美国司法部周二宣布，将起诉沃尔玛，指控沃尔玛通过在全国范围内的药店非法分发受控物质来助长美国阿片类药物危机。
该部门的诉讼指控称，多年来，沃尔玛的药房非法填充数千种阿片类药物处方，而无需进行任何护理和调查，其中包括药剂师知道可疑的处方。
该诉讼还指控沃尔玛未能发现多达数十万可疑的阿片类药物，并将其报告给药物管制局，尽管据称该公司多年来一直知道其内部监控系统“严重不足”。
在回应该诉讼的声明中，沃尔玛指责司法部的调查“受到历史道德违规的污染”，并且该诉讼“发明了一种法律理论，非法迫使药剂师介入患者及其医生之间”。
沃尔玛指出，该诉讼“充斥了事实上的错误和从上下文中摘取的樱桃文件。责备药剂师未对药物管制局（DEA）批准开出阿片类药物处方的医生进行第二次猜测是一种透明的转移责备的尝试。得益于DEA的有据可查的失败，这些失败未能使不良医生首先处方阿片类药物。”
司法部代理民政部门首席代表杰弗里·博塞特·克拉克（Jeffrey Bossert Clark）在周二的简报中说：“沃尔玛承担着重要的关门职责，以确保合法使用处方阿片类药物和其他受控物质，而不被滥用。” “但是在这两个角色中，沃尔玛都违反了法律，沃尔玛的违法行为在全国范围内发生，造成了灾难性的后果，并伤害了许多在沃尔玛开出处方然后滥用该药物的人，这助长了国家危机。”
投诉中概述的一项指控说，在佛罗里达州，“药丸厂”的医生经常给成千上万的人开不正确的处方，他们会告诉客户将处方带给沃尔玛，因为他们知道其他药店不会接受。
在向记者作简报时，司法部官员拒绝评论为何今天宣布的民事诉讼中没有提出刑事指控，尽管他们不排除将来有可能提起刑事诉讼。
沃尔玛在声明中说，它已经起诉了美国商务部和DEA，以“捍卫我们的药剂师，在法庭上对这一新诉讼进行斗争时，我们将继续为我们的药剂师辩护。” 沃尔玛了解司法部的调查，于10月起诉了司法部和DEA。
opioid crisis by unlawfully distributing controlled substances at its pharmacies around the country.
The department's lawsuit alleges that for years, Walmart's pharmacies unlawfully filled thousands of prescriptions for opioids without required care and investigation, including prescriptions pharmacists knew were suspect.
The lawsuit also accuses Walmart of failing to detect as many as hundreds of thousands of suspicious orders of opioids and report them to the Drug Enforcement Administration, even as the company allegedly knew that its internal monitoring systems were "grossly inadequate" for years.
In a statement responding to the lawsuit, Walmart accused the Justice Department's investigation of being " tainted by historical ethics violations" and that the lawsuit "invents a legal theory that unlawfully forces pharmacists to come between patients and their doctors."
The lawsuit, Walmart alleges, is "riddled with factual inaccuracies and cherry-picked documents taken out of context. Blaming pharmacists for not second-guessing the very doctors the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) approved to prescribe opioids is a transparent attempt to shift blame from DEA’s well-documented failures in keeping bad doctors from prescribing opioids in the first place," according to its statement
"Walmart had important gatekeeping responsibilities to ensure that prescription opioids and other controlled substances were used legitimately and not abused," said DOJ's acting Civil Division chief Jeffrey Bossert Clark in a briefing with reporters Tuesday. "But in both roles Walmart violated the law and Walmart's unlawful conduct, which occurred nationwide, had disastrous consequences and harmed the many individuals who filled their prescriptions at Walmart and then abused the drug and it helped fuel a national crisis."
One allegation outlined in the complaint says that in Florida, "pill mill" doctors, who often give improper prescriptions to thousands of individuals, would tell their customers to bring prescriptions to Walmart because they knew that other pharmacies would not accept them.
In the briefing with reporters, DOJ officials declined to comment on why no criminal charges were brought in conjunction with the civil lawsuit announced today though they did not rule out the potential for some to be brought in the future.
In its statement, Walmart says it had already sued the Department and DEA "to stand up for our pharmacists, and we will keep defending our pharmacists as we fight this new lawsuit in court." Walmart, aware of the DOJ investigation。
