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Man:
Lyle! Get up, Lyle!

Get up.

Man: Facebook Live,
he found her passed out, man.

He found her passed out
on her face... (indistinct).

I don't know.
But he might be dead, bro.
Hold on, bro.

(woman speaking indistinctly)
Yeah, hold on, fool.

He might--
might be dead, jack.

Alan Spanos:
We doctors were wrong
in thinking

that opioids can't be used
long-term.

They can be and they should be.

We used to think
they'd stop working

or that patients
would become addicts

or that they'd be sedated
into inactivity.

Spanos:
We now find that
these medicines are much safer,

much more powerful,
much more versatile
than we used to think,

and we feel that
they should be used
much more liberally

for people with all sorts
of chronic pain.

Man:
Some patients may be afraid
of taking opioids

because they're perceived
as too strong, or addictive...

but that is far
from actual fact.

Less than one percent
of patients taking opioids

actually become addicted.

Man:
She's making noises.

She's making noises. Yo!

Woman:
She's breathing.
She's-- Come on, baby.

Man: Breathing?
Woman: Yeah. She's...

She's trying to--
Come on, girl.

Come on,
Jerry, wake up.

Jerry, wake up!
Look at me.

Look at me, Jerry.

Officer: Jerry, look at me!
Come on!

Man: Wake up, girl!
There you are!
Man 2: Woo-hoo!

Stay with us.
Hang on. Stay with us.

High five,
you're alive.
You're fine. You're okay.

Man:
You all right?
You with us?

You doing okay?

Hey, stay with me, man.
Stay with me.

Man: Can you wake up?
Woman: Are you gonna be okay?

Is she okay?

Man: Yo, she's overdosing.
Like, what the fuck, man?

Man: Wake up!
Man 2: Hey!

Man:
Wake up, wake up!

Wake up, boy!

Get water,
get water, get water!

Man 2:
Pour water on her first.

Man: Want him too?
Man 2: Fuck it, man, 'cause...

Man: I know.
Man 2: Anything
could've happened.

(child crying)
Mommy... Mommy!

Man: Oh my God.

Mommy! (crying)

Mommy!

Newsman:
Law enforcement says
they have never seen abuse

of a prescription drug
mushroom out of control
so fast.

Newsman 2:
These drugs all belong
to a family of drugs
called opioids.

Woman:
And prescription painkillers
lead to heroin.

Newswoman:
It is a narcotic,
closely related
to heroin and morphine

with the same potential
for addiction.

Stephany Gay:
If somebody'd told me
six years ago

that I was going
to be a heroin addict,

I would have thought
that they were crazy.

Never in a million years.

I didn't hang out
with bad kids.

I didn't get in trouble.

I-I just would have
never ever thought
that it could happen to me.

When I was about 16,

I started getting
kidney stones,

and they would give me
pain medication for it,

because that's pretty much
all that they could do.

Kathy Kelly:
The X-rays would
show the kidney stones.

There was no faking it, nothing.

I mean,
here is a child, 15, 16...

that was about the age
she started getting 'em,

um, and she's getting 'em
every-- few times a year.

Stephany:
They gave me
a shot of Dilaudid,

which is a very
strong painkiller.

And then I remember
them sending me home,

with a prescription
of Oxycontin

and a prescription
of Vicodin.

Kelly:
And I remember
thinking at that time,

"Wow, those are kind of
high-powered medications
for such a young person,"

but I trusted the doctors.

Stephany:
In the beginning,
I would just take
my Vicodin

as prescribed
when I was in pain,

but it, like, gradually
got worse over time.

It numbed my feelings
and made me feel like...

okay about everything.

You know, "I'm fine.
I'm-- I'm good."

You know, I would take
an extra one here or there,

and then, if I ran out,
I would just pretend

like I didn't know
what was wrong with me,
so that I could get more.

You know, faking pain
to go to the hospital
to get painkillers.

I mean, it would be
anything from Oxycontin,

to Vicodin to Norcos.

Then it went from taking
the prescribed dose

of like one every six hours

to taking, like,
20 Norcos a day.

I'm going through
a month prescription
in two days.

And I called my mom crying,
and I was like, "I don't know
what's wrong with me."

"Mom... I can't
stop taking these,

'cause when I stop taking them,
I don't feel good."

I said, "Well, we need
to talk to your doctor."

And he wrote me
another prescription
for Percocets,

which was stronger
than the Norcos
that I had been taking.

My sister, Ashley...

she was the closest person
to me in this whole world.

We did everything together.

I would get painkillers,
and I'd, like, you know,

when I started
getting bad with them

she was curious,
because what I did, she did.

So, to go to sleep,
she'd be like,
"Let me get one of your pills.

Let me get one of your
painkillers to go to sleep.
Let me get a Vicodin."

And I'd give her one,
you know,

and she'd be like,
"Oh my gosh, I love this."

Kelly:
They would share 'em
with each other.

"Oh, I have a headache."
"Oh, well, here, you can
take one of my pills."

Um... menstrual cramps.

One sister sharing medication
with another sister.

Stephany:
We'd never been exposed
to drugs like that.

We didn't know what
could happen, you know?

We just thought, like,

"Well, our doctor started
giving us the, you know,

these painkillers,
so it can't be that bad."

Well, then he cut
her off on 'em,

and then she didn't feel good.

Her friends say,
"Oh, well, here,
I'll give you-- Take mine."

But they became expensive
to buy privately from friends,

and the doctors would not
give 'em to her anymore.

So, this friend
gave her a little bag,

and said, "Just sniff this.

"It'll do the same
thing as the pills do,

"only thing, you don't
need to take five pills.

"Just take this
little bag, sniff it,

and you'll feel better."

And it worked!

She took it and it worked.

I remember thinking, like,
"Wow. This is the best
feeling in the world."

It was really, like...

I had, like,
not a care in the world.

It made me feel like
I could do anything.

I felt like Super Woman.

It's a lot cheaper than...

buying 15 Norcos a day
at five dollars apiece.

You know,
"Here's a ten-dollar
bag of heroin,

and it'll last you
three days."

I didn't have anxiety
or I didn't feel depressed.

