3 of America's biggest pharmacy chains have been found liable for the opioid crisis

A federal jury on Tuesday found three of the nation's biggest pharmacy chains, CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, liable for helping fuel the U.S. opioid crisis.

Jurors concluded that the pharmacies contributed to a so-called public nuisance in Lake and Trumbull counties in Ohio by selling and dispensing huge quantities of prescription pain pills.

Some of those medications initially purchased legally wound up being sold on the black market.

Tuesday's verdict is expected to resonate nationally, as the three chains face thousands of similar lawsuits filed by U.S. communities grappling with the opioid crisis.

A separate legal proceeding will now take place to determine how much the companies will have to pay to help remedy the crisis, with damages likely to run into the billions of dollars.

In a statement, attorneys for the Ohio counties that filed this federal lawsuit described the jury's decision as a "milestone victory" in the effort to hold companies accountable for an addiction crisis that's killed hundreds of thousands of people.

"For decades, pharmacy chains have watched as the pills flowing out of their doors cause harm and failed to take action as required by federal law," the attorneys said.

Executives for the pharmacy chains have long maintained they did nothing wrong and only dispensed pills after prescriptions had been written by licensed healthcare providers.

In a statement sent to NPR, a spokesperson for CVS promised an appeal. "We strongly disagree with the decision," the statement said. "Pharmacists fill legal prescriptions written by DEA-licensed doctors who prescribe legal, FDA-approved substances to treat actual patients in need."

In a separate statement to NPR from Walgreens, a spokesperson described the verdict as disappointing. "The facts and the law do not support the verdict. We believe the trial court committed significant legal errors in allowing the case to go before a jury," it said.

This federal verdict comes at a time when efforts in state courts to hold corporations accountable for the opioid crisis hit major legal roadblocks.

Earlier this month, Oklahoma's state supreme court overturned a judgement against drug-maker Johnson & Johnson worth roughly $460 million that was based on the same "public nuisance" legal argument.

A state judge in California also declined to hold drug companies accountable for any role spurring the opioid crisis in communities in that state.

Opioid lawsuits continue to move forward in other venues around the U.S., including New York and Washington state.

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