Kroger has agreed to pay $110 million to resolve a lawsuit by the state of Kentucky alleging the supermarket chain's pharmacies helped fuel a deadly opioid epidemic by flooding its communities with hundreds of millions of doses of addictive painkillers.

Kentucky will receive $110 million to settle its lawsuit accusing one of the nation’s largest grocery chains of helping fuel the opioid epidemic, the state's attorney general said Thursday. The state will use the money it is getting in its settlement with The Kroger Co.

The Kroger Co. has agreed to pay Kentucky $110 million to settle a lawsuit filed last year alleging it pumped millions of doses of opioids into the state over the course of more than a decade. Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman (R) announced the settlement Thursday,