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State and local leaders fighting a worsening opioid-abuse epidemic are studying tactics used in the tobacco lawsuits of the 1990s, as they try to claw back billions from the companies who make and sell the powerful painkillers. More than 20 U.S. states, counties and cities have sued firms including Johnson & Johnson, Purdue Pharma Inc., and McKesson Corp. in the past year, claiming they fueled a public-health crisis with misleading marketing and aggressive distribution of opioids. Attorneys general in Alaska and Tennessee are also considering lawsuits as their health and legal budgets are stretched to a breaking point by the surge in addictions, overdoses and crime. (Feeley and Lauerman, 6/14)

A new lawsuit invokes the plight of a baby born dependent on opioid drugs, as three Tennessee prosecutors and the baby's guardian accuse several drug manufacturers of unleashing an epidemic through deceptive marketing about the risks of addiction to painkillers. "Baby Doe spent his first days in the neonatal intensive care unit writhing in agony as he went through detoxification," according to the suit filed Tuesday in the Sullivan County Circuit Court in Kingsport, Tennessee. The infant boy, who is not identified, was born in March of 2015. (Burke, 6/13)

In an unprecedented move, three Tennessee prosecutors are taking aim at drugmakers who supplied the opiates that addicted millions, using the state’s long-ridiculed and rarely used “crack tax” law. The district attorneys general for three east Tennessee judicial districts collectively representing nine counties filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Sullivan County Circuit Court against opioid drugmakers Purdue Pharma, Mallinckrodt and Endo Pharmaceuticals. (Satterfield, 6/13)

The right to medical privacy is enshrined in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and a host of other confidentiality rules. But a White House-appointed panel is now considering whether to recommend that those privacy regulations be relaxed in a bid to help contain the country’s rising tide of opioid overdoses. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is leading President Trump’s opioid task force, this week told reporters the panel is discussing ways to ensure family members know when a person is revived with naloxone following an overdose. The goal would be to ensure that, after a near-death experience, those struggling with addiction have a support system to help steer them toward treatment. (Mershon and Joseph, 6/13)

The Food and Drug Administration is ramping up scrutiny of anti-abuse features on opioid painkillers to try to determine if they actually do what they're intended to do. On Tuesday, the agency announced a two-day public meeting that will focus on whether the agency has “the right information to determine whether these products are having their intended impact on limiting abuse and helping to curb the epidemic,” according to an accompanying statement by FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. (McGinley, 6/13)

Endo International Plc is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to address the agency’s unprecedented request that it pull the powerful opioid pain medication Opana ER off the market because of potential abuse, Chief Executive Officer Paul Campanelli said. The FDA asked Endo to stop selling the drug last week, the first time the agency made such a move amid what it calls a public-health crisis. The agency is trying to contain an outbreak of dangerous infections by addicts who abuse drugs like Opana ER that are approved for legitimate pain relief. (Cortez, 6/13)

Former heroin user Kendra Williams, 24, knows she’s lucky. She recalls sharing dirty syringes to shoot up, risking hepatitis C and HIV. More than two years into recovery, she knows about 30 people who have died from drug overdoses — this year. Over the past five, she guesses, it’s close to 50. Against that grim backdrop, Williams has joined an unlikely coalition — composed of public health advocates, former addicts and the law enforcement officers who used to harass and arrest them — bent on battling sky-high rates of opioid abuse. With the goal of curbing the spread of disease and preventing overdose, the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC) has helped legalize needle exchanges, enabled safe disposal of used syringes and enacted protections for people who carry drug paraphernalia. (Luthra, 6/14)

Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order Tuesday seeking to bolster reporting of data on suspected opioid deaths and overdoses across the state. The sweeping executive order requires all licensed doctors, pharmacists, hospitals, correctional facilities, emergency medical responders, ambulance providers and medical examiners to report within 24 hours information on suspected deaths, overdoses and use of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone. (Alltucker, 6/13)

Under the latest changes to the new two-year state budget, which takes effect July 1, $176 million would go to battle drug addiction that killed at least 4,149 Ohioans last year... But that Senate plan includes the transfer of about $35 million over two years out of the state local government fund, which city officials use for basic operations as well as new costs incurred by the startling rise of drug overdoses. (Siegel, 6/14)

Inmates at the Strafford County Jail will no longer be able to receive personal letters in the mail. The policy change comes just days after multiple inmates overdosed inside the jail. (Moon, 6/13)