The number of prescription opioid pain pills shipped in the U.S. plummeted nearly 45% between 2011 and 2019, new federal data show, even as fatal overdoses rose to record levels as users increasingly used heroin, and then illegal fentanyl, The Washington Post reports. The data confirm what has long been known about the arc of the nation’s addiction crisis: Users first got hooked by pain pills saturating the nation, then turned to cheaper and more readily available street drugs after law enforcement crackdowns, public outcry, and changes in how the medical community views prescribing opioids to treat pain.

A U.S. appeals court weighing whether to uphold a $650 million judgment against CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens for fueling the opioid epidemic in parts of Ohio has asked the state’s highest court to weigh in first, Reuters notes. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the appeal by the pharmacies raised “novel and unresolved questions” of whether state law permits the public-nuisance claim the case was centered on. The case, which was brought by two Ohio counties, was the first the three companies faced at trial of the thousands of lawsuits filed by states and local governments against drugmakers, distributors, and pharmacies over the opioid crisis.