Attorney General Griffin and 30-state coalition announce opioid settlement with Kroger

Griffin: ‘I am grateful to the bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general who worked together on behalf of their citizens to hold Kroger accountable’

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin today issued the following statement announcing that Arkansas will receive up to $13,535,086.30 as its share of a $1.37 billion settlement with Arkansas, 29 other states, and Kroger over its role in the opioid crisis:

“Opioid addiction continues to be a scourge in Arkansas and our nation. I am pleased with this settlement as the funds will go to opioid abatement. I am grateful to the bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general who worked together on behalf of their citizens to hold Kroger accountable.”

Arkansas’s share will be paid over 11 payments through 2034. Kroger has agreed to injunctive relief that requires its pharmacies to monitor, report, and share data about suspicious activity related to opioid prescriptions.

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Between 2006 and 2014, Arkansas was flooded with almost 1.5 billion units of addictive opioids. By 2016, Arkansas had the second-highest opioid prescription rate in the nation, with 114.6 opioids being dispersed for every 100 Arkansans.

In November 2023, Griffin announced a grant of $50 million of the state’s opioid settlement funds to help establish the National Center for Opioid Research & Clinical Effectiveness (NCOR) at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

To read the settlement, click here.

Arkansas Attorney General sues Temu, pharmacy benefit managers

KUAR | By Josie Lenora

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin announced two new lawsuits Monday and Tuesday. One suit targets two pharmacy benefit managers, companies he says financially profited from the opioid crisis. The other was against the online retail site Temu for allegedly using malware on customers.

Pharmacy Benefit Managers

Pharmacy benefit managers work as the middle men between pharmacists and health insurance companies. They negotiate for rebates with pharmaceutical companies.

Arkansas' suit is specifically against the companies Optum and Express Scripts. Both rake in billions of dollars each year in profit. Griffin says both groups profited from the opioid crisis “pill by pill and dollar by dollar.”

Arkansas Attorney General sues Temu, pharmacy benefit managers

“Empire of Pain” Author Draws Large Crowd to UAMS for Lecture

By Linda Satter

The 335-seat Fred W. Smith Auditorium was bursting at the seams April 26 as physicians, pain management experts and members of the community gathered to hear author Patrick Radden Keefe recount his investigative reporting into the origins of the opioid crisis in America.

A livestream of the presentation attracted nearly 100 viewers from such states as New York, Georgia, North Carolina, Minnesota, Illinois, Kansas, Washington, California, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas as well as from Sweden, Mexico, France and Uruguay.

Author of the New York Times bestseller “Empire of Pain,” which examines the role that a prominent philanthropic family played in the crisis, Keefe said he stumbled onto the family’s hidden connections to the drug industry about a decade ago. At the time, he was writing articles for The New Yorker magazine about the business side of Mexican drug cartels and their various “product lines,” and noticed that the cartels had suddenly begun shipping more heroin to the United States.

“Empire of Pain” Author Draws Large Crowd to UAMS for Lecture

Johnathan Goree, M.D., left, who directs Interventional Pain Management Services at UAMS, and Rohit Dhall, M.D. , chair of the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Neurology, talk with Keefe while he signs copies of his books after the lecture. Image by Evan Lewis