I felt happy, I felt warm.

I felt like it loved me,
and I loved it back.

It felt like I was in, like,
a relationship with it,

like, I felt like I had
a relationship with heroin.

It was just the best
feeling in the world.

I snorted heroin
for about a year.

Me and Ashley both did.

Kelly:
They did not know

the scope of the addiction
that they were up against,

like a tidal wave.

You know, you're
standing on a beach,
and you've got this...

50-foot wave coming at you.

And I remember
Ashley saying,

"It's not like we're
sticking needles
in our arms, Mom."

Stephany:
"That's for real junkies.

"You know,
I'll never do that.

"I'll never touch a needle.

That's disgusting,
that's gross."

And somewhere...
along that time,

somebody introduced
the needle to them.

Stephany:
You only have to do
a little tiny bit,

and you get, you know,
ten times as high,

and it lasts
ten times as long,

but then, it, like, gets
so out of control so fast.

If I was lucky, you know,

it would only take me
ten minutes to hit a vein,

and then I could go
lay back down.

I had no veins left.

I mean, in my neck,
and the side of my face,

palms of my hands,
my fingers,

I mean, like, on my chest,

and I'd be covered in blood.

I would just sleep all day,

till I woke up
from being sick again,

and then I'd have to go
through it all over again.

When I started using...

I had my own three-bedroom,
two-story house.

I was a stay-at-home Mom
with my two-year-old daughter.

Me and my daughter's father,

we each had our own new cars.

We had a pool
in our backyard,
we had two dogs.

I had, like,
the perfect life.

By the time I started
injecting heroin,

I had lost my house.

We'd sold both of our cars,

and I lost custody
of my daughter.

Kelly:
I remember Ashley saying,

"I don't want
to do this anymore."

It was no longer a party,

and she was a slave to it.

Stephany:
She got into a fight
with her fiancé,

and she went and got a motel.

I was clean at the time,
and I...

I didn't think
that she was using.

Kelly:
Ashley had been
in treatment.

She had stayed in
just long enough

to get through
the withdrawal period,

and she felt fine,

and then she walked out
of treatment early.

That's when it can take 'em
because they think

that they can use
what they were using before.

They say,
"Well, I did this much,"

um, "so I can handle it,"
and they can't.

Their body is back
to what it was.

And when I would
tell my daughter,

"I'm so worried
about you, Ashley,"

she would say,

"Mom, I'm-- I'm too young,
and pretty to die.

I'll be fine.
I'm gonna beat this."

Stephany:
I think that
maybe she thought

she could just do it
one more time

and get that
really good high,

and then not
do it anymore.

And it's like... that one time,
you never know.

Stephany:
Her fiancé called me,
and he was at the motel,

and she wasn't
answering her phone.

Stephany:
He called me and he was,
like, hysterical.

Stephany:
He started banging
on the doors.

He called 911,
and told the operator,

"My girlfriend
is a heroin addict.

"She's not
answering her phone.

"I know she's in trouble.

Please come to this hotel
and help me."

Stephany:
I remember where I was at.

I was at the
Taco Bell drive thru.

I remember seeing
the police station's number
come up on my phone.

And I remember
picking up the phone,

and it being a man's voice.

He was like,
"I'm sorry for your loss."

And I was just like...

I was like,
"What are you talking about?"

And, um, he's like,

"I need you to come
into the police station."

And I just-- I knew.

And...

It was like my whole
world just, like, stopped.

It was the worst nightmare
that anybody could have.

I miss her every day.

From morning till night,
it's an all-day thing.

Stephany:
I was suicidal
when I lost my sister.

I would just do
massive amounts,

$200 worth of drugs,

in an hour, in a sitting.

Just praying, like,

"Please don't
let me wake up.

I don't want
to live anymore."

Stephany:
She was like a second
mom to Audrey.

She acted like Audrey
was her daughter.

You know, she would--

She would take over
when I would get stressed or...

Kelly:
You two were inseparable.

Stephany:
I can never imagine
going back to...

living like I was.

I could never imagine
going back to...

sticking myself with needles,

15 times a day
for hours at a time.

I've been clean for
long enough to where...

it scares me,
the thought of using,

because I know
one time could kill me.

This is a crucial time--

now that you,
you have clean time.

She had that,
that clean time,

and then she used...

and I feel like you're...

you're right there,
and it's so scary.

Anytime I get a call
in the middle of the night,

I-I get that gut feeling.

Everything tightens up.

I couldn't imagine...

putting you through
losing another... child.

Britt Doyle:
That picture...

was taken when I was,
I think, six years old.

I sort of remember that day,
like a little bit,

but I remember that
that photo was...

in her room always,
'cause she said it was
her favorite photo of us,

and I really like it too.
(giggles)

This cross...

she gave to me when
my parents split up,

because I told--

I was really sad one day,
and I was like...

"Mom, I'm not gonna
be able to see you anymore.

I'm not gonna live with you,"

and she was like,

"I have the same necklace.

"I'm gonna give you this one,

"and if you wear it,
then we're gonna--

"just know that
we're together,

and just know that
I'm thinking of you."

"Dear Preston,

"I've enjoyed every minute
of our time in Tahoe.

"You're this
amazing young man

that makes me
proud every day,

"and more every year.

"There are incredible things
that await you in your future.

"You're a success in life...

"and always will be,
because you have
that special spark

"to do and enjoy
life to its fullest.

I love you. XO, Mom."

And I read that...

literally any time I have
any sort of problem in my life,

because there's just
the fact that she wrote that.

It just...
I don't know,

just shows what kind
of person I had by my side
for all those years.

Here's a screenshot
of a text she sent me.

And, uh, she did not
mean to send that.

She, like...

was just probably
high out of her mind.

(laughing)
That mean picture.

I know, I'm sorry.
This one's funny.

Wait.
Britt: Whoa!

Britt:
Get off! I'm ticklish,
and I don't like being tickled.

Wynne:
I wasn't tickling you.
(Britt giggles)

I was trying to make a wish
on your tummy, you big biddy.

Ow! Not happening!

Britt:
And she wipes
her nose with my hair.

