The Justice Department is suing Walmart, accusing the retailer of turning its pharmacies into a network of opioid suppliers that helped fuel the epidemic

• The Justice Department is suing Walmart, accusing it of playing a role in the opioid epidemic.
• Walmart preemptively sued the federal government in October.
• The lawsuit alleges that Walmart pharmacies did not properly screen prescriptions, understaffed pharmacies, and pushed employees to fill prescriptions quickly.

The Department of Justice is suing Walmart for its role in the opioid epidemic, The Wall Street Journal first reported.

The lawsuit against the retail giant accuses Walmart of not properly screening prescriptions for opioids, understaffing pharmacies, and pushing employees to fill prescriptions quickly, all of which contributed to rising rates of addiction and abuse, WSJ reported.

"The Department of Justice has alleged that Walmart Inc. unlawfully dispensed controlled substances from pharmacies it operated across the country and unlawfully distributed controlled substances to those pharmacies throughout the height of the prescription opioid crisis," a DOJ press release reads.

The suit is seeking billions of dollars in civil penalties, accusing Walmart of violating the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Penalties could be over $67,000 for each unlawful prescription that was filled, and over $15,000 for each suspicious prescription not reported.

Walmart responded by calling the investigation "tainted by historical ethics violations," and said that the lawsuit contains "factual inaccuracies and cherry-picked documents taken out of context."

Walmart preempted the suit in October, by suing the DOJ and Drug Enforcement Agency, claiming that the federal government was attempting to shift blame to the retailer for its own regulatory failures.

"Unfortunately, certain DOJ officials have long seemed more focused on chasing headlines than fixing the crisis. They are now threatening a completely unjustified lawsuit against Walmart, claiming in hindsight pharmacists should have refused to fill otherwise valid opioid prescriptions that were written by the very doctors that the federal government still approves to write prescriptions," the company said in an October statement. "We need a court to clarify the roles and legal responsibilities of pharmacists and pharmacies in filling opioid prescriptions."

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The DOJ's lawsuit against Walmart claims that pressure on the pharmacists in Walmart stores made it difficult to properly screen prescriptions and reject invalid ones, which fueled the epidemic. It alleges that when patients couldn't get a prescription fulfilled at one Walmart, they would just go to another location.

Walmart runs 5,000 pharmacies in stores across the US, which the suit accuses it of turning into a network of opioid suppliers that fueled the epidemic, dating back to 2013, WSJ reported. The DOJ statement noted a doctor in prison for illegal opioid prescriptions specifically directed patients to Walmart.

"Today's complaint is the culmination of a painstaking investigation by my office and our Department of Justice colleagues that uncovered years of unlawful conduct that did untold damage to communities around the country," U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado Jason R. Dunn said.

Walmart previously faced legal action from state regulators who accused the retailer of "going too far by refusing to fill opioid prescriptions."