Food City to pay $8.5 million fine to resolve opioid distribution claims

The Abingdon-based Food City will pay an $8.5 million fine to the federal government and $78,621 each to the states of Virginia and Kentucky to resolve allegations that 24 of its stores illegally dispensed opioids and other controlled substances.

Federal prosecutors alleged that the Food City stores dispensed opioids and other controlled substances that were medically unnecessary, lacked a legitimate medical purpose or medically accepted indication, and/or were not dispensed pursuant to valid prescriptions over a seven-year period from 2011-2018.

The settlement with the feds is on top of a separate settlement with the state of Tennessee in a 2023 case in which Food City agreed to pay $44.5 million.

One pharmacy in the Knoxville, Tenn., area reportedly dispensed enough pills to give 130 to every man, woman and child in Knoxville, according to that 2023 settlement.

“Pharmacies that fill prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances have an obligation to ensure that those prescriptions are medically necessary,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The department is committed to holding accountable pharmacies that have abdicated this responsibility and thereby contributed to the nation’s opioids crisis.”