On October 4, trial began for the four big pharmacy operators CVS, Giant Eagle, Walgreens, and Walmart in Cleveland, Ohio. Mark Lanier, lead trial counsel for the Ohio Counties, told a federal jury in opening statement that these pharmacies wrongfully dispensed addictive painkillers “like a vending machine" when they were the last line of defense for preventing people from getting pills to sell illegally. Lawyers for Walgreens countered that the pharmacy was not to blame, but the politicians who incentivized the sale of these drugs and the doctors who prescribed them. All pharmacies deny wrongdoing as the trial continues.