SUMMARY: An Oklahoma judge delivered a $572 million judgment against pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson in the first major legal decision to go against a drugmaker for its role in the opioid crisis. The judge found the company’s marketing practices helped flood the state with painkillers. William Brangham talks to StateImpact Oklahoma’s Jackie Fortier about the case's unusual argument and broad impact.
SUMMARY: Over the past two decades, hundreds of thousands of Americans have died during a national opioid addiction crisis. As the drug manufacturers face a possible legal reckoning from multiple lawsuits, a newly uncovered database sheds more light on the scope of the disaster. William Brangham talks to Scott Higham, an investigative reporter for The Washington Post, about the "jaw-dropping" data.
SUMMARY: Pressure is increasingly being applied to institutions benefiting from philanthropy to be accountable for their funding sources. Lately, the opioid epidemic has highlighted that dilemma: New York's famed Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met] is the latest museum to turn down money from a family linked with the manufacturing of OxyContin. Jeffrey Brown talks to the Met's president and CEO, Daniel Weiss.
SUMMARY: Amid the ongoing opioid epidemic, drug manufacturers, doctors and pharmacists have all come under fire. But it's a drug distributor, a company called RDC [Rochester Drug Coop], at the center of a new federal criminal case that equates its business operations with illegal drug trafficking. William Brangham talks to The Washington Post’s Lenny Bernstein about whether the new charges could change the opioid business.
SUMMARY: More than 400,000 people in the U.S. have died from opioid use in the past two decades. As the country tries to contain the crisis, many states and cities are challenging the drug manufacturers in court. The latest lawsuit, brought by New York against Purdue Pharma, comes as the company considers filing for bankruptcy. William Brangham talks to Barry Meier, author of a book about Purdue Pharma.
SUMMARY: An estimated 400,000 Americans have died as a result of opioid use. But grieving families say the national response to the health crisis is inadequate. In her coverage of the epidemic Associated Press reporter Claire Galofaro profiled Cheryl Juaire, who lost her son to a heroin overdose in 2011. Galofaro and Juaire talk to William Brangham about how they are trying to increase opioid awareness.
SUMMARY: The nation’s opioid crisis was declared a public health emergency in 2017 and received new funding this past October. But rampant addiction led to some 40,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. last year, and 2019 could see the culmination of a flood of ensuing lawsuits seeking accountability. William Brangham speaks to Barry Meier, who explores the origins of the epidemic in a new book, “Pain Killer.”
SUMMARY: On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed a bill that will expand access to certain kinds of opioid treatment. Keith Humphreys former drug policy advisor during the Obama and Bush administrations, and Gary Mendell the CEO of an addiction recovery nonprofit, explain how this bipartisan measure could help in the battle against opioid addiction as well as where it falls short.
SUMMARY: In “Dopesick,” journalist and author Beth Macy takes readers to the front lines of the opioid epidemic in Roanoke, Virginia, and other nearby communities, telling the story of grieving families, exhausted medical workers and convicted heroin dealers. Jeffrey Brown reports as part of our ongoing series, America Addicted.
Jeffrey Brown (NewsHour): Two years ago, journalist and author Beth Macy, a fellow Roanoke resident, met Patricia and Tess. Macy tells their story, and that of many others, in a harrowing account that traces two decades of one of the worst drug crises in American history. It’s called “Dopesick.”
Beth Macy, author: I heard it over and over from people who were struggling with opioid addiction.
Jeffrey Brown: You heard that phrase?
Beth Macy: That is the word they used. Man, I’m dope-sick, or, man, I was dopesick when that happened.
What does it mean? That means, like, excruciating withdrawal. They have sweats, diarrhea, chills, vomiting. And as somebody early on in the book says, at the end of your journey, you’re not doing it to get high. You’re just doing it to keep from being dopesick.
SUMMARY: The pathway to deadly heart infections for people addicted to opioids often begins with a dirty needle or polluted drug. Special correspondent Kay Colby of Ideastream reports on a little-known problem with big consequences for patients and society as a whole.
SUMMARY: President Trump announced his plan to combat nationwide opioid drug addiction at an event in New Hampshire on Monday, calling for aggressive prosecution for traffickers, including using the death penalty. William Brangham discusses these proposals with Sam Quinones author of "Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic," and Dr. Andrew Kolodny of Brandeis University.
SUMMARY: The governors of Maryland and Oregon are making an urgent call for greater federal help to deal with the opioid epidemic in their hard-hit states. Gov. Larry Hogan (R-Md) and Gov. Kate Brown (D-Ore) sit down with William Brangham to discuss the problems in their states, what works and what they need to end the suffering.
SUMMARY: The new Showtime documentary series "The Trade" shows the pain and consequences of the nation's opioids epidemic by putting a human face on the crisis. Best known for the Oscar-nominated film "Cartel Land," director Matthew Heineman wanted to show just how far the drug war reaches, and the consequences on both sides of the border. Jeffrey Brown reports.
SUMMARY: Dr. Jim Baker dreaded getting that call for years, his son had fatally overdosed from opioids. He had watched Max go through the downward spiral of addiction, then recover and get sober, but a hospitalization for a car crash made him relapse. Now Baker does everything he can to educate others about the risks and devastation of opioid use. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien reports.
