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The opioid crisis is more than numbers and statistics. Take a look inside the personal stories of three women dealing with these drugs and addiction.
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00:00I was going to live and die a drug addict because I would never face all
00:08that stuff that the drugs pushed away. Never.
00:12I'm saddened people are shooting up so close from the clinic their lives could be saved and
00:19meanwhile they were overdosing and dying.
00:22If we want to help people who struggle with drug use, then locking them away for 10-20 years is
00:29not effective.
00:30More than 100 deaths each day.
00:33In our country.
00:34Opioid overdose kills more Americans than guns and car accidents.
00:38Opioids are now the leading cause of unintentional death.
00:42For Americans under 50.
00:43By far.
00:44But the deaths themselves are just the beginning of understanding the opioid crisis.
00:48Which compels Americans to confront their history.
00:51I am my type.
00:52To win the war against addictive drugs.
00:54To do follow.
00:55And choose their future.
00:56Meet three women fighting stigma.
00:59Transforming addiction treatment.
01:01And seeking policy solutions to the biggest drug crisis in US history.
01:11But what is an opioid?
01:13It's a compound that binds to one or more of three opioid receptors in the body.
01:18Relieving pain and inducing a euphoric feeling.
01:22Heroin is an opioid derived from morphine and is often used as a narcotic.
01:28Synthetic opioids, the ones at the root of this crisis, include oxycodone, hydrocodone, and codeine.
01:35The most powerful synthetic opioid out there today is carfentanil.
01:39A.k.a. elephant tranquilizer.
01:4210,000 times more potent than morphine.
01:46The root of this current epidemic was in the 90s.
01:49In the mid late 90s.
01:50When medication called oxycontin was marketed by a pharmaceutical company called Purdue Pharma.
01:57Come see the new Purdue Pharma.
01:59We believe doing good.
02:01Begins with doing what is right.
02:03Doing what is right.
02:05They mentioned two points.
02:06One was that opioids are evidence based for chronic pain management.
02:11And they said opiates aren't addictive.
02:14And both of those two points were patently false.
02:17Opiates are actually highly addictive.
02:20And as a result of this campaigning and aggressive marketing by Purdue Pharma,
02:26opiates were just given out and prescribed very liberally.
02:31This led to a public health crisis that is ongoing, flooding the news and affecting everybody.
02:38But what's remarkable is that opioid addiction has particularly affected populations not historically
02:43hard hit by substance abuse.
02:46As the general media narrative goes, a lot of middle class white people became accidentally
02:52addicted to the prescribed painkillers, hit hard times, and sought out stronger and cheaper drugs,
02:58like heroin and fentanyl.
03:02Opioid addiction has hit hardest in the Midwest, Appalachia, and New England.
03:07Rural and suburban areas once thought to be untouched by problematic drug use.
03:14But this crisis has destroyed that not-in-my-backyard narrative.
03:18Violent crimes have soared in Lee County.
03:21Anything that could be traded for a pill became a target of theft.
03:27Guns, jewelry, four-wheelers, anything they could get their hands on was stolen.
03:31We have a problem with doctor shopping.
03:33We have even had occasions where they have traveled across state lines
03:36and had their teeth pulled one at a time to get multiple prescriptions for the drug.
03:40A Medicaid patient pays a dollar for it, turns around and sells it on the street.
03:44They can get 60-40 milligram pills.
03:47It was $2,400.
03:48It cost them a dollar investment.
03:51A 900% profit margin is a pretty difficult thing to combat on the streets.
03:56What this whole quote-unquote accidental addict narrative doesn't account for
04:00is that substance use isn't usually about just one substance.
04:05And not everyone got turned on to opioids with a prescription.
04:09When you look closer, you realize that every story is different, full of its own complicating factors.
04:16Substance abuse, overdose, poverty, crime, mental illness, and violence
04:21have never been something confined to a certain area or a certain demographic.
04:27And now more people truly know that.
04:35This is Courtney Lavelle.
04:38That's my mom.
04:39What do you think your mom was like when she was your age?
04:42Just like me.
04:43Cray cray.
04:45You got breakfast yet?
04:47Daddy's making it.
04:48I am in long-term recovery from lots of things, but heroin addiction specifically.
04:56Take.
04:56Yeah, awesome.
04:58Killing me, hanging.
05:01She's a recovery coach and a public speaker.
05:03A big part of her work is retelling the traumatic story of her addiction.
05:16I get the fortunate opportunity to speak often about my experience with addiction.
