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Mega Edition: The Impact Of OD Deaths On The Family And Friends Left Behind (10/29/26) · Beyond The Horizon

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. According
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: to a new survey, about 42% of U.S. adults know
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: someone who died by overdose, a new survey finds. And
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I know that me personally. I have several family members
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: who have overdosed and died. And I have several friends
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: who have overdosed and died. And that's the main reason
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: that I keep ringing this bell and talking about this topic.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Because this is a serious issue that needs more attention.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of people out there right now
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: that are on drugs and you don't even know. People
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: that you love and you care about. Maybe your kids.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Or maybe they just decide that they're going to get
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: an Adderall from someone online or one of their friends
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: or something. And then that Adderall is tainted with fentanyl.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: We've seen that story on repeat time and time again.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: And we're going to continue to see it on repeat, unfortunately,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: because the people that we have elected, they don't have
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: a plan. Oh, they have a lot of words that
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: they want to throw around. They want to throw around
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: some red meat to their base, depending on, you know,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: who's doing the talking. But none of them are really
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: interested in any action. If they were, they'd declare this
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: a national emergency and they'd start taking it seriously. How
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: many more families have to be impacted and ruined? And
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: at what point are we going to start really taking
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: serious the fact that we have big time addiction problems
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: in this country that are leading to all of this? Now,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: you can blame the cartels, and I get it. They're
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: a bunch of dirtbags for pumping these drugs into America.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: But we have to take some self-responsibility, and we have
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: to be introspective. And we have to understand that the
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: addiction issues in America, that's what's driving this problem. So
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the root cause is obviously the addiction issues that we
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: have here in the country. But nobody wants to address that.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: They want to talk about arresting their way out of it.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: They want to talk about more prohibition. And that's all
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: fine and well. but it doesn't work. We've been trying
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: that now since 1972. We've taken out Pablo Escobar. We've
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: taken out Miguel Felix Gallardo. You name it, a whole
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: entire host of big shot cartel guys. And has that
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: done anything as far as the war on drugs goes?
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Of course it hasn't. Just more wasted money thrown into
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: the chasm. Today's article is from CNN and the headline.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: About 42% of U.S. adults know someone who died by overdose,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: a new survey finds. This article was authored by Jacqueline Howard.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Emergency physician Dr. Gail D'Onofrio has seen the grief and
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: heartache firsthand, she said. Each time the same questions are
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: asked through tears. What else could I have done? And
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: there's a whole lot of that when you lose a
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: loved one. Could I have done something better? Could I
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: have done something different? Did I offer them all the
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: help that I possibly could have? The guilt is real
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: because a lot of times you have to cut ties
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: with these people because if not, they're going to drag
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: you down into their misery. So you cut ties with
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: them and then they overdose and die and you're left
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: with all of that grief and guilt and it's just
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: all bad. And I know it because I've personally experienced
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: it multiple times, but there's nothing you can do. If
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: people are going to want to be on these drugs,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: they're going to be on these drugs and you cannot
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: force them to get off. The only way that that
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: can happen, obviously, is if they go to jail. But
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: if they go to jail, we know that the process
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: in there isn't dealing with the root cause. Sure, they
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: might get clean, but when they get out of jail,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: like most drug addicts do eventually, well, what happens? They
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: don't have the tools that are necessary to deal with
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: the issues that caused their addiction problems in the first place.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: So they go right back to getting high. And that's
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: what I'm talking about when I say the root cause.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: And that's why I say we need a new system
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: in place. And that system should deal with nonviolent drug offenders.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: If you're a drug addict and you're walking around throwing
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: karate kicks, you should be picked up for your own
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: mental health and the mental health of the community. Then
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: you're brought to this medical facility where you have to
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: stay for 90 days, get cleaned out, talk to a psychologist,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: the whole thing. And then after that, a judge makes
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: a decision. I know people out there will be like, well,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: what about people's rights? Well, it's better than going to jail,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: isn't it? You go to jail for drug offenses and
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: before you know it, you can't get a job. So
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: if we do it this other way, then this doesn't
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: go on their record as long as they do everything
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: they're supposed to do. And then hopefully what happens is
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: they're getting some psychological help to go along with just
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: clearing out. Because if you get the drugs out of
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: your system, that's fine. You might not have the physical
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: dependency anymore, but you're still going to have that mental pull.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: So unless we deal with the root cause, then it's
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: not going to do any good. A mother who has
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: lost her child to a drug overdose might ask, why
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: didn't I see the signs? Or a friend might question,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: could I have intervened in some way? Almost half, about 42%,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: of adults in the United States say they personally know
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: at least one person who died from a drug overdose,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: according to survey findings published Wednesday by the non-profit research
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: institute RAND Corporation. The report found that among adults who
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: were reported knowing someone who died by overdose, the average
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: number of lives lost whom they knew was two, which
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: illustrates the far-reaching consequences of the nation's overdose crisis. Personally speaking,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: I know five people who have died from overdoses. Five people.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Two of them really close to me, family members, and
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: then three of them, friends. And you do ask yourself
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: all of those questions. Could I have done something different?