SUMMARY: In declaring a public health emergency over the opioid epidemic, President Trump called for the creation of a national media campaign to reduce drug use among young people. As part of our “America Addicted” series, William Brangham speaks with Gary Mendell of Shatterproof and Jonathan Goyer of the Anchor Recovery about what should be done to prevent addiction.
SUMMARY: President Trump on Thursday declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency and announced several initiatives to reduce the nation's overdose problem. But critics said these actions don't go far enough and that more funding is needed. William Brangham reports, then Judy Woodruff gets reaction from Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, whose state is among the hardest hit by the crisis.
SUMMARY: President Trump has officially designated the opioid epidemic as a public health emergency. Besides the symbolism, what does the declaration mean for tackling the crisis? William Brangham speaks with Bertha Madras of the President's Commission on Combatting the Opioid Crisis and Dr. Andrew Kolodny of Brandeis University about the underlying impediments and what needs to be done.
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week's news, including the horrific massacre at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas and national debate about access to guns, plus seeming tensions between President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the consequences for American diplomacy.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): And to the analysis of Shields and Brooks. That's syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.
Gentlemen, welcome.
I was going to go straight to Las Vegas, but, Mark, I am again struck by these moving stories, this last one by William, about people struggling with addiction.
MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated Columnist: No, every one of them, Judy, William tonight, Paul Solman last night, it just — putting a human face on it, not simply the affliction and the problem, but — and the recovery.
The gravity of the problem is driven home to you, but the hope for recovery is presented.
JUDY WOODRUFF: We have a lot of emergencies, I guess, David, to deal with, but this is clearly one.
DAVID BROOKS, New York Times: Yes.
Well, the scene of Roxanne Newman with her date, on the first date, (A) the spirit with which she told that story, and then (B) her husband's grace, her now husband's grace, it's remarkable.
MARK SHIELDS: Yes.
DAVID BROOKS: And she — her point, which is the one you hear over and over again, is, it's just a slow-motion form of suicide.
And you have got to see it, first, the heroism of the people who are trying to deal with the recovery, but the social chasm that causes it. Suicide is just a symptom of isolation. And the tearing of the social fabric has created so many problems for society, but this is the one that is the most lethal.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, speaking of lethal and social fabric, Mark, Las Vegas has been on all of our minds this week, the worst mass shooting in American history.
What does it say about our country, about the American people?
MARK SHIELDS: Well, it says, again, that we have a problem that the rest off the world doesn't face, has dealt with in a different way.
And it, quite frankly, Judy, is beyond my comprehension at this point. I mean, we, as a people, if you think about it, over the last generation have made such enormous strides in the changes we have made. For example, alcohol-related driving deaths are down by 85 percent. A generation ago, people took for granted smoking in hospitals, in schools, in offices, in stores.
And we have done — and put seat belts on children; 90 percent of Americans drive with seat belts. And half of those who die are of the 10 percent who don't wear seat belts.
And we have done it. We have made these changes. We have taken on major economic interests. And this is the one that's stumped us [guns]. And to organize social action and social movement around it, because there are majorities, not intense majorities, but majorities of people who favor measures that have broad backing on registration, on background check.
We do it with automobiles. We do it with every other kind of device. But, somehow, again, we have been stumped. And David has a theory on it, which he wrote about today quite persuasively, which, you know, may very well explain it.
DAVID BROOKS: I always have a theory.
You know, one of the things that struck me about the polling on people's gun rights or gun control, is that, in 2000, not that long ago, two-thirds of Americans supported gun control, and only 29 percent supported gun rights. Now it's about 50/50.
And so the gun rights people have just had a massive shift in their direction. And that's because the issue has now — perfectly mirrors the political divide in this country and the cultural divide between coastal and rural, between more — higher education and lower education, the divide we see on issue after issue.
And it's become sort of a proxy for the big cultural dispute. And a lot of the people who are trying to resist the post-industrial takeover of the country have seized on guns and immigration and the flag and a few other issues as the issues on which they are going to rally their people.
And there are a lot of those people. One in four households has a gun in this country. And so it's become a symptom of a larger culture war between some people who thinks it's horrific, guns; and some people who think it's a symbol of families being responsible and taking care of themselves, of freedom, and of Americans.
JUDY WOODRUFF: It's a reminder of something Barack Obama said.
(CROSSTALK)
DAVID BROOKS: I wouldn't say cling bitterly, though. No, I think I disagree with that.
They see it as a way that America should be what it should be.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Mark, the debate or the discussion this week, so much of it has turned to guns. Is that the conversation we should be having right now?
MARK SHIELDS: Well, it's a conversation we have to have, because this man was a one-man artillery.
I mean, he had 12 rifles in his possession in the hotel, in the suite that was comped to him, let it be noted, because he was a major gambler. And that's what Las Vegas does. If you are going to bet enough at the tables, at video poker, you are going to get a free suite, and then nobody is going to ask questions about you.
