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A trial began for the second time Monday in a case brought by families of opioid addicts in Georgia accusing drug distributors Cardinal Health Inc, McKesson Corp and JM Smith Corp of acting as illegal drug dealers. The case originally went to trial in Glynn County Superior Court last year, but ended in a mistrial three days later after Judge Roger Lane called it off due to rising COVID-19 cases in the region. It was the first trial of opioid claims brought by individual plaintiffs, rather than government entities. (Pierson, 1/30)

A Detroit-area doctor was sentenced Monday to nearly 17 years in prison and ordered to pay $30 million for leading a scheme to bill Medicare and private insurers for unnecessary painkiller injections and write prescriptions for millions of opioids. Frank Patino’s fraud lasted years and was one of the most egregious health care schemes in U.S. history, prosecutors said. (1/30)

Dozens of people in Lynnwood, Washington, protested Sunday against a new opioid treatment center opening in their city, claiming they never had a say before the state signed off on the license. But, the health care operator insists it will be transparent about security and how it operates. Organizers with the group Safe Lynnwood are building a safety plan to address their concerns about the new opioid treatment clinic off 196th Street Southwest and 24th Avenue West. The clinic, which is set to open Monday is located near little league fields, businesses, and neighborhoods. (Kent, 1/29)

People struggling with opioid addiction will now be able to access an addiction treatment drug from any physician licensed to prescribe controlled substances, rather than having to seek out doctors with specialized credentials. The federal government in December lifted restrictions on who can prescribe the opioid buprenorphine to treat addiction, thanks to a legal change pushed by the Biden administration to decrease barriers to addiction care. (Whelan, 1/30)

The police chief of the small Kentucky city of Vine Grove knew from heart-rending experience why he needed a vending machine outside his office. Kenneth Mattingly’s daughter was twice brought to the brink of death by heroin and twice pulled back by paramedics carrying an antidote, naloxone. Then Mattingly responded to an opioid overdose call early last year at which a woman saved a friend’s life because she was carrying a naloxone spray, often known by its brand name Narcan. (McGreal, 1/29)

A group of scientists, including a University of Florida researcher, may have found a way to alter the chemical components of fentanyl and lessen its deadly side effects. Jay McLaughlin, a neuroscientist and a professor of pharmacodynamics at the UF College of Pharmacy, is working with scientists at Washington University, the University of Southern California and Stanford University who've discovered a safer version of it. (Zaragovia, 1/30)

KHN: Some Addiction Treatment Centers Turn Big Profits By Scaling Back Care

Near the end of his scheduled three-month stay at a rehab center outside Austin, Texas, Daniel McKegney was forced to tell his father in North Carolina that he needed more time and more money, he recently recalled. His father had already received bills from BRC Recovery totaling about $150,000 to cover McKegney’s treatment for addiction to the powerful opioid fentanyl, according to insurance statements shared with KHN. But McKegney, 20, said he found the program “suffocating” and wasn’t happy with his care. (Rayasam and Farmer, 1/31)