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Could I have helped out more? Like I said just previously,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: you go through that whole entire list in your head,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: that checklist, and it doesn't go away. Oh sure, you
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: forget about it sometimes. You compartmentalize, but it never goes away.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Just a few weeks ago in Connecticut, loved ones were
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: affected when someone using cocaine laced with fentanyl died of
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: an overdose, said D'Onofrio, who is also a professor at
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Yale School of Medicine and an addiction specialist at Yale
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: New Haven Hospital. She was not involved in the new
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: RAND report. Lately, there's been so many overdose deaths that
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: were inadvertent. People were using other drugs like cocaine, which
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: is adulterated with fentanyl, or they've taken a pill from
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: someone that they thought was an oxycodone and instead it
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: was fentanyl, D'Onofrio said. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: that can be deadly even in small amounts. It's about
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: potent than heroin as an anesthetic. So we all know
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the stakes and we all know the deal. And a
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: lot of the time with the cocaine, that's because the
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: dealers are careless. They're chopping their blow and the fentanyl
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: all up on the same scale. And then you have cross-contamination.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: So people think they're getting blow, but in reality, their
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: shit's tainted with fentanyl. So that's why I always say
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: here on the podcast, look, I don't condone anybody out
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: here getting down. I think it's a bad idea. But
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: if you're going to do it, please do it responsibly
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and get a test kit. Get all of the necessary
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: items that you're going to need. Get Narcan, have it
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: all on hand, because you just don't know. And I
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: promise you, all of the folks who came before you
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: who accidentally overdosed, they didn't wake up with that plan.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: They didn't say to themselves, oh, you know what? Today,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get a hot batch and I'm going
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: to overdose and die. They woke up like every other
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: day and said, you know what? I'm going to get down.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: I'm going to party and we'll keep it moving. But
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: with the new scenario that's presented before us and the
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: new way the game is played, You can't get down
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: like that anymore. And if you do, you're really taking
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: your life in your hands. We've seen this rapid rise
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: in deaths, D'Onofrio said, and I think that those left
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: behind question themselves and are always wondering, like, what could
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: I have done to have prevented this or have intervened
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: in some other fashion? That's really difficult. The RAN report
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: mentions that losing someone to overdose may be associated with
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: developing long-term grief, substance use disorders, and even suicidal ideation.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: You know, I had to go to a grief counselor
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: after I lost my uncle. It was all bad. I've
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: never been to a counselor in my life. But losing
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: my uncle really left me shook. And it's just, it's
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: really difficult to navigate those waters. You know, you have
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: somebody that's there every day of your life. And while
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: they might have issues or whatever, you still love them
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: more than anything unconditionally, right? And then you get that call.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: and I hope that none of you out there ever
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: have to get that phone call. I really hope not,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: because it's one of the worst calls you can get.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: This really highlights what many of us experience in the