Doyle:
Each one of our three
kids were C-sections,

but the third one was
a particularly hard pregnancy,

so when Wynne got
out of the hospital,

they gave her a lot of...

uh, prescriptions,
I mean, in a row.

I had no idea

that she'd been
given Oxycontin,

or Vicodin or any
of the opiates that
we all know about now.

We had no idea that
there were any dangers.

About a month and a half
after the baby was born,

Wynne was starting
not to get out of bed.

And that's when
I started finding

the pill bottles
around the house.

All of a sudden, now
there's pills all the time,

and there's more
and more doctor visits,

and there's more and more
trips to the pharmacy,

and she's getting less and less
interested in anything.

She was hiding 'em,

and she was getting 'em
from multiple doctors.

Different doctors
that started showing up
on pill bottles.

Doctors were just
throwing pills at her.

And by the end of the year,

you know, she just was
a totally different person.

Completely different.

It was like Jekyll and Hyde.

When we were dating,

I had never thought
about any kind of addiction,

or alcohol, I mean, anything.

We went out
a few times a week.

We'd go to restaurants
and drink wine.

I mean, there was nothing.

I mean, I never saw anything.

She was driven,
and fun to be around,

and it felt right.

We had a couple of kids,
she was a great mom.

We were going on vacations.

We were visiting with family.

We had friends over
all the time.
We'd have dinner parties.

She was raised really well.

She was, like, a track star,

cross-country,
the cheerleader,
everyone loved her.

I just always looked up
to her when I was little,

and being like,
"That is the most beautiful
woman, like, ever."

And I'd wear
all of her clothes,
all of her jewelery,

I would do makeup with her

ever since I was--
I could walk, I feel like.
(chuckles)

Doyle:
Christmas morning of 2000,

about five or six months
after the baby was born,

I woke her up, and it
had been a couple of days

since she'd been up,

and, uh, I got
the kids out of bed,

and, you know, she didn't even
realize it was Christmas.

I asked her if
she would consider

going to a treatment facility,

and I had already talked
to Betty Ford Clinic
down in Palm Springs.

She stayed for three days
and then went missing.

I went down
and tried to find her.

She'd checked
into a motel, and...

she was passed out.

I had just no idea
what was going on.

She went to a second
rehab facility,

and I figured, since I could
afford it at the time,

maybe this place would
be better 'cause it was
three times as expensive.

When she checked out
28 days later,

she had a whole
bunch of new pills...

and it happened all over again.

She would go around
to different doctors,

telling them
that she had pain.

You know, she'd do
something to injure herself.

I watched her slam her hand
in the car door one time

just so that she could go
to the emergency room,

and the doctors would
always give her something,

Vicodin or Oxy
or something.

She shattered
both her wrists,

and she had...

um, this-- I don't
know how to...

she had like a cast
on both of 'em,

and as soon as they
were all healed up again,

she did something
that shattered it again.

Repeatedly, like, the cycle
was over, and over,

where she'd hurt herself,

and then get medication,
and then she'd go off,
and leave.

My dad always told me
it was "cooking school."

Once we got older,
we started to realize
that, like,

she is going to rehab
right now, but...

It's not--
...it's not gonna--
it's not gonna work.

It got to the point
where it was so common,

I was like, "Maybe
she was really like that."

But then I could tell
when she was clean,

how healthy and just
amazing she looked,

but when she was high,
it was like...

it was like
she was sleepwalking,

like, she wasn't
herself whatsoever.

Just, like, her eyes
were different,

her speech was different,

the way she walked,
everything about her
was just really off.

Preston: When she was clean,
she was an awesome human being,

and just the best mother,

and I'd trust her with
my life when she was sober,

but I had to do things that
most kids wouldn't have to.

It almost felt like
I was the parent.

It's like the roles switched,

where I'd be searching
her room for-- for drugs.

Whenever I'd open drawers,
there would be pills hidden.

There would be pills
in the bathroom counters.

You know,
in her coat pockets,
or in her shoes,

in her sock drawer,

I mean, in the back
of the food pantry,
or wherever.

They were everywhere.

Her family was ashamed.

Every Christmas
was a disaster.

All of a sudden,
we're losing friends,

people didn't want
to be around us.

Doyle:
I think at this point,
the kids...

they were just starting
to understand it.

The reason why I would keep
them out in the evenings,
you know,

and always filled their days
with things, you know.

I mean, at one point,
I had all three of 'em
in Little League,

which was a disaster for me,

because I'm driving
all over the place.

Two practices and a game
for each one of 'em every week.

You know, we'd have
dinner out all the time,

and movies,
and you know.

It was exhausting.

I'm trying to keep them away

from wanting to go upstairs
and see their mom in bed.

We knew there was a problem,
but there was nothing that

we could say or do
that was gonna change it,

so it just became
part of our life.

Doyle:
In 2008,
like seven years into it,

a rehab facility in Malibu
called and said,

"Are you not coming
for family week?"
And I said, "No, I've had it.

"You know, I'm not coming
to anymore family weeks.

I've been to too many already."

And they said, um...

"Well, it sounds to me
like you're done."

And I said, "I don't even
know what that means."

He said...

"Well, if you're thinking
about a divorce,

"we... we really ought
to think about that
while she's here,

"so that she doesn't
come home to that

and not have a support group."

I mean, it was the first time
anybody had ever said...

that I actually...

you know,
could get out, so...

um, I...

I filed...

and moved the kids out.

When we divorced,

Wynne got half custody,

and started living
in San Francisco.

The kids would visit her.

They're getting older.

They're starting
to really develop

a relationship with their mom

that's separate from me.

Harry:
The last house that
we lived at with her

was in the South Market,
and the Embarcadero.

And I used to skate
on the Embarcadero at 10:30,

'cause she would allow me
to, like, leave the house,

like, she gave us
that much freedom.

It was just like my favorite
feeling in the world.

This was her house, you see,
with all these candles.

Man:
Oh, that's cool, yeah.

Doyle:
When the kids
were with her,

I was always on edge.

Then it really just
became about safety.

I became this hyper-vigilant
sort of guy,

and she was fine,

but I knew it
wasn't gonna last.

