Judge Declares Mistrial In Florida Hospitals’ Opioid Case

Reuters: Florida Hospitals' Opioid Case Against Walmart, CVS, Walgreens Results In Mistrial 
A Florida judge on Monday declared a mistrial in a lawsuit that accused Walmart, CVS and Walgreens of flooding the state with opioids and raising costs for local hospitals. The trial began in Broward County Circuit Court in September, and jurors deliberated for 14 days before telling the judge they could not reach a unanimous verdict. Sixteen Florida hospitals, including Broward Health, Tampa General Hospital and Good Samaritan Medical Center, sued in 2019, accusing the pharmacy chains of violating Florida's anti-racketeering law by working with drugmakers and distributors to drive up opioid sales. The hospitals say the surge in opioid use led to injuries they had to treat, often without being reimbursed. (Knauth, 12/8)

WCHS 8: West Virginia Sues United Healthcare For Exacerbating The State's Opioid Crisis
West Virginia’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers for its role in the state’s opioid crisis. According to Attorney General JB McCuskey, the suit alleges United Healthcare, Optum and its affiliates oversupplied West Virginia with opioids starting in 2010. (12/8)

On opioid settlement funds —

Mississippi Today: Mississippi Attorney General Shares Opioid Settlement Recommendations With Lawmakers
While telling the Legislature how the Mississippi Opioid Settlement Advisory Council recommends spending state lawsuit money, Council Chair and Attorney General Lynn Fitch said she and the other committee members would be reviewing their internal processes and may change how they oversee hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s one of the first times Fitch has publicly acknowledged there may be better ways for Mississippi to manage the money it’s won in the national opioid lawsuits, cases that charged some of the country’s biggest companies with contributing to a public health crisis that’s killed over 10,000 Mississippians since 2000. (Siegler, 12/8)

Bridge Michigan: Michigan To Use $38M In Opioid Funds To Expand Housing For People In Recovery 
Michigan is setting aside nearly $38 million to establish more recovery housing for residents being treated for substance use disorder. The state has a goal to bring more than 3,400 new recovery housing beds online by 2028 to address the lack of stable living quarters available for those leaving publicly funded treatment facilities. (Newman, 12/8)

The Current: Five Years In, It’s Unclear How Louisiana’s Opioid Funds Are Spent
Louisiana took a decentralized approach, dispersing money to local jurisdictions who operate with little oversight from a task force and supporting state-run nonprofit established by then-Attorney General Jeff Landry. No other state gives as much of its power to fund opioid abatement directly to local law enforcement. Louisiana is also the only state with no state-level program, apart from operating costs for the nonprofit and task force, while directing 20% of the funds to local sheriffs. (Maschke, 12/4)

Investigative Post: NY Opioids Settlement Money Meant To Promote Treatment Is Unspent
Experts say it's not evident that the millions New York state won from opioid drug manufacturers are being spent well or in a timely manner.(Smith-Perez, 12/9)

Also —

Marijuana Moment: Patients In New York's Medical Marijuana Program Saw 'Significantly Reduced' Opioid Prescriptions, Federally Funded Study Shows 
A federally funded study published by the American Medical Association (AMA) is adding more evidence that marijuana can serve as an effective substitute for opioids in chronic pain treatment. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine on Monday, looked at opioid prescribing trends among chronic pain patients who became involved in the New York’s medical cannabis program between 2018 and 2023. (Jaeger, 12/8)