But they were fitted out with bump stocks, Judy, which are a little device that turns it essentially into a lethal killing weapon. And that's all it is, to kill human beings. It's not for hunting. It's not for sportsmanship or anything else.
There seems to be an emerging consensus on that we have to limit those, that they can limit sales. Even the NRA and Republicans have done it.
I hate to sound like a cynic, but these are made in Moran, Texas, by a man who started the company six years ago. They don't have a political action committee. They don't have millions of dollars in contributions. And I think it's a good idea, a positive public policy that they are limited, but he's not a — you're not dealing with a political powerhouse when you outlaw his product.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But does it look like — you wrote today, David, the prospects are dim for figuring this gun issue out. But is there any hope?
DAVID BROOKS: Well, I think they are dim.
We're in the middle of a renaissance of gun laws in this country — 24 — more than 24 states have passed it, and almost all of them have loosened gun restrictions, not tightened gun restrictions. They have conceal-carry and all those kinds of laws.
My own view on the issue is that we should probably pass all the gun control measures that are talked about, whether it's the gun shows, whether it's limiting the number you can buy. And, I mean, there's a list of about 15 programs, smart guns and all that, and most of them would be good.
And I think they would be good because I think they would reduce suicides, which is the really main form of gun death.
Whether they'd prevent these kinds of killings, I guess I'm dubious. Marco Rubio made a statement in the presidential campaign that none of the proposed laws would have prevented any of the recent mass killings. The Washington Post did a big fact-check on that claim, and they said what he said was accurate.
And so I'm for supporting these things. I'm not sure we should get our hopes up they will prevent things. One of the things I have been thinking about if we in the media just stopped talking about these people — this guy seemed to be a — we don't know what he is.
But a lot of the people who do this, they just want to become famous. They want to prove to the world they exist. And if we anonymize them — and it's hard to do, because you're always curious about the people.
SUMMARY: Inside the search for new drugs and techniques to replace habit-forming opioids, science correspondent Miles O'Brien discovers future pain treatments may rely on virtual reality.
SUMMARY: In northeastern Ohio, employers say they see jobseekers all the time who look like "the walking dead," would-be workers struggling with opioid addiction. The problem is so great, reports economics correspondent Paul Solman, that it's had a noticeable effect on the nation's labor force.
SUMMARY: They visit overdose victims in the hospital. They hand out lifesaving drugs on the streets and educate their peers about their own relapses. In Rhode Island, former drug addicts are the most valuable fighters on the front lines of the war against opioids. William Brangham reports as part of our series, “America Addicted.”
SUMMARY: Keeping up appearances as a family hid the denial and shame Anita Devlin felt as her son struggled with an addiction to opioid painkillers. But when she finally shared their experience, it opened the door to healing and recovery. Devlin, author of "S.O.B.E.R." about her son Mike's addiction and road to recovery with Caron Treatment Centers, shares her humble opinion about banishing judgment and reaching out to others.
In 2015, Baltimore wrote a city-wide prescription for a heroin antidote. Two years later, as the city tries to expand access to addiction treatment, will the White House support its mission?
With a black plastic bag in hand, Gerald Young ducked into the needle exchange van parked across the street from Baltimore's Saint Paul Freewill Baptist Church. A cold January rain drizzled outside.
Young shuffled to a small table and sat down, untying and overturning his half-knotted bag. Three bundles of used needles tumbled into a red medical waste bin.
Across from Young, John Harris opened a new box of clean hypodermic needles and restored Young's supply. Harris, a Baltimore public health worker, also gave him a new kit of Naloxone, an opioid antidote that stops a potentially fatal overdose in moments. Young, a 61-year-old homeless Baltimore native, rose to leave the van and wander around his hometown.
On that same van, outgoing U.S. drug czar Michael Botticelli, whose strategies targeted substance abuse and addiction treatment for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, stood off to the corner, asking workers what they'd been seeing. Botticelli had traveled to Baltimore to praise the city's fight against the opioid epidemic. On the eve of President Donald Trump's inauguration, he wondered how his work would carry forward.
Over the last five years, the nation's opioid crisis has gained momentum, despite federal, state and local officials' attempts to control it. The most recent government data shows more than 33,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses in 2015 alone. Those deaths have quadrupled since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And in Maryland, which ranked 14th in drug overdose death rate nationwide in 2015, that rate rose 20 percent over the previous year. By September 2016, 70 percent of the state's 918 fatal heroin overdoses happened in and around Baltimore, state records show.
Policymakers have targeted opioid deaths with new programs in recent years. All states except Missouri use real-time electronic records to monitor how often doctors prescribe and pharmacists dispense drugs. When Congress approved and President Barack Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act last year, states secured $1 billion to fund substance abuse treatment targeting heroin and opioid users. And a growing number of cities and states have expanded access to Naloxone; Baltimore was one of the nation's earliest adopters.
SUMMARY: With overdose deaths from opioids on the rise across the country, Baltimore has begun training everyday citizens to use a life-saving antidote as one tool to combat the crisis, and the approach is catching on. But while many more states and municipalities have moved to make Naloxone more accessible, not everyone believes this is the right strategy. The NewsHour's Pamela Kirkland reports.