It just slowly
deteriorated again.

I heard from the kids
that she was going
into the hospital

because she had
a kidney stone that
they had to remove.

She had been taking
a lot of opiates,

and once she got
to the hospital,

they were giving her
what a normal person

would be getting as a dose
when you have pain,

but it wasn't near
the amount she'd been
taking on her own.

So, there she is
in a confined spot,

for four days going
through withdrawals,

and it was just getting worse.

So, she left the hospital,

and they gave her
a bunch of opiates
on the way out.

Preston and Harry
were staying with their mom.

Harry:
Like, she had all these pills
on the side of her bed.

"The hospital told me
to take these,"
and I was just like,

just... please
don't overdo this.

Like, there's a lot
of pills here.

Eight bottles
filled to the top,

and I was like,
"Who gave you all of these?"

And she said,
"Oh, my doctor did."

Like, "I'm still in a lot
of pain from the kidneys."

And then, in the morning,
she was just laying there

with her arms spread out,
and her eyes were kind of open.

We said goodbye,
and got no response,

and we thought that was odd.

Preston, like, pulled out
his phone to, like,

take a video to just,
like, show our father,

like, what was,
like, going on.

And I told him, like,

"Put down the phone,
like, right now."

And he's like, "Why?"

And like I, that was--
I was like grabbing her foot,

and it was just ice-cold.

And I called 911,
they were telling me to do
chest compressions on her.

I was just yelling
at Preston to stop,

and he was just like,
said, "We need to do
everything we can."

and... it was, um...

I mean, that's when
I had to call, like,
my father.

And it just was surreal,

in having the conversation
with Harry

as I can hear Preston
in the background.

"Mom's dead.
Like we-- we need
to do something,"

and he just--
he didn't believe me,
and I was just like,

"Just get to the city,
like, right now."

And then hearing Preston
screaming on the other--

You know, he's, um...

trying to give her
compressions. (sniffles)

Doyle:
By the end...

at the funeral,
there were hardly
any of her friends.

Britt:
When I saw the pills
on her bedside table,

when she had passed,

that was probably
the most anger
I could feel ever,

because she's been
to that hospital

easily like 50 times.

They've seen her there,
unconscious, had to, like,
pump her stomach

so many times,

and yet, she comes in there,

and they leave her,
like, with more?

Doyle:
I firmly believe
that there are so many people

that are being
prescribed opiates

without any
direction or support

that have no idea
what they're getting into,

and then, once they
can't get out of it

the shame and the inability
to actually confront it

and talk about it
with somebody...
makes it worse,

because now,
all of a sudden,
they're an addict.

Do you like it so far?

I love it,
I think it's beautiful.

I was thinking,
maybe we would
make one for your mommy.

That's what I
would like to do when,

when I'm done with yours,
if that's okay.

Let her know
that we're thinking of her.

Kelly:
I have adopted Audrey.

She needed
stability, security,

and until my daughter
could recover,

she just couldn't
give her that.

Kelly:
I'm trying to keep
her a child.

I don't want her
to grow up too fast.

But she's part of this,

and she's kind of my partner.

We have the Narcan,

and I dropped
some off for her.

If something happened,

and I couldn't
get over there,

do you remember
what you would do?

Where--
where do I keep it?

In the top.

So I keep
the Narcan right here.

This one is real
easy access

for Audrey if she needs to.

I keep a couple
of packs inside here.

Three, actually,

and it's two...
two doses per box.

But this is really
easy for her to reach.

I can get at it.

It's very visible
in the red bag.

If she wasn't moving,

try to shake her?
I would check if
she was breathing.

Okay.

And, then, what's the
next thing you would do?

Rub, rub the lips,
try to stimulate her.

And then what
would you do

if she didn't wake up?

Then I would take
the... the Narcan...

Okay.

...and I would...
and I would place it
on her thigh,

her butt,

or right here.
Yep.

Exactly. And then
what do you do?

Then, call 911.

Right.

I'm gonna say
a special prayer
for your mommy today,

'cause she really needs it.

I know she's
trying very hard,

and I know
she misses you.

I'm gonna bring
some to Stephany.

I don't know
what she's doing...

but it's always good
to have it there,
just in case.

And also...

a lot of times,
they don't use alone.

They're so pretty.

Gail Cole:
When we found him,

the two of us
pulled him off the bed.

I'll never forget the sound

of just the air
coming out of his lungs.

For the longest time,
I couldn't come in this room.

It's literally like
the day he died.

It took me a year to come in

and throw his garbage out,

and I think I did that,

because I saw that
the medical examiner

left the wrapper for
the body bag in there.

I just--
I can't go through it.

I feel like it's like
getting rid of him.

Brian Cole:
Part of me takes great comfort
in all of this stuff too.

Just reminds me
of his personality,
you know.

Brian:
I did everything possible

to-- to create a perfect
life for a family.

Brendan:
Brothers get together!

Brian (in video):
All the brothers, hold on.

Brian:
To have this
happen is just

not even conceivable to me.

Brian (in video):
Come on, Connor.

Gail (in video):
Here's Brendan!

Hey baby, I'm not four yet!

Brian (in video):
Yeah, Brendan!

Brian: That's his calendar,
he was marking off the days
when he was first...

Gail: Sober?
Brian: ...sober.

I just thought it would
be important for him
to be able to

look at the calendar
at the end of every day,

and cross it off,
and say, you know,

"There's another day,
I've done it."

You know? I just
wanted him to have

some type of way
of measuring his success.

Gail: When he had
come out of rehab,

he looked the best
he had in years,

He looked so healthy
and was so positive.

And he said,
"Oh, can I borrow the car?
I want to go to the mall."

And I said, "Sure."

And he's only gone
45 minutes.

He's texting Brian pictures
of shoes, of all things.

And he came back.

He poked his head in,
I said, "You know,"

I said, "It's so nice
to have you back."

He goes, "Thanks, Mom,
I love you. Thanks for
giving me another chance."

And, with that,
I look at his face

and I'm, like,
"Wow! He's high."

And, you know, the yelling,
the screaming, and...

we agreed tomorrow
would be another day.