05:24And it is always surreal to me.
05:27Almost 10 years ago, I made the decision that night that I was going to end my life by overdose.
05:33I remember being 15.
05:35I was in honors classes.
05:36I was running track.
05:38I was playing tennis.
05:38I was a cheerleader.
05:40Almost a quarter of all of our young people between the ages of 18 and 25 are currently
05:45using illicit drugs.
05:47I always had this hole in my soul.
05:50Something was lacking.
05:51Something was missing.
05:52And I didn't know how to fix it.
05:54I was 16 when I tried an opioid for the first time.
05:58And my friend offered it to me and said, it's harmless.
06:01So I tried it.
06:03This warmth flooded through my body.
06:06It was like I had been going through life freezing cold.
06:09And I was wrapped in this warm blanket.
06:11That was the high of pain medication.
06:15In that time, I have lost countless peers, countless friends that I went to school with
06:21who started using when I started using.
06:23And when I say lost, they're dead.
06:25They're not here anymore.
06:27And the ripple effect of that is broad.
06:31Her stone is like mad nice.
06:34Like it's like when you clean it off, it's like very shiny.
06:36It's crazy.
06:37As it should be to reflect Lindy.
06:39Hello.
06:40This is Lindy.
06:45So crazy, dude.
06:47You know, she wanted recovery.
06:49She got into recovery.
06:50And because she didn't get the right support.
06:52And she had a recurrence of use.
06:54She died.
06:56And that's not okay.
06:58Courtney managed to hide her substance use from her family.
07:01Her mom was diagnosed with cancer.
07:04And her family wrote off her erratic behavior as just being a teen going through a hard time.
07:10But on a family vacation, she didn't bring enough painkillers to support her craving.
07:15She took all of them on the first day.
07:17She started going through withdrawal.
07:19It was like knives carving her up from the inside.
07:23She lied and she said she had the flu.
07:26She was desperate.
07:28So she confided in someone to help her find a fix.
07:31But he drove her away and raped her in a parking lot.
07:35And she continued going through withdrawal.
07:38She was 17.
07:40Six days and no sleep later, I got home.
07:43A friend met me at the airport and drove me to the dealer.
07:47And I shot up for the first time.
07:49I stuck a needle in my arm and I got numb.
07:51I was going to live and die a drug addict because I would never face all that stuff that the
08:00drugs pushed away.
08:01Never.
08:02It was not an option for me.
08:03The next two years passed in a blur.
08:06She was chasing a high and the cops were chasing her.
08:09No part of me, no part of me thought that I had any hope.
08:15That life could ever be any different.
08:18So at 19, I felt so old.
08:23But I was such a baby.
08:27I tried to just end it all myself.
08:29And I wanted to overdose and die and just slip all the way into that darkness.
08:35And not have to deal with it anymore.
08:38So I used the last of my heroin and my cocaine.
08:41And I filled it all up into that needle.
08:44Smoked my last cigarette and...
08:48Shut up.
08:52I shouldn't have woken back up.
08:55So when I did, I was really confused.
08:58She was sober.
08:59She didn't know what to do.
09:01So she went home and crawled into bed.
09:04But before long, her mom woke her up.
09:06And she hugged me.
09:08Told me that she loved me.
09:11But that she had to call the cops.
09:13And I was going to be forced to go through that withdrawal.
09:17I said I would never, ever go through.
09:22It just makes me sad because I know there are kids.
09:30There are people right now who feel that way.
09:33Who feel that lost and that like hopeless.
09:38And they're just suffering and people judge them for that.
09:42And discriminate against them because of that.
09:45And they're just hurting.
09:48They just need somebody to love them.
09:50And they need a blanket of warmth wrapped around them that isn't a drug.
09:54And instead, we just push them away further and further.
10:00We put them in boxes and cages.
10:02And we put them on lists and registries and tell them that they're not good enough and that they're bad
10:07for this.
10:11What does it take to treat addiction and reduce overdose deaths?
10:16Turns out, it has a lot to do with changing the way we treat people in active addiction.
10:22This is Dr. Lippy Roy.
10:25She's a doctor of addiction medicine.
10:27She went to med school at some of the most prestigious programs in the country.
10:31But it wasn't until she began working as a primary care doctor for Boston's homeless population
10:35that she confronted her own prejudices about addiction and learned to treat it as a chronic illness.
10:41Not a moral failure.
10:43In 2013, research came out from our program.
