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The opioid crisis is, first and foremost, a human tragedy—lives lost, families torn apart and communities broken. In Ohio alone, there were nearly 4,300 opioid overdose deaths in 2017.

U.S. District Judge Dan Polster, who is overseeing the first federal opioid trial on Oct. 21, also wrote on Tuesday that the Ohio AG's petition before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit was based on a "faulty premise."

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The federal government is allowing Ohio more flexibility in what services it can provide to Medicaid patients addicted to opioids.

Shares of Mallinckrodt PLC MNK, -6.82% surged 4% in premarket trading Monday

Last June, the Alcohol Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County, along with business, civic and community partners, announced the formation of the Ohio Opioid Education Alliance and launched a multimillion-dollar media campaign designed to engage parents and caregivers in preventing the use of opioids among our community's youth. You are likely familiar with the Denial Ohio advertising campaign.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ordered lead plaintiffs’ attorneys and U.S. District Judge Dan Polster to respond to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s petition for writ of mandamus seeking to halt the Oct. 21 trial over the opioid crisis.

The state of Ohio is one of the bloodiest battlefields in the national war on opioids. By 2017, Ohio was second to West Virginia in rates of overdose deaths — 5,111. State district attorneys are battling with the makers of prescription opioids, and the settlements will someday help pay for programs to help addicts.

Federal prosecutors are charging 11 doctors with unlawfully distributing opioids and other substances, in the second large operation to target "pill mill" operators and health care fraud this year. Two other people also face charges in the sting.