And, um, I went to sleep.

Brian fell asleep
on the, on the couch,

and woke up
at around one o'clock,
by the grace of God.

He found him kind of laying
at an odd angle on the bed.

He turned on the light
and screamed.

His lips were turning blue.

He was unconscious.
He was barely breathing.

And you were screaming,
we're shaking him,

calling 911.

The police came,
the ambulance came,

and then Mobile
Intensive Care came

and they revived him
with Narcan...

and he walked out
the front door
to the ambulance.

When we got into
the emergency room,

nobody really talked
about the withdrawal
from the Narcan,

and there was
no real game plan

for what to do
after overdosing.

So, we got in the car
and I drove him home,

and I could, could
barely even speak to him.

I was just so furious.

He was, you know,
sleeping in the front seat,

and we pulled in
the garage and I said,

"Do me a favor, would you
just take a shower and try
to get yourself together?"

And he goes, "I can't."

And I didn't
really understand,

but I've learned,
after the fact,

that when you're
going through withdrawal,

it hurts to shave,
it hurts to shower,
it hurts to brush your teeth.

He went up in his room.

The door was open.

We had his laptop,
we had his cellphone.

We had taken
all those away,

so he was, you know,
kind of in lockdown.

That was at 1:30
in the afternoon.

And then about 2:30,
Brian came up

and said to him, he goes,

you know, kind of
tussled his hair, and said,

"You know...
you got a second chance.

Not everyone gets
a second chance."

He goes, "You better not
waste that second chance."

And that was probably
the last thing anyone
said to him.

It was about quarter to three,
and I came upstairs,

and he was kneeling
with his hands on his head.

And, to this day,
I wish I would have said
something to him.

I wish I would have
come over and said,

"You know, B, I love you.
It's going to be okay."

Connor came home.

It was 20 after three, or so,
and he said, "Where's B?"

I said, "I don't know.
He's upstairs kneeling
next to his bed."

And he went upstairs.

And he must've tried to...

move him and shake him,
and he screamed.

And we called 911 immediately.

And everyone--
Connor's throwing up,

and everyone's screaming,

and Brian had run over
and got our neighbor

who was a doctor.

It was a nightmare.

They, uh, made us
leave the room.

And they tried to revive him
again with the Narcan,

but it didn't work.

They had worked on him
for about 40 minutes.

I knew. I just,
I knew he was gone.

You know,
you prayed, you hoped.
You did everything, but...

And probably at about 4:20,

our neighbor
pronounced him dead.

He had used heroin again.

We found this
old stuffed animal

that had old baggies
of heroin and a syringe in it.

I had the hardest time,
and so did Brian,

wrapping our head around that.

Why would
he have done that?

Like... he knew we loved him.

He knew we wanted to,
you know,

send him back to rehab
and get him help.

And what
could you be thinking,

that, like, that
love wasn't enough.

Brian:
One of the things
that's always a regret

is that you
completely underestimate

how hard the battle
of addiction is.

I mean, you think that,
if you drop everything,

and, you know, you get
the right help,

that you'll be able
to see your way through this

and help somebody,
but it's not quite that easy.

I mean, I thought I knew Brendan
like the back of my hand,

but it's a different person
once this addiction kicks in.

As a father,
you have this,

this guilt that it,
it happened on your watch.

And it's just, you know,
you can explain it away
all you want,

and other people
can tell you, you know,
you did everything you could.

But that always will linger
in the back of your mind.

You taking that also?
Yeah.

And this?
Yep.

Gail:
When Brendan overdosed,

we didn't know
what happened.

Heroin?
Like, you know,
here we are, we're in...

we're in Allendale,
we're in "Mayberry."

Heroin,
you think a dark alley,

you think, you know,
somebody on the streets,

not in towns like this.

Gail:
Just sign in.
Nice to see you.

Man:
Good to see you too.

Yeah, just sign in,
make a name tag.

Gail: We formed a group
"Hope and Healing
After an Addiction Death,"

and we meet twice a month,

and it's for people
who have lost somebody

to the disease of addiction.

I thought we would start
by sharing our stories,

um, and, if you have a picture,
that would be great.

Um, you know, just,

share your story
and, and talk about
what you went through.

I have two pictures of Georgia.

This is my favorite.

Gail:
That's Georgia.
Group: Georgia, Georgia.

This is her.
This is her.

She's just all energy.

All, like, "Yeah!"

You know?
And that's how she was.

David (on tape):
Georgia. Hey, Georgia.

Come here. What?

David:
When Georgia was born,

I remember that I was
in the delivery room with her,

and I started talking to her.

I didn't talk to her
like she was a newborn baby.

I talked to her like
she was somebody who...

we had been waiting for,

and that she had been
waiting to arrive.

Who is that?

David:
Within minutes,
we had our first conversation.

It was one-sided, but...

but it was, uh...

Judy:
But she was special,

she was the first
grandchild, first niece.
David: Yeah.

And we took a lot of pictures
of her doing nothing.

We thought it
was so exciting.

Judy:
She was just very happy.

It was a very special,
happy time of life.

David:
I had a nickname for her,
I called her "Soda Pop,"

because she was bubbly,

and she was, like,
you know...

you didn't want
to shake her
before opening her.

David:
It was just
a constant amazement.

You know, watching her unfold

into an amazingly
bright, young child.

She died, um,
Thanksgiving Day a year ago.

She was 26.

It's like she never
knew what hit her.

But the way
she described it with me was,

that, um, she was
working with a group

that ran several
group homes,

and she was an assistant
in these group homes,

and one day,
she was taking a break.

She was on the porch,
and this was in 2011,

and she fell
through a guard rail,

or a hand rail,
on the porch.

Took a fall
and went down.

Hurt her back
and her hip,

and went and got
prescribed these,

you know,
monster painkillers.

It could have been
anything from Vicodin,

OxyCodone, I'm not sure.

I know it was one of
the heavier ones just
by the way she described it.

And they gave her enough

that, by the time
the prescription ran out,

she needed more.

And, then, this one night,

I came up the stairs
to go into the bathroom,

and Georgia was in
the doorway of her room,

and she was upset
about not being able
to find something.

