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The dirty needles can be found scattered among the pine and brush, littering the forest floor around Eureka, a town long celebrated as a gateway to the scenic Redwood Empire. They are the debris of a growing heroin scourge that is gripping the remote community in Northern California. While the state as a whole has one of the lowest overall opioid-related death rates in the country, a sharp rise in heroin use across the rural north in recent years has raised alarms. In Humboldt County, the opioid death rate is five times higher than the state average, rivaling the rates of states like Maine and Vermont that have received far more national attention. (Del Real, 5/8)

Earlier this year, in a speech to leading members of Colorado’s medical community, Dr. Donald Stader confronted a blunt truth about the nation’s opioid crisis. The majority of the blame, he said, “rightfully rests with people like me – physicians.” ...But behind the scenes, in conversations with state legislators, Stader and the Colorado Medical Society lobbied against stricter regulations on a doctor’s ability to prescribe opioids – making the case that medical professionals can police themselves. (Frank, 5/7)

A bill that could have brought needle exchanges out of Arizona's shadows quietly died last week in the state Legislature. House Bill 2389 — which sailed through the House with bipartisan support before being watered down in the Senate — stalled out last month and was never scheduled to be heard by a conference committee. (Pohl, 5/7)

With Dublin-based Cardinal and other major drug distributors poised to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, prepared remarks show Cardinal Chairman and former CEO George Barrett expressing regret and offering an apology for Cardinal’s role in supplying a large amount of painkillers to two West Virginia pharmacies that the committee questioned Cardinal about. (Matzer Rose, 5/7)