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: day-to-day in an emergency department, that one tragedy can often
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: lead to many other tragedies, D'Onofrio said. She applauded the
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: new RAND survey for shedding light on what adults go
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: through when they lose someone to an overdose. It's really
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: a ripple effect, she said, and we don't often think
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: of this, even though many of us have experienced this
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: as emergency physicians. The new survey findings reflect how every
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: person who dies by an overdose leaves behind people who
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: are grieving, said Allison Athe, lead author of the RAND report.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: I wasn't that surprised at all because of the scope
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: of the overdose crisis and because of what we know
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: about other types of traumatic deaths, said Athe, an associate
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: behavioral and social scientist at RAND and a licensed clinical psychologist. Athe,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: And her colleagues at RAND surveyed more than 2,000 adults
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: in February and March of 2023 on how many people
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: throughout their lives they knew personally who died by overdose.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: About 58% of the survey respondents said zero. 19% said
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: one person. and another 19% said about two to five people.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Around 4% said at least six people. Now, it all
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: depends on where you live and the kind of people
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: you run with and the kind of life you had
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: as a youngster. And me personally, growing up in the
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: inner city, as you can imagine, I had a lot
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: of friends who got caught up in this shit. Maybe
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: not fentanyl, but back when I was growing up, a
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: lot of it was methamphetamine. And that shit is just horrible.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: You want to talk about destroying people? That's some shit
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: that'll do it. My man showed up at my pad
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: talking about, you want to buy some steaks? We're talking
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: about a childhood friend. Close as my brother. Shows up
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: there trying to sell us some steaks one night in
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: the middle of the night that he had just stolen
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: from the grocery store. And that's what this shit'll do.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: It steals your soul. You're not the same person you
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: used to be before you took this shit. And now,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: especially with the way that everything's chemically enhanced and they're
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: using all these different kinds of, you know, synthetic drugs
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: to enhance other drugs, it's all bad. And if we
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: thought we had a problem before with hillbilly methamphetamine, well,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: the stuff that's coming in from Mexico makes that stuff
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: look like a walk in the park. Carrie Nolte, a
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: nurse practitioner, who was not involved in the RAND survey,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: said she would put herself in the category of losing
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: at least six people to overdose whom she knew personally.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: It is upending, and the grief from these losses continues
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: to affect me, but it motivates me to continue to
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: do the work of supporting people who use drugs and
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: those that experience trauma, Nolte, associate professor of nursing at
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the University of New Hampshire, said in an email. In
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: rural New England, Nolte, her collaborators, have interviewed people who
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: have witnessed overdoses. During their research, one person shared, I've
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: been to more of my friends' funerals than I've been
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: to my friends' weddings. That became the title of one
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: of their research papers. And there's a huge problem with
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: fentanyl use in the New England area, but New Hampshire especially.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: You wouldn't think a place like New Hampshire would be suffering, but...
