Foulkes Needs to Answer Questions and Apologize for Role in Opioid Crisis, Says Political Scientist

Foulkes Needs to Answer Questions and Apologize for Role in Opioid Crisis, Says Political Scientist

Democratic candidate for Governor of Rhode Island Helena Foulkes was vice-president of pharmacy and then President of CVS during the opioid crisis — a crisis the killed hundreds of thousands, produced millions of addicts, and cost $1 trillion according to the CDC.

Last week, a jury in a federal court in Ohio found that CVS, along with Walgreens and Walmart helped fuel the opioid crisis.

The decision has been tagged as a landmark court case that could have ramifications to the upward of 3,000 cases pending against the companies involved with the production, distribution, and selling of opioids.

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Jennifer Lawless -- chair of the political science department at the University of Virginia and one of the top political scientists in the U.S. -- believes that Foulkes needs to answer questions about her role in leading the pharmacy function of CVS.

As the court decision finds liability of CVS' role, stocks options and bonuses Foulkes earned tied to the sales in CVS pharmacy that she lead for years come into question. 

"If [Foulkes] isn't willing to admit a huge mistake and make a very heartfelt apology, she should drop out of the race,” said Lawless who is a prominent national political commentator and regularly appears on MSNBC.

“We’re talking about millions and millions of people who have been addicted to these drugs. Families and people who have died from these drugs.  Big pharma knew [the dangers] ensuring that people cannot use these drugs responsibly and it now turns out, as we've long suspected, that the pharmacies were complicit,” said Lawless.

Foulkes’ campaign refused to address Lawless’s comments or the Ohio court decision.

Instead, Foulkes' campaign team referred GoLocal to a statement that the campaign had issued to GoLocal approximately three weeks earlier that speaks primarily to Foulkes removing cigarettes from CVS stores.

Foulkes has refused to respond to questions about this week’s federal court decision.

“There's just absolutely no excuse [regarging CVS’s role in the opioid crisis] and that's not leadership, that's not competence and if she's not willing to distance herself and be explicit in apologizing then she has no right to even seek public office,” said Lawless.

CVS in a statement to GoLocal earlier this week continues to deny liability in the opioid crisis.