The state of West Virginia is suing pharmacies and drug distributors accused of making millions pushing narcotics to anyone who wants them.
No state has had more trouble with prescription pain pills, and no town more trouble than Kermit -- population 400.
"They filled more scripts for oxycodone than all but 21 pharmacies in America," said Jim Cagle, who represents the state in the groundbreaking lawsuit against pill mills and wholesale drug distributors.
More than three million doses of hydrocodone were ordered by a Kermit pharmacist, James Wooley. In one year, he paid drug distributors hundreds of thousands while netting more than $6 million in profit.
Wooley lost his license in 2012 and served six months in prison for illegally dispensing drugs.
A pharmacy called Tug Valley is being sued for negligently filling prescriptions. Records show the pharmacy was filling more than 150 pain prescriptions a day from one clinic alone.
AmerisourceBergen is the third largest drug distributor in the country, and one of 11 defendants in the state's case. Over a five-year period, they filled orders for 118 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills -- enough to supply every West Virginian with thirteen pain pills a year.
The trial is set to begin in October.
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