Cities self-destruct: The SHAKEDOWN is for REAL.

[SaiGirl]

It’s one thing to shake down huge Big Pharma outfits like the Sacklers.
But it’s another step entirely to shake down the actual retail stores where the opioids were sold legally by doctor’s prescription.

This is a dirty shyster’s game and open season on any retail business that prefers not to pay millions in fees to lawyers for “protection” against such massive lawsuits by the mayors and corrupt executives that ostensibly run the city, state and Federal bureaucracy.

THE SHAKEDOWN IS FOR REAL.

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Baltimore has reached a $45 million settlement with CVS, ending another piece of the city’s ongoing lawsuit against major American drug companies and distributors accused of contributing to the opioid crisis.

Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced the settlement, which ends the city’s claims against CVS, in a news release late Friday. So far, the city has won $90 million from opioid companies it is suing, including another $45 million Baltimore received from a settlement with the drugmaker Allergan.

Both companies accounted for only a small share of the opioids sold in Baltimore during the height of prescribing. The other companies still in the lawsuit — Johnson & Johnson, McKesson, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen (now called Cencora), Teva Pharmaceuticals and Walgreens — were responsible for more than 80 percent of the opioids sent to Baltimore’s pharmacies, the city said.

The lawsuit alleges that opioid manufacturers and distributors flooded the Baltimore area with hundreds of millions of prescription opioids, reversing progress the city had made at reducing heroin overdose deaths and creating a far worse addiction problem. Now facing an overdose crisis stemming from illicit drugs like fentanyl, the city wants opioid companies to pay more than $11 billion toward addiction treatment and other services.

“These companies targeted Baltimore and decided profits were more important than the health and safety of the people of this City,” Scott said in a statement. “We are fully committed to ensuring that these companies pay their fair share to repair the damage they’ve done to our neighborhoods and families.”
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/compani ... r-AA1oxEUs

Consider that pharmacy chains like Rite-Aid, Walgreens or CVS have been CLOSING stores in urban areas due the cost of shoplifting and other theft / robbery / assaults on employees.

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CVS says it will close NINE HUNDRED stores by the end of 2024 - 10% of all its shops - as it moves to online strategy amid rampant increase in shoplifting.
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/c ... ngNewsSerp

Put it all together and what it spells is the "controlled demolition" of the retail prescription sales business. Local stores will be devastated.

Perhaps the plan is to eliminate these businesses physically and replace their function with online sales and distribution of prescription pharmaceuticals.
Is this the end of the local neighborhood "drug store" (pharmacy, apothecary)?

https://michiganadvance.com/2024/08/07/ ... e-deserts/

https://www.wdrb.com/news/business/sout ... baef2.html

It certainly would spell the end of "compounding" pharmaceuticals locally:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigatio ... 022-02-23/

What really needs to be done?
Break up the Big Pharma cartels and abolish the corrupt FDA, CDC, NIH, NIAID.
Pursue criminal fraud, extortion and racketeering charges against the key players in the "COVID" shakedown and heists.
The entire medical system has to be overhauled.
I don't expect any of that to happen without major conflict and upheaval. And much suffering first.

[SaiGirl]

The shakedown goes national.
Expect it to go global.

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Baltimore: (JHU and its affiliated “health care” complex):

https://mayor.baltimorecity.gov/news/pr ... ing-opioid

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Illinois (The Pritzkers):



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Here is where the narrative goes “national”:

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CVS and Walgreens have agreed to pay a combined $10.7 billion to settle allegations they failed to adequately oversee opioid painkiller prescriptions, thus contributing to America's opioid addiction crisis.

The funds will be distributed to states, local governments and federally recognized tribes and will go toward opioid crisis abatement and remediation programs. CVS will pay $4.9 billion to states and political subdivisions and approximately $130 million to tribes. Walgreens will pay $4.95 billion, plus more than $750 million in fees for attorneys and costs. The payments will be made over time.

The pharmacy chains have also agreed to implement robust controlled substance compliance programs that will require additional layers of opioid prescription reviews and institute new mandatory training programs.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consum ... -rcna61307

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What’s the target here? What’s the net “blame game”?

So it’s not the doctor who prescribed it.
Nor is it the advertising consultants or TV networks who pushed it to the masses.
Nor is it the manufacturer (patent owner) in this particular settlement.
Nor is it the incompetence of the FDA which is supposed to “regulate” this kind of thing.

In this “settlement”, it’s the RETAIL sales distributor, at the very bottom of the supply chain, who’s being shaken down
The only step below to whom the cost of this shakedown will be passed on, would be the PATIENT / CUSTOMER

Put it all together and what it spells is the "controlled demolition" of the retail prescription sales business. Local stores will be devastated.

[SaiGirl]

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) would like to inform you that HB4874 (PA103-0732) was signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday, August 2, 2024. This new law, effective immediately, provides that a pharmacist may not refuse to fill a valid prescription solely because it is not prescribed electronically.

In addition, any pharmacist who dispenses in good faith based upon a valid prescription that is not prescribed electronically may be exempt from any disciplinary action. A pharmacist is not required to ensure or responsible for ensuring the prescriber's compliance, nor may any other entity or organization require a pharmacist to ensure the prescriber's compliance with that subsection.

-The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation