In June, Missouri became the 50th state to establish a statewide prescription drug monitoring program. However, experts are still split over whether such programs effectively decrease opioid-related overdoses, Kaiser Health News reported July 26.

The country's three major drug distributors — McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen — along with Johnson & Johnson have reached a $26 billion deal with states and local governments that would release the drug companies from all civil liability related to the opioid epidemic, The New York Times reported. 

White patients were prescribed more opioids to treat their pain than Black patients receiving care at the same health system, according to a study published July 22 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Provisional data shows California had the most fatal overdoses among U.S. states in 2020, according to a ranking Kaiser Family Foundation released July 20.

Two divisions of the U.S. Justice Department have described Purdue Pharma's proposed bankruptcy settlement as flawed and unconstitutional, NPR reported July 19. 

The country's three largest drug distributors and Johnson & Johnson are expected to announce this week a $26 billion settlement to resolve thousands of opioid lawsuits from states, cities and Native American tribes, The New York Times reported July 20. 

To receive proper treatment, patients experiencing drug addiction must overcome two barriers in the U.S. healthcare system: a paucity of treatment resources and high medical costs, reports Kaiser Health News. 

Deaths from drug overdoses hit a record 93,000 in 2020, a nearly 30 percent jump from the prior year, according to a report from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

Rhode Island became the first state to approve harm reduction centers for people to use illegal drugs when Gov. Daniel McKee on July 7 signed into law a proposal to help end the opioid crisis.

Fifteen states that were fighting against Purdue Pharma's bankruptcy plan have abandoned their opposition, NPR reported July 8.

Cleveland Clinic Akron General on July 1 received a $1 million grant from the Summit County (Ohio) Opiate Abatement Advisory Council to use for follow-up care for patients whose substance use disorder was recorded as a primary or secondary health issue in any of the hospital's four emergency departments in the county.

Johnson & Johnson confirmed it has ended its distribution of opioids in the U.S. when it agreed to a $230 million settlement with New York over its role in the opioid epidemic. 

McKesson is cutting the pay of CEO Brian Tyler by $2.9 million because of the drug distributor's unsettled agreement to pay out of opioid litigation for $8.1 billion. He still made $14.8 million in cash and equity, The Washington Post reported June 11.

Opioid-related deaths have risen since the pandemic, with Black men being the most affected demographic.

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma's bankruptcy plan overcame a critical obstacle June 2 when a federal judge advanced the deal, moving it to a final vote by the drugmaker's creditors slated to take place this summer. Many states' attorneys general had opposed the plan, as it would grant the Sackler family, the drugmakers' founders and owners, immunity from future opioid lawsuits.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron on June 2 filed a lawsuit against CVS Health, accusing the retail pharmacy giant of fueling the state's opioid crisis.

A New York federal bankruptcy judge said May 26 that Purdue Pharma's proposal to restructure itself as a nonprofit will be voted on by more than 600,000 plaintiffs suing the Oxycontin maker for its role in the opioid epidemic, according to The New York Times.

David May, AmerisourceBergen's vice president of corporate security and diversion control, said the Drug Enforcement Administration is more responsible for West Virginia's opioid epidemic than his company, according to The Herald-Dispatch.

Naloxone prescriptions have fallen significantly during the pandemic, and people on Medicare or with commercial insurance have experienced a more significant decrease in access to naloxone compared to those on Medicaid or cash payment, according to research published in JAMA.

As the opioid epidemic was causing thousands of overdose deaths in West Virginia, AmerisourceBergen executives were sending company emails of parody songs disparaging the state's people, according to emails shown May 13 in a U.S. district court in Charleston.