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The number of people who died in Massachusetts from opioid-related overdoses fell by 10 percent in 2023, the largest decrease in the state in more than a decade, according to newly released state data. The news offered a hint of hope after two years of record-setting death rates. However, the total number of deaths for the year, 2,125, was still the third highest since 2001 according to the Department of Public Health, which released the data Wednesday. (Laughlin, 6/12)

Researchers who looked at opioid prescription and mortality rates in Oregon found that nearby access to retail marijuana moderately reduced opioid prescriptions, though they observed no corresponding drop in opioid-related deaths. Specifically, communities located within a mile of state-licensed cannabis outlets had prescription opioid rates that were 1.0 percent to 3.9 percent lower than surrounding areas, according to the analysis, published this week in the journal Regional Science and Urban Economics. (Adlin, 6/12)

At a sparsely attended meeting in May at the Carrboro-based Orange Water and Sewer Authority board member Todd BenDor asked Stephen Winters, OWASA’s executive deputy director, an expensive question about what it would cost the utility to clean up the PFAS present in its water, which supplies about 80,000 customers in southern Orange County. (Atwater, 6/13)

California is home to one of the most polluted beaches in the country, according to a new study — a stretch of surf so toxic officials have made repeated calls for a state of emergency. Last year, the Surfrider Foundation tested thousands of water samples across the nation, as well as in Canada and Costa Rica, and found that 64% of the 567 sites tested had at least one sample with unsafe bacteria levels. (Tchekmedyian, 6/12)