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: I've told you folks now for how long, this shit's
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: coming to a community near you. If it's not there already,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: be on the lookout, it's on the way. I have
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: heard innumerable traumatic stories of loss, grief, and trauma related
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: to overdose, Nolte said, adding that providing people with access
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: to naloxone, known by the brand name Narcan, can help
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: save lives. It's a medication that can rapidly reverse an
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: opioid overdose. Well, that's all fine and well, but now
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: they're using Trank in the fentanyl as well. So it's
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: making it a lot more difficult to reverse the effects
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: of the opioid overdose. So you have these EMTs and
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: first responders who show up and there's nothing they can do.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: They administer Narcan and it doesn't work. And that's because
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: all these other drugs are being inserted into the fentanyl.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: It's critically important to equip those most likely to witness
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: an overdose with naloxone and basic training in overdose response,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: she said. But I fear that with the current drug
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: supply that has a laundry list of additives and variable potency,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: we will continue to see an increase in those who
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: lose loved ones to overdose and the associated trauma of
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: these losses. It's really important that we acknowledge the impact
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: on our communities and continue to advance strategies that reduce overdose.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Among the adults in the RAND survey who have lost
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: someone to overdose, only about 10% said the death had
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: little effect on their life. The remaining adults said the
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: death did affect them in some way. Yeah, if you
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: lose somebody, no matter if they're a drug addict or not,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: it affects you. And then there are those thoughts of,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: could I have done more? The survey also found that
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: being exposed to an overdose death was more common among
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: women than men, married adults than single adults, people born
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: in the U.S., than immigrants and people living in urban
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: settings than those in rural settings. Rates of exposure also
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: varied regionally, with more people knowing someone who died by
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: overdose in New England and the east-south-central area of the country,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: including states such as Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee, according
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: to the survey. And down in Tennessee, it's bad down there.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: That's why when you had all of these local politicians
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: storming the courthouse talking about gun control, this, that, the
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: other thing, well, that's cool, but are we going to
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: talk about the problem that you have when it comes
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: to overdoses? I mean, I know it's not red meat
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: for your base and all, but people are dying. So
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: probably should address that down in Tennessee, you know? But
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: they said that the regional differences are probably because those
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: are the regions that have been hit the hardest by
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: the opioid epidemic. Those are some of the regions where
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: we see the highest number of overdose deaths. So I
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: think it's a product of higher numbers of deaths in
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: those regions. so that we see more bereavement, she said.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Also in New England, there are more urban environments, and
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: it may be that those more densely populated areas result
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: in more exposure to these types of deaths. But that's speculation,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: she said. We really know very, very little about this
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: experience of overdose loss and how it impacts the individuals
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: and how it impacts communities. Often the family members and
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: loved ones of people with substance abuse disorder do not
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: even know about that person's current drug use, said Dr.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Kurt Kleinschmidt, professor of emergency medicine in the Division of
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Medical Toxicology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Kleinschmidt,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: who treats people with addiction, said that many of his
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: patients have attempted to hide their substance use from those
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: that they are closest to, such as a parent or
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: a spouse. Because of this, an overdose death can sometimes
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: be a devastating shock to family and friends. You'd be
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: shocked how many functioning addicts there are out there. And
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: they're functioning until they're not. And I have known numerous
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: people in my life that you would never even suspect
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: that they had a drug problem. But the second they
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: get home from work, second the weekend hits, it is on.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: And the term for that is a functioning addict. It's
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: really hard to hide the disease of addiction, but it's
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: tried all the time, and they're trying to hide it,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: said Kleinschmidt, who was not involved in the RAND survey.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: After an overdose death, loved ones often feel continuous guilt
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: and think that they could have done more to help.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: This impact is not talked about enough, according to Kleinschmidt.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: The vast majority of families continue to feel sadness and guilt.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Guilt is a giant, massive piece because everyone thinks, what
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: if I had pushed them only a little bit harder
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: to get care? Or what if I only visited them
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: more often? Kleinschmidt said, adding that he plans to share
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the RAND paper with his colleagues in the field of
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: addiction medicine. For those of us who practice addiction medicine,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: this is an area that we don't discuss as much
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: as we should, he said. I think this is an
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: underserved discussion. Robin Pellini, a professor at West Virginia University
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: and expert on overdose data, said she commends the RAND
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: researchers for examining this issue. The number of deaths caused
