The nation’s largest drugstore chains, Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens, will shutter more than 1,500 stores, leaving millions of Americans without access to healthcare in ‘pharmacy deserts.’
Rite Aid said it will close 150 of its 2,100 US locations after they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month.
The pharmacy chain has been unable to settle hundreds of lawsuits that accused them of overprescribing opioids and has struggled to keep up with competitors.
A slew of drugstore chains slashing their locations has left millions of people living in areas where it’s difficult to obtain medication, areas known as ‘pharmacy deserts,’ according to JAMA Network.
As Lawrence Person noted last month: Defund The Police + Decriminalize Shoplifting = “Food Deserts.” And “pharmacy deserts” as well. And where the drugstore is still open in an urban area, everything behind locked shelving, encased in plastic anti-theft containers, or both:
