FORT PIERCE – The St. Lucie County Commission unanimously agreed Jan. 27 to accept the $375,000 settlement of a class-action lawsuit it joined along with St. Johns and Marion counties against the Lakeland-based Publix Supermarket chain for the role its pharmacists played in the dispensing of highly addictive opioids.
The county has focused on similar class-action litigation since a different Commission directed staff in May 2019 to piggyback on a contingent fee retainer agreement that the City of Fort Pierce signed with a group of local attorneys. The following month that group filed their first suit, and those legal actions got a significant boost two years later when then Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody announced a series of historic settlements between the state and opioid manufacturers, distributors and dispensers.
The funds from those settlements are projected to exceed $3 billion over the next 18 years, and Governor Ron DeSantis subsequently announced in 2023 his plans to release $205.7 million for Florida communities to fund prevention, treatment and recovery assistance…