So I said, "Okay."

I went into the bathroom,

and as I shut the door,
in the middle of the floor,

was a glasses case.

David:
Right? So.

Somebody dropped
their glasses case.

I picked it up
to put it on the counter,

and it felt weird.

And I opened it up,

and there was six
bags of heroin,

and a syringe, and a couple
of other things in there,
and I just went...

"Oh, no, no, no, no."
You know?

And she said she didn't know
where it came from.

"Oh, my God," you know,
it was just the whole thing.

And, and... (sighs)

So this was probably
a month before it happened.

On Thanksgiving morning,

Judy woke me up
about five o'clock, I guess.

And she said,
"Something's wrong with Georgia.

I can't wake her up,
and she's really cold."

So I went
into the living room,

and Georgia was sitting,

the television was on,

she was sitting
between the couch

and the coffee table
on the floor

with her feet out
in front of her,

and her hands
folded in her lap.

She had just leaned
forward like this.

And we had this little
carpet-covered stool thing,
you know, right there.

There was a syringe
laying right on top of it,

and it looked like
she had just dozed off.

And I went over to her and I--

and I could--
as soon as I touched her...

I don't know, at that point,
you're just in something
that you can't even...

describe.

Well, all of you probably could.

So, I put my hand
around her neck
looking for a pulse,

and her skin was
starting to get that

real stiff kind of,
you know...

If you've ever had
a dead pet

that you've had to pick up,
you know that feeling,

and I knew I wasn't
going to find a pulse,

and then I got around, you know,
I had turned on the lights.

So I got around
in front of her,

and I picked her head up,

and I looked--

David:
I had called the police,

and they were on their way.

And whatever I said to Judy,

I let her know that
Georgia was gone.

And we finally went outside

with our son, Eli, and

a man pulled up in a car,

parked across the street,
and he got out with a camera,

a big camera in his hand,

and it was obvious
that he was going
to photograph the scene,

but as he was
walking toward me,

we made eye contact,

and he said,
"I'm sorry for your loss."

Pretty soon after that,

they were rolling her out
of the front door on a gurney...

in a body bag.
(sniffles)

That was the last
time she was here.

This person that had
been a part of my life

for more than 26 years...

(sniffles)
would never be again.

I know she's,
uh, she's here.

I feel her.

And I talk to her
the same way I always have.

I miss her.

Kelly:
The last time
I was with her,

she seemed fine.

Her outlook on
things was hopeful.

And then...

all of a sudden, nothing.

She's not answering the phone.

She's not answering the door.

She started this relapse
around the time

of Ashley's birthday.

Stephany?

Kelly:
And, when she's using,
it's a very dark,

small, closed world.

Stephany?

Steph?

Kelly:
What happened?

We were together.

We were making plans.

Kelly:
Nobody's given up
on you, please.

Please, honey.

You can't do it
on your own, sweetie.

You tried,
you gotta go in.

Kelly:
Why don't you
get up, and...

you come back to the house,
take a nice hot shower.

You'll feel better.
Get dressed.

Okay? You ready?

Yeah.

Kelly:
Okay.

Oh, it feels
a lot nicer in here.

Laura:
Better than the majority
of my clients.

I'm going to sit here.

Kelly:
You want to try
a little protein?

Whatever. Looks good.

Kelly: They're not chilled.
I was drinking... (indistinct)

Laura: I can get some
for you if you want--

Like ice tea, like
this is really good.

Well, drink the ice tea.
There's a, a pot
of it in there, too.

If you want,
I'll chill this,
this is good for you.

All right.
Kelly: I don't know how
well you've been eating.

I haven't eaten
in like two days.

I just need my clothes.

Kelly:
Clothes? You've got them.

Laura: Mm-hmm.

I'm worried about that too.

Steph?

What are you doing?
Stephany: I'm taking
my medication!

You okay?
Yes.

And I can't
straighten it or close it.

Laura:
This is the spoon
of a heroin user.

She had it in her bag.

Stephany is feeling
very anxious right now.

She's gonna be going into rehab.

She knows that she can't use.

The program that we started
is called "A Way Out."

We have seven
police departments

in our county
that are participating,

and someone can walk
into the police department
and say,

"I need help."

No repercussions whatsoever.

Okay.
(retches)

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

If you do have any sort
of paraphernalia or drugs--

Stephany:
I got-- gave it
all to my mom.

Yeah, I've done
her laundry before,

and I've asked her,
"Is there anything in there
that will poke me?"

Like how-- how many bags?

I just have,
like, a backpack
and, like, a carry bag

with clothes in it
for when I go.
Okay. So, what
we'll do on, on our end,

is we'll go through it. Okay?
Kelly:
Yeah, that's...

just in case, she might--
It's part of the program,

so, whatever we find,
it just gets disposed of.

Stephany:
I definitely did not know that
that one was there, Officer.

Just a little bit.

Kelly:
What is it?

It's like really
embarrassing.
Officer: Okay.

It happens.

Hi, this is Officer
Jake Anderson with the
Mundelein Police Department.

I am calling with
an "A Way Out" participant.

Hi.

Oh.

Sure.

Well, I have, I've suffered
with kidney stones.

That's how I got
addicted to opiates was

I had been getting kidney stones
since I was sixteen,

but that's it.

Okay.

Stephany:
Okay.

Kelly:
I do blame
prescription opioids

for my daughter's addiction.

I never pieced together

how does one become
an I.V. drug user.

That was... that was
the bridge right there.

Officer:
Are you ready?

Yep.
I'll help you carry
some stuff here.

Kelly:
She was still a teenager
when she started with 'em...

these really
high-powered pills.

And I trusted the doctors.

DANIEL EDNEY: I had been in
pain for a good while.

The pain was basically
a chronic, unrelenting

burning feeling in my neck,

and that would just
through the day

just get worse and worse.

I could work a whole day
with no pain,

and I just was able
to rock along

very well for a couple years.

Then the doses escalated
and it became compulsive using.

You move from Hydrocodone

to Oxycodone, which is
one and a half times as strong.

And then you get to
where that's not working

and you move to Oxycontin.

