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A federal judge Friday approved an injunction permanently barring a former Akron doctor from prescribing opioids or practicing medicine.

Michael P. Tricaso — who founded the Better Living Clinic in Merriman Valley and who once worked as a contracted emergency room physician at Summa Health facilities — agreed to the terms and also agreed to never seek those privileges again, court records show.

Federal officials said that Tricaso illegally prescribed drugs, including the opiate oxycodone and steroids, though he has not been criminally charged.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions highlighted federal prosecutors’ civil action against Tricaso in August during a visit to Cleveland as among the ways the federal government is trying to curb the opioid epidemic.

The Justice Department said at the time a temporary restraining order against Tricaso was among the first obtained against a doctor accused of illegal prescription practices under the Controlled Substances Act.

“For the first time, the Department of Justice is going to court to use civil injunctions to stop the spread of opioids to our communities,” Joseph H. Hunt, assistant attorney general said in a statement Friday. “Today’s injunction means that this doctor — who allegedly sold and prescribed dangerous opioids without a legitimate medical purpose — no longer presents a risk of harm to patients or the community.”

Justin Herdman, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio said the injunction is one of several “steps we are taking to turn the tide on the opioid and drug crisis that has caused so much death and heartbreak in our community.”

Federal prosecutors are using traditional criminal prosecutions, too, most recently wrapping up a case against a Cleveland man who sold a fatal dose of fentanyl last year to a Brunswick man who overdosed.

Rafael Jones faced his first felony drug indictment on state charges in 1997 when he was a teen, court records show.

At least 14 felony indictments on state charges followed, many involving drugs.

But none put Jones behind bars for long.

Federal officials, working with Medina County investigators, stepped in last year after a Brunswick man — who wasn’t publicly identified — overdosed and died after buying fentanyl from Jones.

Jones, now 40, this week was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for selling the fatal dose of fentanyl and on a separate firearms charge.

Overdoses, meanwhile, continue.

Between Oct. 19 and Oct. 25, 23 Summit County residents sought help at hospital emergency rooms after overdosing.

All were white. Just more than half — 52.2 percent — were men. And their average age was 38.3, according to the latest report by Summit County Public Health.

So far this year, hospital emergency rooms have handled more than 1,150 overdose cases from Summit County. Public health data doesn’t specify how many may have been repeat overdoses involving the same person.

If the pace holds, emergency rooms will treat far fewer Summit County residents for overdoses than in 2017, when 2,322 overdose cases were reported.

Overdose deaths have declined, too, but numbers won’t be released for months because of a backlog of toxicology tests.

People who work with those who use street drugs say community efforts to help users beat their addiction are partly to credit for the drops. But some caution that a switch from opioids — both heroin and synthetic substitutes like fentanyl — to methamphetamine during the evolving crisis may be behind the drops in overdoses, too.

Methamphetamine is deadly, too, they have warned, but meth users often survive longer.