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One in 12 physicians — and nearly one in five family medicine doctors — have accepted payments from drug makers that sell prescription opioid painkillers, according to a review of federal records. Although the analysis did not examine the extent to which payments may have influenced prescribing, the findings are certain to raise questions about the sway the companies may have over medical practice. Overall, the average payment was small — just $15 — and most doctors received only one payment a year for such things as speaking, meals, consulting, or travel. But of more than 375,000 payments, the top 1 percent of 68,000 physicians collectively received $38 million, which represented 82 percent of all payments. On average, the top prescribers received $2,600 per year. (Silverman, 8/9)

All in all, more than 68,000 physicians received more then $46 million between 2013 and 2015 in non-research payments from drugmakers that create pain-killing opioids or medciation-assisted opioid treatments like buprenorphine, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health on Wednesday. Although researchers found the doctors received an average payment of $15, the top 1% of physicians received 82% of all opioid drugmaker payments, or $38 million at an average of $2,600 per top physician. (Johnson, 8/9)

“The next step is to understand these links between payments,” said Scott Hadland, a pediatrician and author of the study, and “prescribing practices and overdose deaths.” (Zezima, 8/9)

States are enacting strict limits on the number of powerful prescription painkillers doctors can prescribe, a move that many believe will help fight the opioid crisis but has raised alarms among some physicians. At least 17 states have enacted rules to curb the number of painkillers doctors can prescribe. Some, including Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Ohio, have passed laws limiting the duration of initial opioid prescriptions to five or seven days. Others are passing dosage limits. In Kentucky, a law went into effect last month capping opioid prescriptions for acute pain to three days. (Zezima, 8/9)

Health officials awaiting news from President Trump's briefing on opioids Tuesday didn't, in the end, get much about what the White House plans to do about the growing crisis. While he acknowledged the severity of the problem and the threat opioids pose to all Americans, Trump did not talk about expanding addiction treatment or access to the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, two of the recommendations his commission on opioids made in its interim report last week. (Hsu, 8/9)

Police officers hospitalized after incidental exposure to fentanyl. A Florida child fatally overdosed. In communities around the country, such headlines are stoking fears that a momentary brush with a tiny amount of fentanyl powder could prove fatal. The synthetic opioid, blamed for increasing numbers of overdose deaths across the U.S., is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. But experts consulted by STAT said many of the reported incidents appear to be false alarms that run counter to scientific fact and exaggerate the risks. (Ross, 8/9)

A rural Maryland county is bringing murder charges against suspected opioid drug dealers as part of an aggressive campaign to combat the epidemic, becoming the first in the state to file some of the toughest charges against distributors who they say are responsible for carnage, officials said. St. Mary’s County law enforcement officials on Wednesday announced eight second-degree murder indictments so rare that they attracted a visit from Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who traveled to Southern Maryland to support the stepped-up effort to identify and arrest drug dealers. (Hernandez, 8/9)

About 469,000 adults in Philadelphia — a third of the city’s population — used a prescription opioid like Percocet or OxyContin in the last year, the city has estimated, based on a new survey, and more than 81 percent of them received the prescriptions from their health-care providers. Of particular concern, the city Public Health Department said Wednesday, is that 13 percent of all adults reported taking a prescription opioid in the last seven days, and more than a third of those were also on anti-anxiety medications like Xanax. The combination of opioids and those drugs, known as benzodiazepines, significantly increases the odds of an overdose. (Sapatkin, 8/9)

Drug use often spins simple arguments out of control, law enforcement officials say. But instances, like this one, that led to Sha [Tate's] death last year, also point to larger underlying issues — like history of trauma, and an inability to resolve conflict. The same issues that may lead someone to solve their disputes with a gun, often lead someone to self-medicate with drugs. (Tudhope, 8/10)

The Ohio Third Frontier Commission Tuesday chose NineSigma of Cleveland to manage a competition to award about $7 million in grants to develop ideas largely aimed at preventing prescription overdoses, treating addiction and producing alternatives to opioids in the treatment of pain. Gov. John Kasich called during his State of the State speech for awarding $20 million from a voter-approved bond fund to bring technology to bear against the opioid crisis responsible for the vast majority of Ohio’s more than 4,100 drug-overdose deaths last year. (Ludlow, 8/9)

There has been much coverage of the growing opioid epidemic in the U.S. But if legislators and health care providers move to crack down on addiction, how will that affect people who legitimately need and have come to rely on prescription drugs to treat their chronic illnesses? (Miller and Shockman, 8/9)