Florida, one of many states going after participants in the opioid supply chain in court, has added Walgreens and CVS to a lawsuit previously filed against manufacturers Purdue Pharma, Allergan, Endo, Janssen, Mallinckrodt and others.

The lawsuit claims that Walgreens and CVS knew or should have known that some of the opioids they ordered and supplied to Florida communities would eventually be diverted to the black market because the quantities far exceeded medical justification.

Florida’s attorney general Pam Bondi argues that both pharmacies failed to use “highly detailed” prescription, distribution and sales tracking data from paid data-mining firms to flag high-quantity orders as suspicious.

By disregarding the suspicious data the defendants “violated their duty by selling and shipping billions of opioids into Florida without sounding the alarm, stopping the shipments, or taking reasonable steps to prevent diversion,” the complaint alleges.

On some occasions, opioid orders at Walgreens are said to have jumped as much as 600% over a 2-year period. The lawsuit references a Walgreens distribution center that sold 2.2 million tablets to a single Walgreens pharmacy in Hudson, Florida — enough to cover a six-month supply for each of the town’s residents.

Between 2006 and 2014, CVS allegedly sold 700 million opioid dosages.

“Instead of using that information and data to prevent shipments of suspicious quantities or filling of suspicious prescriptions, Walgreens and CVS joined the race to sell as many opioids as possible, including by failing to institute safeguards and by marketing opioids to their vast networks of retail pharmacy stores and in-store pharmacists,” the lawsuit claims.

Also targeted are the chains’ pharmacists, described as “a last line of defense” between dangerous drugs and the public.

The lawsuit alleges pharmacists have a legal duty to investigate prescriptions that appear “unreasonable,” for example those that are written for large quantities, in frequencies or in other manners that would generally require additional due diligence.

In a statement to Yahoo Finance CVS said, “We believe the state of FL’s addition of CVS Pharmacy to this lawsuit is without merit.” The company said it is committed to complying with all federal and state laws governing the dispensing of controlled substance prescriptions.

“CVS has taken numerous actions to strengthen our existing safeguards to help address the nation’s opioid epidemic. This includes millions of hours training our pharmacy teams about responsibilities and best practices regarding controlled substances,” the company stated.