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The sprawling opioid litigation confronting drug makers and distributors is likely to take years to resolve, but cost less than the infamous lawsuits that were filed against Big Tobacco and, not surprisingly, will hurt some companies more than others, a new credit analysis suggests. For the moment, the litigation is still in the early stages and the first trials are not scheduled until September 2019. But despite the uncertainty, any potential settlement is expected to be “considerably lower” than the $206 billion deal reached with the four largest U.S. cigarette makers in 1998, according to analysts at S&P Global Ratings. (Silverman, 10/3)

Illicit drug users who are certain that fentanyl is mixed into the heroin they consume are much more likely to take precautions that reduce their chances of overdosing, researchers reported Wednesday in a small study. The survey examined the use of fentanyl test strips by 125 injection drug users in Greensboro, N.C., over a two-month period last year. Distribution of the small strips has become an increasingly popular “harm reduction” technique in the past few years among groups trying to protect drug users from overdosing on the powerful narcotic that has swept most of the United States. (Bernstein, 10/3)

In the latest such effort, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is announcing Thursday a pilot program to provide the overdose-reversing drug Narcan to three employers and a union, and to train employees in its use. (Freyer, 10/3)

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has joined the effort to open Philadelphia's and possibly the nation's first supervised drug injection site— saying Wednesday that he would support the effort even if it meant facing federal charges. The 74-year-old Rendell joined the board of the nonprofit Safehouse, which is raising money to open a safe injection site— a place where people can use drugs under medical supervision including overdose prevention— despite federal and state laws that prohibit them. (Lauer, 10/3)

The state’s effort to reshape its response to the opioid epidemic took another step forward on Wednesday, as the Executive Council approved a residential treatment program for teenagers at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester. Councilors also authorized the expenditure of nearly $20 million in federal funds to build what has been called a “hub and spoke” system for addiction treatment statewide. (Solomon, 10/3)

New Hampshire’s first residential treatment facility for teenagers with substance use disorder took a step closer to creation Wednesday, after the Executive Council approved a key contract with Granite Pathways to manage the program. In a unanimous vote, councilors signed off on a plan to let the Manchester organization rent space in the Sununu Youth Services Center and set up a 36-bed facility for treatment and recovery. (DeWitt, 10/3)

Sheriff's deputies laughed as their colleague took two cellphone videos of a 31-year-old inmate in a padded cell at the Clackamas County Jail as he moved uncontrollably and made unintelligible noises due to an apparent drug overdose. "Look what I got for show-and-tell today,'' Deputy Ricky Paurus says on one video. He suggests they could put inmate Bryan Perry in a cage and wheel him into a school to impress on kids "don't do drugs,'' according to a new federal lawsuit. Another deputy calls the idea "fantastic.'' What the deputies and the jail's medical provider failed to do, the suit alleges, is ensure Perry got appropriate medical treatment, resulting in his death by cardiac arrest early Nov. 4, 2016, about five hours after he was booked into jail. (Bernstein, 10/3)

Georgia was graded “D’’ on ensuring access to mental health and addiction treatment equal to that for physical illnesses, according to a report released Wednesday. The announcement comes on the 10th anniversary of a federal law on benefits signed by President George W. Bush. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act requires insurers to cover illnesses of the brain, such as depression or addiction, no more restrictively than other medical problems, such as diabetes or cancer. (Miller, 10/3)