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Jury selection for the trial of President Biden’s son Hunter on Monday turned into an impromptu but painful indictment of the nation’s drug epidemic, with person after person telling the court of their loved ones’ battles with addiction. ... Many offered their own versions of a written statement from President Biden, who was in Wilmington on Monday but did not come to the courthouse. He said he found his son’s recovery from addiction inspiring and knew that many families of addicts could relate to Hunter Biden’s journey. (Stein, Barrett and Viser, 6/3)

Throughout the country, most states are collecting data on how to effectively curb opioid overdose deaths. The problem — few are improving their treatment systems for people living with substance use disorder, according to a new report from Pew Charitable Trusts. (Biddle, 6/4)

Two yellowing sheets of paper in his home office are the remnants of a secret that nearly destroyed Dr. Glenn Dregansky. “Following several surgeries,” reads the admission to an Ohio drug treatment program, “the patient was introduced to opiates, which he began to abuse… .”“Vicodin, Oxycontin, Percocet,” the document reads…“Hydrocodone, Demerol, Pamelor, Halcion…“Ambien, Soma, Restoril.” Dr. Glenn Dregnansky, who is now chair of the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians, wasn’t prescribing the drugs. He was stealing them. “Chewing them like candy,” he clarifies. (Erb, 6/3)

The toll of homelessness and decades of substance abuse is evident in Bruce and Lisa, two clients of San Francisco’s controversial Managed Alcohol Program, from her missing teeth and gravelly voice to his bloodshot eyes. He once dropped a bottle of gin and then sucked the spilled liquid off the floor with a straw, desperate for the alcohol’s effects. She recently ventured off the residential program’s building in search of additional booze and promptly wound up in a hospital with a broken arm she still can’t explain. One fact they’re both clear on: Without the innovative city venture, they would be dead by now. (Ortiz, Thornton and Trethan, 6/4)