And then you get to
where that's not working,

and you add, you know,

some Oxycodone short-acting
for breakthrough.

And then that's not working,

and then you move to
drugs like Fentanyl
and Methadone.

MEL POHL: As I think back
to Dr. Dan's case,

if he would have been
willing to give up

his ability
to practice medicine

in order to be able
to take drugs to relieve pain,

that's pathological
pursuit of relief.

POHL: Some deep breaths
for me, please.

The conclusion of our team was

that he had the disease
of addiction

driven by his chronic
pain condition.

The only way
I can bring good of this hell

is to help somebody else.

I had to find a way
to treat folks with my illness,

but who couldn't afford
to go to treatment for a month.

And I knew the only solution
was to get them off

of the opioids.

When was your last dose of Oxy?

Um, about an hour
and a half ago.

EDNEY: And I knew that
I had to detox them

as an outpatient
in an affordable fashion

where they could keep working.

And so I knew I had to use
beprenorphine.

NURSE: Blood pressure good.

EDNEY: Beprenorphine
makes the conversion off opioids

so much easier.

Their quality of life improves,
they start eating again,

and they start
functioning again,

they start
thinking clearly again.

And the families have
their loved ones back.

How are you today?

You're still getting pain relief
with your beprenorphine?

-No, yes, sir. Yes, sir.
-EDNEY: Okay.

It's worth a lot to me.

I mean,
I can tell a big difference.

I'm doing normal stuff
with my kids, uh,

going fishing.

You know, me and my wife
went fishing last weekend.

And just, you know,
do my meditation

and, you know, I do my stretches
and my exercises.

I get my mind focused.

I mean, I understand now
that I'm gonna have pain.

I mean, it's just
a part of life.

In the midst
of an epidemic,

where overdoses on opioids

are now a leading cause of death
in the United States,

it's a no brainer
that we should be making

an antidote for
an opioid overdose

like Narcan or naloxone
as available as possible.

NORA VOLKOW: What happens is
you have your receptor,

you have your drug
like heroin

or Fentanyl, say, for example.

Then the drug, morphine,
Fentanyl,

are inhibiting
the respiratory centers.

So there you give Narcan,

and Narcan comes in
and pushes that drug out,

does not allow for
the drug to come back in.

Therefore,
the respiratory center

is no longer inhibited.
That's how it works.

ANDREW KOLODNY:
You inject the patient
with naloxone.

MECHANICAL VOICE:
Five, four, three...

KOLODNY: You squirt it
up their nose,

it kicks the opioid
off the receptor,

and the patient starts
breathing again,

and their color comes back.

Our strategy has been
to deliver products

that will make naloxone
as widely available as possible.

We should see that it's in
every household

where somebody might have
opioid addition.

Hospitals, college dorms,

and maybe even high schools.

Any possible setting

where somebody might be
opioid-addicted.

We are focusing on naloxone
so heavily

because I would have loved
to have had it

when my brother Alex
were experiencing

what he was going through.

When we first decided
to focus on naloxone,

people were literally like,

"So we're gonna enable people
to keep using drugs?

That's what we're doing now?"

Well, maybe if we
do revive them,

we have an opportunity
to intervene.

Maybe they don't want to
live that life anymore.

It's so important if you are
doing a reversal of an overdose

to refer that patient
to treatment

for their
substance use disorders.

Intervening and linking to care
is what we are promoting.

Recognizing that it is
a very serious

and chronic disease,

where the likelihood of relapse
is actually quite high.

Just because it doesn't
happen the first time

doesn't mean it can't happen
the fourth or the fifth time.

Because I have so many
people in my life

who have been revived
several times by naloxone,

and they're out there
doing great things

with their lives.

GARY MENDELL: When he went
to college the first year,

I suspect he may have been
exposed to opiates.

And I think that's where
it started, in college.

Brian went to eight different
treatment programs.

In the eighth program
he went to,

the psychiatrist called us
after a couple days

and said, "I want to put Brian
on Suboxone."

MENDELL: It was the only
treatment program

that he ever called and said,
"Dad, can I stay longer?"

He said, "They really get it."

And he had gone a year
without using.

Then they recommended
that he go out

to a halfway house,

and it was really hard
to find a place

that would take someone
on Suboxone.

We found a place in Venice Beach
out in Los Angeles.

Brian was there two days,
and I get a call from--

a frantic call from him.

He said, "Dad, I just met
with a psychiatrist.

I walked in and he said,

'Oh, I see you're on
Suboxone.

I don't believe in it.
You have to get off.'"

Abstinence-based approaches

don't work very well
for opioid addiction.

Most patients who are
addicted to opioids

are going to need to be
managed with a medicine

like buprenorphine,
which is also called Suboxone.

There are three different types
of medication assisted therapy.

The one that's most known
for... to everyone is methadone.

Uh, second one is buprenorphine,

and a more recent development
is extended release naltrexone.

Those treatments are
unfortunately seen by some

as not really treatment.

That it's just substituting
one drug for another.

It's a very common reaction
to it, is you are changing

one drug for the other.

So how are you
helping the patient?

Instead of heroin,
now they are on buprenorphine.

Without an understanding
that actually

the effects of buprenorphine
or methadone

are different from
the effects of heroin.

ANDREW KOLODNY: It's kind of
like putting a nicotine patch

on a smoker.
They're not thinking about

"when am I gonna have
my next cigarette,"

because they're getting
a little bit of nicotine

in their-- their bloodstream.

Somebody's who's opioid addicted
and takes their buprenorphine

gets enough of a response
from that drug

that their cravings
are well controlled,

and they don't experience
the physical withdrawal.

You have a situation where

middle class,
working class families

have a loved one suffering
from opioid addiction.

In some cases, they're
emptying out their bank account

to send their family member
to a 28-day rehab somewhere,

and then their family member
comes back out of rehab

and within a week relapses.

I want families to know
that addiction is a disease,

that it is a chronic disease,

which means that the changes
in the brain produced by drugs

are very long lasting,

and actually last months
or years

after the person
stops taking the drug.

But I also want
to tell the families

that addiction can be treated,

and that it will for success
require continuity of treatment.

