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Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $230 million to New York state to settle claims that the pharmaceutical giant helped fuel the opioid crisis, Attorney General Letitia James said on Saturday. The drugmaker also agreed to permanently end the manufacturing and distribution of opioids across New York and the rest of the nation, James said in a statement announcing the settlement. The company "helped fuel this fire, but today they're committing to leaving the opioid business—not only in New York, but across the entire country," she said. (6/26)

On the eve of a widely anticipated trial, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) agreed on Saturday to pay $230 million to the state of New York to settle a lawsuit alleging that the company helped fuel the devastating opioid crisis. The deal comes as negotiations intensify with the health care giant and three of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical wholesalers to complete a sweeping $26 billion settlement of thousands of other lawsuits. The settlement includes an additional $33 million in attorney fees and costs, as well as a commitment from J&J to halt opioid sales, a step the company said it has already taken (you can read the settlement here). (Silverman, 6/26)

Opioid deaths spiked in Connecticut during the pandemic and continue to increase in 2021, fueled by continued disruptions to recovery programs and a deadly, fentanyl-laced drug supply. The synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, was found in 4 percent of accidental intoxication deaths in the state in 2012 but showed up in the vast majority of fatal overdoses last year, the Hartford Courant reported. (6/27)

Despite a new law making it harder to operate the life-saving operations, the Cabell-Huntington Health Department will continue to offer syringe exchange services. The Cabell Board of Health voted unanimously Wednesday to continue operating the program at the behest of health officer and CEO Dr. Michael Kilkenny. Kilkenny said with the help of grants the department already has for the program, they will be able to operate under the law and still rebound from the pandemic-driven increase in overdoses. (Stuck, 6/27)

Tyler Cordeiro slept on a couch outside his mother’s Bucks County home, suffering from opioid withdrawal. His sister took a photo of his mother, Susan Ousterman, on the other section of the L-shaped sofa, resting with him, the two lying nearly head-to-head. Those days in September 2020 were exhausting and desperate for the family. The 24-year-old Cordeiro struggled with addiction for several years, and he had recently lost access to Medicaid insurance coverage. Ousterman and her daughter, Mary Cordeiro, called every 800-number and helpline they could find to help pay for addiction treatment. (Mahon, 6/28)

The thin young man quietly took in the room as he waited for the free supplies meant to help him avoid dying: sterile water and cookers to dissolve illicit drugs; clean syringes; alcohol wipes to prevent infection; and naloxone, a medicine that can reverse overdoses. A sign on the wall — “We stand for loving drug users just the way they are” — felt like an embrace. It was the first day the drop-in center in a residential neighborhood here had opened its doors since the coronavirus forced them shut in the spring of 2020. “I’m so glad you all are open again,” the man, whose first name is Jordan, told a volunteer who handed him a full paper bag while heavy metal music riffed over a speaker in the background. He asked for extra naloxone for friends in his rural county, an hour away, where he said it had been scarce throughout the pandemic. (Goodnough, 6/27)