Washington state’s attorney general on Monday argued in court that three large drug distributors’ excessive shipments of pain pills helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic, calling it the “worst man-made public health crisis in history,” as the state sought to recoup an estimated $95 billion. The argument came at the start of a trial in the state’s bid to recover more money from distributors McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health Inc., and AmerisourceBergen Corp. than it would have received in a $26 billion nationwide settlement. Lawyers for the state, led by Attorney General Bob Ferguson, said the companies fell short of their legal obligations to operate systems to prevent the diversion of pain pills from legitimate uses and to stop suspicious orders of opioids from going to pharmacies. They did so while shipping 3.8 billion opioid doses into Washington from 2006 to 2018, the state’s attorneys told King County Superior Court Judge …