to keep these companies afloat, causing them to close stores.
These stores closing are leaving large gaps in communities, and locals are left having to drive to a farther location.
Deetz has experienced this first hand. “It has already affected me,” said Deetz. A CVS in my area has shut down. My family gets their prescriptions from there and that means we have to go somewhere further to get it. It’s just inconvenient.”
The closing of these chain pharmacies are creating greater consequences than you might assume, at this point it is more than just a minor inconvenience.
“They are closing thousands of stores, leaving gaps in communities for medicines and essentials. Researchers find pharmacy closures lead to health risks such as older adults failing to take medication, said CNN Business.
In 2019, JAMA Network did a study and wrote an article called “Association Between Pharmacy Closures and Adherence to Cardiovascular Medications Among Older US Adults.” This study showed that during and after these closures, older adults with prescriptions from these pharmacies had stopped taking their medicine once there wasn’t a local pharmacy available. And this is not cough or cold medicine. The prescriptions these test subjects were taking were very important, things like heart medications like DOACs, which you can’t just stop taking! If you stop taking a literal heart medicine it can lead to a stroke, or worse a heart attack.
“Efforts to reduce nonadherence to prescription medications among older US adults should consider the role of pharmacy closures, especially among patients at highest risk,” said the National Library of Medicine.
“I feel like it's a 50/50 split for the company who was sending out the orders to send to the workers, who also decided to ignore it,” said Deetz on the negligence of these chain pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies. “Someone down the line should have said something about it or acted on it instead of just saying ‘Whatever, we can make money off of this.”
What is happening now is still unclear. The opioid crisis is not getting better, and the pharmacies are closing, meaning less opioids are being distributed to the public. But now that's one less person being able to get their prescription filled, too.
Deetz thinks that this outcome might have an effect on future decisions that major companies may or may not make. “I feel like it [the prescriptions being looked at closer, and more public opinion being incorporated into this situation] will somewhat prevent something like this from happening again, but you never know in this society. Everything is so corrupt.”
“In 2021, approximately 80,411 people died from an overdose involving an opioid,” said the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While that may have been in 2021, the number of opioid overdoses are still at an all-time high. And with all of these local, accessible drug stores selling opioids, basically anyone, this issue is not getting better on its own.
“Walgreens has agreed to pay $230 million to San Francisco for its role in the city’s opioid epidemic following last year’s landmark trial that found the pharmacy chain liable for not performing proper screenings,” reported Fierce Healthcare . And while Walgreens might be a multimillion dollar company, that $230 million dollars is not a small cost. Along with Rite Aid, CVS is also being sued for millions of dollars.
“From 2006 to 2014, San Francisco County saw 163,645,704 opioids distributed, enough for 22 pills per person per year, according to the city attorney’s office,” reported in the same article.
The thing with corporate giants is that you can’t just take them down, after all we are the little people. “I believe the fine is fair, because it’s illegal, and very over all dangerous. And not okay, because it killed a lot of people,” said Ruby Deetz a 7th grade Literary Arts student at Oakland School for the Arts.
In 2022, Walgreens and CVS joined together to pay 10 billion dollars in smaller lawsuits and local government lawsuits. That same year Walmart’s Pharmacy paid 3 billion dollars in similar lawsuits. That same year, CVS was also said to pay 5 billion over the next 10 years, starting this year. Whether or not this plan has been working, is still unknown. In 2022 CVS also paid smaller lawsuits 4.9 million dollars.
Even with the lawsuits and lawyers, all of these major pharmaceutical companies aren’t going bankrupt from the loss of billions of dollars. If everything went back to normal somehow, after all of this, they would most likely move on and not look back. But it would take a lot for these corporate giants like Walgreens and CVS to somehow get more money from customers, the problem is there are no customers to be found.
During the pandemic the revenue prices dropped, and they have not gotten higher even after the pandemic was over. Pharmacies have been competing with big companies that ship directly to your house, sometimes in a matter of hours, such as Amazon, and customers of these pharmaceutical companies are leaving with the mentality that they can just order their prescriptions, and whatever else they might need from a place like Amazon. This leaves brick and mortar pharmacies with an unstable amount of customers. There is not enough money to keep these companies afloat, causing them to close stores.
These stores closing are leaving large gaps in communities, and locals are left having to drive to a farther location.
Deetz has experienced this first hand. “It has already affected me,” said Deetz. A CVS in my area has shut down. My family gets their prescriptions from there and that means we have to go somewhere further to get it. It’s just inconvenient.”
The closing of these chain pharmacies are creating greater consequences than you might assume, at this point it is more than just a minor inconvenience.
“They are closing thousands of stores, leaving gaps in communities for medicines and essentials. Researchers find pharmacy closures lead to health risks such as older adults failing to take medication, said CNN Business.
In 2019, JAMA Network did a study and wrote an article called “Association Between Pharmacy Closures and Adherence to Cardiovascular Medications Among Older US Adults.” This study showed that during and after these closures, older adults with prescriptions from these pharmacies had stopped taking their medicine once there wasn’t a local pharmacy available. And this is not cough or cold medicine. The prescriptions these test subjects were taking were very important, things like heart medications like DOACs, which you can’t just stop taking! If you stop taking a literal heart medicine it can lead to a stroke, or worse a heart attack.
“Efforts to reduce nonadherence to prescription medications among older US adults should consider the role of pharmacy closures, especially among patients at highest risk,” said the National Library of Medicine.
“I feel like it's a 50/50 split for the company who was sending out the orders to send to the workers, who also decided to ignore it,” said Deetz on the negligence of these chain pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies. “Someone down the line should have said something about it or acted on it instead of just saying ‘Whatever, we can make money off of this.”
What is happening now is still unclear. The opioid crisis is not getting better, and the pharmacies are closing, meaning less opioids are being distributed to the public. But now that's one less person being able to get their prescription filled, too.
Deetz thinks that this outcome might have an effect on future decisions that major companies may or may not make. “I feel like it [the prescriptions being looked at closer, and more public opinion being incorporated into this situation] will somewhat prevent something like this from happening again, but you never know in this society. Everything is so corrupt.”
