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Oklahoma’s star witness told a state judge that Johnson & Johnson pressed doctors to prescribe its painkillers even as the potentially fatal addictive threat posed by the drugs became clear more than a decade ago. The judge, Thad Balkman, is presiding over the non-jury case and will make the final decision in the first trial where a state seeks to hold a drug maker responsible for contributing to the U.S. opioid epidemic. Oklahoma is seeking $13 billion in damages from J&J. (Harris and Feeley, 6/11)

An Oklahoma judge is declining to approve the state's proposed $85 million settlement with an opioid maker until he's assured it complies with a new law targeting such deals. The attorney general's office says Cleveland County Judge Thad Balkman on Monday ordered attorneys for both the state and Israeli-owned Teva Pharmaceuticals to file additional paperwork before he approves the settlement. (6/10)

Fewer people died of heroin and fentanyl in Maryland in the first quarter of 2019 than during the same period the previous year, preliminary data shows, marking the state’s first decline in fatal opioid overdoses in a decade. Though the data represents a 14 percent decline, or 85 fewer deaths, Maryland public health officials were quick to point out that the opioid epidemic continues at a historic pace, killing more than 500 people in the first three months of this year. (Cox, 6/11)

While syringe exchanges were legalized in 2016, there has been a ban on any state money going to fund them. That might change. Sen. Jim Davis (R-Franklin), who has led the state on opioid legislation the last few years, recently introduced the Opioid Epidemic Response Act, which would lift the ban on state funds going to needle exchanges. It would also decriminalize drug testing equipment, which Davis said is vital as more controlled substances are laced with fentanyl, a drug that can be 100 times more potent than morphine. (Knopf, 6/12)

The man was out of his wheelchair and lay flat on his back just off San Francisco’s Market Street, waiting for the hypodermic needle to pierce his skin and that familiar euphoric feeling to wash over him. The old-timer, who appeared to be in his 60s, could not find a viable vein, so a 38-year-old man named Daniel Hogan helped him. Hogan, a longtime drug user originally from St. Louis, leaned over the older man, eyeing his neck as he readied a syringe loaded with the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl. (Rinker, 6/11)

As state lawmakers were unanimously passing a comprehensive bill to address Connecticut’s opioid crisis last week, Hartford was experiencing an unprecedented outbreak of opioid-related deaths, causing alarm among advocates, lawmakers and city officials. Monday, those alarmed officials gathered at the behest of Sen. Richard Blumenthal at the Asylum Hill Congregational Church to discuss measures to effectively address the crisis. (Moore and Radelat, 6/10)

The Care Zone van, funded by the Kraft Center for Community Health at Massachusetts General Hospital, is one of a half dozen or so projects across the country testing models for this theory: If the U.S. wants to end the opioid epidemic, it must make treatment as available as drugs. (Bebinger, 6/12)