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President Donald Trump is vowing to step up efforts to combat the nation's opioid addiction crisis, and he's tapped New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to lead the fight. Trump convened an emotional roundtable Wednesday with Christie, members of his Cabinet, law enforcement chiefs, recovering addicts and advocates. It was the first public event tied to the launch of a new addiction commission that Christie, a longtime Trump friend and formal rival, will chair. (3/29)

As a candidate, Donald Trump promised rural towns and states hit hard by opioid addiction that he'd solve the epidemic ravaging their communities. "We will give people struggling with addiction access to the help they need," Trump vowed in October. Trump won many of those communities — often overwhelmingly. But as president, he's proposing deep cuts to research and treatment in favor of funding a border wall to stop drug traffic, while hinting at bringing back policies like criminalization of drug misuse — and announcing Wednesday yet another big presidential commission to study the problem. (Diamond and Karlin-Smith, 3/29)

Governor Charlie Baker, increasingly defined by his uncomfortable political relationship with President Trump, was in line Wednesday for a presidential appointment to a panel aimed at fighting opioid addiction, individuals in Boston and Washington familiar with the matter said. The appointment would put Baker at the center of national efforts to combat the opioid crisis, which has killed thousands of people in Massachusetts — and thousands more across the country. (O'Sullivan, 3/29)

Calling the recent surge in opioid-related overdoses one of “the biggest public health and law-enforcement crises of our time,” prosecutors in Brooklyn announced the indictment on Wednesday of 34 people charged with running a sprawling drug ring that sold a potent new designer narcotic never before seen in New York City — furanyl fentanyl. (Feuer, 3/29)

Sarah [Fuller] was given Subsys, a fast-acting opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin. Fifteen months later, Sarah's fiance found her dead in their home. Now a lawsuit places ultimate responsibility for her death on Insys Therapeutics Inc., which makes Subsys, a brand-name version of fentanyl...Deaths from fentanyl have been surging, but nearly all of them are tied to illicit versions of the drug, which is cooked up by cartels overseas and mixed with heroin sold on the street. (Sapatkin, 3/30)