With the support of the Biden administration, Congress has for the first time allocated funding for harm-reduction services, prompting renewed debate about this controversial approach to help substance users. Harm reduction programs can include overdose prevention, distribution of clean syringes, and so-called safe consumption sites with healthcare professionals on hand to provide assistance if needed. Such facilities can save lives and prevent the spread of disease, and they also offer information about drug treatment and referral services. But they usually do not but do not require patients to enter treatment, a flaw that makes them less effective than they could be to assist more individuals struggling with substance abuse to get clean. Meanwhile, nearly five months into Oregon’s initiative to decriminalize hard drugs and expand treatment, the first results are discouraging. Under the law, anyone caught with heroin or other illicit substances receives a citation (akin to a parking ticket) and $100 fine, which is waived if the individual agrees to get a health screening through an addiction recovery hotline. So far, just 29 people have called the hotline, as there is no mandatory treatment. And finally, Johnson & Johnson has agreed pay New York State $230 million to resolve an opioid lawsuit against the drug company, one of thousands of such cases that are pending against opioid makers, drug distributors and pharmacy chains for their role in the opioid epidemic. The New York deal came on the eve of a jury trial in the state, and may boost efforts to reach a master settlement similar to the $206 billion agreement in the 1990s against tobacco companies.