That it needs to be treated
like a chronic disease

that it is.

And that recovery is possible
if you institute treatment.

DANIEL EDNEY: I was taught
in the mid to late eighties

that opiates and opioids
were used for acute pain,

for acute injuries
like a broken bone,

for postoperative pain which
is acute and self-limited.

All the acute pain syndromes
that you expect

to be under control
within two weeks.

Opioids are
the drug of choice.

They work wonderfully well.
It's why they were designed.

I mean, I'm shaking.

JANE BALLANTYNE:
We used opiates generously
for people who are dying,

and very generously
for people who had acute pain,

people who'd had surgery,
people who'd had trauma.

We'd never used opiates at all
for people with chronic pain.

EDNEY: Something big happened
in the mid-nineties

with the release of Oxycontin.

Uh, we were re-educated,

and what we were taught
in medical school

and residency was incorrect,

that the risk of addiction
in the chronic pain population

was virtually zero as long
as they had legitimate pain.

When Purdue Pharma launched
Oxycontin,

it was interested
in a blockbuster drug.

Some patients may be afraid
of taking opioids

because they're perceived
as too strong,

or addictive. But that is far
from actual fact.

They launched a brilliant
campaign that re-framed

all of these very good reasons
for being cautious

with opioids as barriers
to compassionate pain care.

The Joint Commission sets
the rules for hospitals

in the United States
that they have to follow,

and the Joint Commission
was told that we're

under-treating pain,
and then agreed to create

new rules so that every patient
who comes to a hospital

would be asked
about their pain.

The opioid crisis
had really been caused

by the medical community
writing too many

opioid prescriptions,

and we realized that opioids
were being over-prescribed

because our colleagues
had been badly misinformed,

and you're starting to see
policy-makers ask

why every grandma's
got painkillers

in her medicine chest.

You're starting to finally see
recognition that

it's an addiction epidemic.

We can stop the initiation
of inappropriate opiate use

in its tracks by following
the new CDC guidelines,

by... using very little
opioids, if any,

for acute pain.

So if you have a wisdom tooth
extracted, or if you have

a sports injury, you go
to the urgent care center

or your doctor, no more
than three days or ten pills

of an opioid,
of a short-acting opioid.

This is the worst
man-made epidemic

in modern medical history,
and it's up to all of us

as healthcare leaders
and clinicians

to reverse this thing.
We need to do it now.

We needed to do it
ten years ago.

We have about ten
to twelve million Americans

who have been put
on long-term opioids.

The best available evidence
is telling us that

they're not doing well.

Many have had a decline
in their function

and their pain has
not improved.

Maybe their pain
has gotten worse.

So very, very high doses
of opiates

can actually produce pain.

So instead of
making pain better,

they actually make pain worse.

Most common chronic pain
conditions that are currently

treated with opiates
probably shouldn't be treated

with opiates at all,
other than possibly

for three days
of an acute attack.

So, for example,
a back sprain injury.

Use opiates for three days,
get moving again,

and then stop completely,
just like the CDC recommends.

The question we're
often asked...

"If not opioids, what then?"

And we need, as physicians,
to have lots

of "what then" answers.

We know they do much better
with simple things

like exercise.

Yoga and acupuncture
and massage...

Behavioral, physical therapy.

Spiritual support
for a person

to renavigate their life,
uh, and to take control

over this sensation of pain.

You have to take care
of a complex problem

with a complex solution,
which is not gonna come

in the form of a pill.

DETECTIVE MICHAEL DILLON:
Here in Northern New Jersey,

we've seen a spike in the number
of accidental overdoses.

Tonight we're doing
Operation Take Back,

so unwanted prescriptions can be
anonymously disposed of.

When you put unwanted
medications into the garbage,

you risk either having them
stolen from their garbage

or taken by an individual who's
in their house.

Could be a family member.

Somebody during a
real estate open house.

Anonymously drop the medication,

and what we do is periodically
collect it and bring it

through armed escort
to a incinerator.

Where the medications are all
incinerated and destroyed.

JOHN G. WAFFENSCHMIDT:
When we started this program,

energy-from-waste,
it was because

the pharmaceutical drugs were
going into waterways.

Eighty percent of waterways have
pharmaceutical agents in it.

It affects the fish.

So what we want to do is
encourage people

not to flush them
down the toilet.

Because once it's burned,
there's no chance at all

for groundwater or
surface water contamination.

OFFICER GARY MANKOWITZ: I'm very
happy with our department

participating in this
great program,

because we are saving lives.

Every time somebody dumps this
into our mailbox

and we clean it out,

that's somebody who's
protecting their children

from getting it.
Their grandchildren.

Their sisters. Brothers.
It could be anybody.

It's insane,

the amount of prescriptions
that are out there,

and how easily they are
prescribed to people.

This crisis, is in my view,

the single public health crisis
we face as a country.

I worked with my legislature

to put in a number of different
pieces of legislation

to stem this epidemic.

One in particular, which was
a bit controversial at the time,

but we were successful in
passing it,

was limiting the number of doses

that physicians can prescribe
in the first instance for, uh...

prescription painkillers.

It shouldn't be the case that
it's an automatic 30 days

of OxyContin, or an automatic
60 days. We said it should be...

five or six days.

And then check in with the
physician and let the physician

have discretion to do
what comes next.

Because we're really trying to
cut down on...

a leftover half a bottle of
pills, which goes to a friend.

That person gets hooked and that
person winds up addicted.

We...provided funding
to make sure that

all first responders in
Rhode Island,

in every single city and town,
have access to naloxone.

The colonel of the state police
and I...

literally passed out in
paper bags...

naloxone to every police chief.

Every single city and town
in Rhode Island.

This is a disease.
We know how to treat it.

We have a huge effort
in Rhode Island,

and we're starting to
see some success

training physicians...

to... know how to do the
medical assisted treatment.

It costs money. And a lot of
folks are on Medicaid.

If the federal government
cuts off our Medicaid,

and reduces our ability
to treat folks

with
medical assisted treatment...

we will lose lives.
It's that simple.

There's no more important thing
that a governor could be
working on than this.