10:47And it showed that the leading cause of death amongst Boston's homeless population was drug overdose.
10:53Up until then, the leading cause of death was heart disease, it was cancer, HIV.
10:58But when we found out that drug overdose was what was killing our patients,
11:03it completely transformed the way that we provided care.
11:06As I learned more about addiction being a chronic medical disease,
11:11a disease of the brain where relapse is expected,
11:14I then began to see my patients in a different light.
11:17They're not stupid, they're not lazy, they're not criminals.
11:20So the reason why access to treatment is important is because
11:23of the 23 million Americans who have substance use disorder,
11:28only 10% access treatment.
11:31A major barrier is stigma.
11:34And because her patients have been her greatest teachers,
11:37she and I are returning to Boston to reconnect with one of them.
11:42This is Brian.
11:43Over here behind the cars, we used to hide and shoot heroin.
11:48And then over here in the park, there used to be people that used to sell crack cocaine.
11:53Have you seen people overdose there?
11:55Yeah, oh yeah.
11:55Overdose.
11:56People just totally wasted out of their mind overdosing.
11:59When Lippy and Brian first met, he was homeless and using multiple substances.
12:05Now, he's in treatment and he has an apartment.
12:08Never actually even noticed this area.
12:11This is where people were actively shooting up and using and overdosing.
12:16And I'm saddened and surprised to see a place where people are shooting up so close,
12:21several feet away from the clinic where their lives could be saved
12:26and they could get treatment and get connected to care.
12:29And meanwhile, they were just overdosing and dying just right here.
12:33On the other hand, I see people like you.
12:36And I know that recovery is possible, you know,
12:38because you made those few extra steps, you know, to the clinic.
12:42And you just said, I'm done. I want help.
12:45I need help.
12:47Lippy helped Brian get a prescription to Suboxone,
12:50a slow-acting opioid that quells cravings and relieves pain,
12:54but produces less euphoria than a typical opioid.
12:57It's used in medical-assisted treatment of addiction and chronic pain.
13:02Since getting into treatment, Brian has started playing the drums,
13:05something he hadn't done since he was a teenager.
13:08Brian, high-five, my friend. Awesome! Awesome!
13:13You were on Methadone before?
13:14Yes, we are.
13:15But Suboxone just worked better for you?
13:16Worked better, yeah.
13:17As medical professionals, we need to tailor the therapy, you know?
13:20For some people, Methadone may work really well.
13:22But for others, Suboxone may work really well.
13:25Others, maybe Naltrexone.
13:26Others, counseling.
13:27The concept of harm reduction, basically the principle there is,
13:31meet people where they're at.
13:32And I'm getting to that point now.
13:34Just living my life without having to wake up in the morning
13:37and taking something to make myself feel better.
13:40Yeah. I think you're lucky to be alive.
13:42Yeah.
13:42And you're doing so much better.
13:44You have a relationship with your son.
13:45You have an apartment.
13:47I'm so proud of you.
13:48I really am.
13:51LIPPI represents a new wave of healthcare providers.
13:56Addiction medicine as a concept was born in the 1950s,
13:59but it's only gained traction in the last decade.
14:02LIPPI's efforts are the beginning of changing a long history of judgment.
14:07Local, state, and federal response to addiction and drug use
14:11has historically been, well, you know.
14:16Drugs are a real and terribly dangerous threat to our neighborhoods.
14:20To win the war against addictive drugs like crack
14:23will take more than just a federal strategy.
14:26It will take a national strategy.
14:29Say no to drugs.
14:30You can keep drugs out of your life
14:32and knock them out of society by saying no.
14:35Say no to drugs.
14:36I long for the day when our schools and homes will be drug free.
14:41Most of our drug policy is based in this idea of fear and social control
14:46and surveillance in the guise of public safety.
14:51The opioid crisis is getting a ton of media attention,
14:54but drug crises and addiction aren't new.
14:58This is Cassandra Frederique.
15:00She's a New York State Director of Drug Policy Alliance,
15:04a national organization working to end the war on drugs.
15:07The way that we have decided to deal with drugs doesn't keep people safe.
15:12Drugs are as accessible, they're more potent than ever,
15:15and they're everywhere.
15:18Being a kid that grew up in New York City in the early 90s,
15:22I was very aware of crack, cocaine, policing.
15:29Instead of dealing with people that were struggling with drug addiction,
15:33instead of flooding those neighborhoods with treatment and housing support and social workers,
15:40the streets were littered with police and tanks and street raids
15:44and busting down people's doors and people calling the cops on each other.
