VANCOUVER — Federal Health Minister Jane Philpottsays morepeople are expected to die of illicit opioid overdosesin Canada this year compared withnearly 2,500 fatalities recorded in 2016.

VANCOUVER — Canada had the second-highest medicationcostsfor common conditions such as high blood pressure and cholesterol in 2015 compared to nine other affluent countries with universal health-care systems, suggests a new study calling for a nationaldrug plan to lowerprices.

CHICAGO _ Jim Watkins lives with pain so intense it can snatch his breath away. He has osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease, and the best way he has found to control the anguish is with daily doses of tramadol, an opioid medication.

State and local leaders fighting a worsening opioid-abuse epidemic are studying tactics used in the tobacco lawsuits of the 1990s, as they try to claw back billions from the companies who make and sell the powerful painkillers.

Location, location, location. That mantra may apply even when it comes to how opioid addiction is treated.

Highlights from the news file for Monday,June 12