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The coroner's sense of futility was clear, as he investigated the death of yet another Australian killed by prescription opioids. Coroners nationwide have long urged officials to address Australia's ballooning opioid addiction, and to create a tracking system to stop people from collecting multiple prescriptions from multiple doctors. Yet even as thousands died, the coroners' pleas were met largely with silence. (Gelineau, 9/5)

More than 70,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year, and a growing number of those deaths are attributed to the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl. Journalist Ben Westhoff says the drug, while an important painkiller and anesthesia medicine in hospitals, is now killing more Americans annually as a street drug than any other in U.S. history. "Fentanyl was originally formulated as a medical drug, something that was used in ... open heart surgery and in end-of-life care," Westhoff says. "It's an opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin, 100 times stronger than morphine." (Davies, 9/4)

The Texas attorney general’s office is suing pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson for fraud, alleging it misrepresented the dangers of one of its opioid medications and helped fuel the state’s opioid crisis. The civil lawsuit filed Tuesday says that Johnson & Johnson’s sales representatives told doctors that the drug Duragesic, a pain patch that delivers the drug fentanyl through the skin, had fewer side effects, worked better and posed less of a risk for addiction than other opioids. (Huber, 9/4)

For the first time since the 1990s, federal officers with the Drug Enforcement Administration will be based in Duluth. The agency announced its plans this week to expand to Duluth to help combat the trafficking of opioids and methamphetamine in the region. It plans to hire two new federal agents, plus two additional local officers who will be federally deputized. (Kraker, 9/4)

For a long time, the address 1800 Chicago in Minneapolis has been synonymous with detox. As in, end-of-the-road, hit-rock-bottom detox. Now Hennepin County is turning the facility into a one-stop shop for services ranging from detox to mental health care to help signing up for low-income housing. It’s designed to keep people with mental health and substance use problems out of jail and hospitals. (Roth, 9/4)

Kaiser Health News: Americans More Likely Than Swedes To Fill Prescriptions For Opioids After Surgery

Americans and Canadians are seven times more likely to fill a prescription for opioid pain pills in the week after surgery than Swedes, says a study published Wednesday, one of the first to quantify international differences. More than 75% of patients in the U.S. and Canada filled a prescription for opioids following four common surgeries, compared with 11% of Swedes, researchers report in JAMA Network Open. Americans also received the highest doses of opioids. (Appleby, 9/4)

Kaiser Health News: School Districts Double Down On Drug Testing, Targeting Even Middle Schoolers

Thirteen-year-old Aura Brillhart and her 11-year-old sister, Morgan, will face a new sort of test in school this year: a drug test. The middle and high schools in their community of Fort Scott, Kan., are among the latest to require random drug testing of students who want to participate in sports, clubs, dances or any other extracurricular activities. “I hate that it’s even an issue for us to have to address,” said their mom, Jody Hoener. “But putting our heads in the sand isn’t going to make things any better.” (Ungar, 9/5)

The Trump administration gave new hope to marijuana researchers when the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) appeared to open the door for new applications for federally approved marijuana growers. While 33 states have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes, federal research is extremely restricted. The administration’s announcement last week that it would expand the number of marijuana growers signaled a positive change after years of agency inaction and delay. (Weixel, 9/4)