15:48In this current moment, we hear people saying things like,
15:52we can't arrest our way out of this problem.
15:55But in past drug crises, that's exactly what happened.
15:59It reveals and illustrates an unfortunate trend
16:02about who can marshal services and who can't.
16:07I think when people answer the question about what a drug user looks like,
16:11it looks different than what people thought seven years ago.
16:14However, if I ask you what a drug seller looks like,
16:16that picture in your mind is the same that it's been for the last 50 years.
16:21I would absolutely say that the narrative that has been built around the opioid crisis
16:26protects and upholds whiteness.
16:28This is the part that gets me in trouble.
16:34Why do you say it gets you in trouble?
16:37Because I'm just like, ooh, when you call out whiteness, people don't like that.
16:40So the idea that there are accidental addicts really reinforces this idea that we have an opioid crisis by mistake.
16:56And those that are suffering from an opioid addiction are not supposed to be there.
17:02And that is hurtful.
17:04Because whatever truth that remains in that narrative, to me, is overshadowed by the underlying narrative,
17:14which is that people that struggled with addiction in the previous decades deserve to be there.
17:23It is an affirmation that the deaths that we've had from overdose or the kidnapping of our community members
17:37to be fed to the incarceration system was on purpose and that we deserved it.
17:43It is rooted in history.
17:47And it's something that we need to contend with.
17:52The fact that I am a middle-class white girl from the suburbs who white middle-class males can identify
17:59with,
18:00you know, whether they look at me and they see their daughter or a family member or a relative,
18:04I understand that.
18:05And I don't agree with that, but I acknowledge that.
18:09So I kind of feel a responsibility myself to use the platform that I have to share a broader message
18:17so that we can correct some of the things that we have done terribly wrong in the past.
18:24Locking up black and brown people and young males for the exact same affliction that I have.
18:31We're doing that for decades.
18:32You know, we can't undo the war on drugs, but we can stop it.
18:36Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States and Mrs. Trump.
18:41So if this crisis is helping middle-class white people realize that addiction can happen to anyone,
18:47how can the U.S. now atone for the past and create community-based systems change that supports everyone?
18:55We can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic. We can do it.
19:03In late October, President Trump declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency.
19:09The declaration waived some regulations and gives states more flexibility in how they use federal funds.
19:15He stopped short of declaring a broader national state of emergency.
19:19And that's because federal funds from the Disaster Relief Fund are better suited to an acute response,
19:24like to a flood or a hurricane, not to a long-standing ongoing crisis.
19:29An astonishing 90% of the heroin in America comes from south of the border,
19:36where we will be building a wall which will greatly help in this problem.
19:41But the old just-say-no-war-on-drugs rhetoric is alive in his speech.
19:47Well, I have a great impact. This was an idea that I had where if we can teach young people
19:52not to take drugs,
19:55just not to take them, not to start, it's really, really easy not to take them.
20:01And I think that's going to end up being our most important thing.
20:05Really tough, really big, really great advertising.
20:11And if you're curious how much money he's allotted to solve the opioid crisis,
20:17it's $57,000.
20:23President Trump's rhetoric around the current opioid crisis right now is,
20:29I want to say irresponsible, but I don't want him to tweet me.
20:34Because, you know, he's going to watch Refinery29.
20:37It is inadequate.
20:40In this moment, we need policies to be based in science and research and compassion.
20:45To me, that looks like medication-assisted treatment.
20:49To me, that looks like supervised consumption spaces,
20:52housing that's not based on someone's sobriety.
20:55People shouldn't have to go through the criminal justice system to get services.
20:58If we want to help people who struggle with drug use,
21:03then locking them away for 10, 20 years is not effective.
21:08I don't want somebody to look back on my experience and be sad about it
21:13because my life is purposeful today.
21:16I've had my experiences for a reason and I'm grateful for all of them.
21:20I don't want my story to make anyone feel bad about what happened.
21:25I want it to empower and ignite us to move forward differently today
21:30and do things differently in the future so other kids don't have to fall so deeply into their addiction
21:36before they can help.
21:37You know, it's just a reminder that, you know, this is why I do this kind of work.
21:42Addiction is a chronic medical disease and people who experience and struggle with addiction,
21:47they need the same level of care as those that have diabetes and heart disease and cancer.
21:53And I'm going to work really hard to make sure that they get that level of care.
21:57My family thanks you.
22:00You're welcome.