West Virginia AG Sues Pharmacy for Role in Fueling State’s Opioid Crisis

West Virginia’s attorney general has sued a pharmacy in Boone County, alleging it provided too many highly addictive painkillers over more than a decade.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey says Larry’s Drive-In Pharmacy helped fuel the state’s opioid prescription crisis by providing nearly 10 million doses of painkillers in 11 years in a county with fewer than 25,000 residents.

According to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Boone Circuit Court, Larry’s failed to identify suspicious prescriptions that it filled, dispensing far more doses than Boone County’s 11 other retail pharmacies.

Morrisey says the extraordinary volume “should raise a red flag” and that every part of the prescription drug supply chain has to help identify potential abuse.

A pharmacy manager says she hasn’t seen the lawsuit and declined to comment.