�Թϲ�����

Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson has asked the judge presiding over the historic Oklahoma opioid trial to toss the case, saying the company has been made a "scapegoat" and blasting the state's effort as a "slew of illogical, legally defective theories far outside the bounds of Oklahoma precedent." Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman will give both parties an hour Monday morning to argue their case before deciding whether to throw it out or to allow it to proceed. (Drash, 7/7)

So far, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter has secured about $355 million from two groups of defendant drugmakers in the state's lawsuit against opioid manufacturers, and he's trying to make the case that even more money should come Oklahoma's way in the first such state case to go to trial. While Hunter presses the claim that Johnson & Johnson is to blame for Oklahoma's opioid epidemic, he's also facing criticism, some from his own Republican colleagues, about his team's deal making and go-it-alone style. (Murphy, 7/4)

Johnson & Johnson was the “kingpin” behind the opioid crisis in Oklahoma, providing the raw materials that fueled the addiction epidemic, state officials argued during the first half of a landmark trial that could have ramifications for hundreds of similar lawsuits across the country. ...Oklahoma officials say they will need to devote $17.8 billion over 30 years to address the fallout from the public health crisis, with the bulk of that money going to help addicts recover. They say Johnson & Johnson should be on the hook for at least part of that bill. (Demko, 7/2)

Federal rulings, legal activism and an explosion of inmates with opioid addictions are moving county jail administrators to do the previously unthinkable — providing anti-opioid medication behind the walls. A 2018 Pew Charitable Trusts study concluded less than 1% of the incarcerated got one of the three drugs known to help addicts kick opioids — Suboxone, Vivitrol and methadone — even though three out of four living in most prisons come there with a substance abuse problem. Instead, incarcerated addicts dealt with the physically and psychologically painful symptoms of withdrawal with sometimes tragic overdose outcomes. (Landrigan, 7/6)

State officials announced last month that more than 12,000 people with substance use disorder entered addiction treatment since North Carolina received $54 million in federal grant funding to address the opioid crisis. Opioid addiction is widespread in North Carolina, and an average of five people die per day from overdose. It affects people across the state from every race and socio-economic background. (Knopf, 7/8)

A Portsmouth doctor has been reprimanded and fined by the New Hampshire Board of Medicine after he cut back a chronic pain patient’s prescription opioid painkillers — and then dropped him as a patient altogether after the man threatened suicide. Joshua Greenspan, who is board certified in pain management and anesthesiology, signed a settlement agreement in May to resolve allegations of professional misconduct. Greenspan did not respond to a message left at his office at the American Pain Institute on Friday. (Wickham, 7/6)