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: by overdoses is frequently cited, but there is seldom, if ever,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: discussion of the collective trauma we are experiencing as a
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: result of all these deaths. All of these people, more
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: than 100,000 a year, had people who loved them and
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: cared about them and grieved their loss, Polini, who was
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: not involved in the new research, said in an email.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: More than 111,000 people died in the U.S. from a
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: drug overdose in the 12-month period that ended in September,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: according to provisional data from the U.S. Center for Disease
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Control and Prevention for National Center for Health Statistics. The
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: number of overdose deaths associated with any drug continues to
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: increase each month in the United States, although the pace
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: appears to be slowing. Deaths reached a record high in
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: May and changed little in the following months through September.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that the researchers paid special attention to the
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: effects that witnessing someone's overdose and or losing someone to
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: overdose can have on people who use drugs. This is
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: also rarely discussed in scientific and policy circles. Polini said
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: of the RAND survey. A limitation of the study is
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: that it surveyed only adults and did not include children's perspectives,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: she said. Because the data comes from a survey of adults,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: the study does not provide insight into how overdose deaths
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: impact children. People lost to overdose are parents, grandparents, siblings.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: This is part of the story that remains largely untold,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Polini said in an email. Children were not included in
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the report. since the survey involved a panel of adults
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: that was already involved in other research at RAND. Athey said,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: but she agrees that examining the impact of overdose deaths
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: have on children is important, as some separate research at
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: RAND suggests that there are higher rates of child suicide
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: in communities in which there are high rates of overdose deaths. Overall,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: I appreciate how thoughtful the authors are in articulating what
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: we don't know about overdose loss. That said, these deaths
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: are preventable, Polini said. We need to constantly emphasize that
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: all of this could be prevented if we had a
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: policy environment and resource necessary to broadly implement the many
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: evidence-based interventions that we know reduce fatal overdose risk. Yeah,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: like getting people off the drugs. Why don't we start there?
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: How about we get people off of these drugs, deal
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: with the root cause, and then if we do that,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: we'll be on the path to victory. If not, you
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: can expect to go to more funerals in the future
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: from people that you know and care about who died
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: from drug overdose. All right, folks, that's going to do
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: it for this one. All of the information that goes
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: with this episode can be found in the description box.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. According
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: to reports, drug overdoses are killing 30 teenagers and children
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: every week. That's the equivalent of roughly one whole classroom.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Now think about that. fentanyl killing one whole classroom full
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: of kids think about when you were in school that
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: whole entire classroom dead due to fentanyl and that's not
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: just a one-time thing that's happening every single week and
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: nine out of ten of those deaths are due to
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: fentanyl so let's get to this article from the daily
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: mail and let's take a little bit of a deeper
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: look behind these disturbing numbers Headline, drug overdoses now killing
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: the equivalent of a classroom of high schoolers every week.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: And 9 out of 10 are fentanyl. This article was
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: authored by Cassidy Morrison. Deadly fentanyl is killing the equivalent
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: of an entire classroom of children every week, staggering figures show. Fentanyl,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: a highly potent synthetic opioid that's 100 times stronger than morphine,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: is ravaging America's youth. And that's crazy to think. 100
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: times stronger than morphine? And that's saying something, considering morphine
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: has always been the preferred painkiller on the battlefield. So
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: if this stuff is 100 times stronger than that, that
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: shows you just how strong fentanyl really is. A recent
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: study found that fentanyl was responsible for the death of 1,557
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: children in 2021. the equivalent of 30 children every week.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: And that's just what's been reported. My guess is it's
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: a lot more than that. Just two milligrams of fentanyl,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: imagine 10 to 15 grains of table salt, can prove fatal.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: And it is increasingly contaminating the illicit drug supply in
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: the U.S. Because it's cheap, potent, and keeps many users
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: coming back for more. Many users, all users. This isn't
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: a recreational drug. This isn't like when you were younger,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: going to the party and doing some blow in the
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: bathroom with some random dude you met. This is a
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: whole new ballgame, a whole new playing field. And these
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: synthetic drugs are not only dangerous as far as overdoses go,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: they are absolutely way more addictive than anything we have
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: ever experienced ever before. And we're just talking about Fenta
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: in its pure form. We're not talking about when you
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: start adding all kinds of wild shit to it like
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: they're doing now. And a lot of the overdoses that
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: you see from people in high school or young kids,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: they're not out here trying to get fentanyl. They're trying
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: to get a different kind of drug, Adderall or Lortab, whatever.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: And they end up getting a knockoff pill that's filled
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: with fentanyl instead. And that's how these kids are ending
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: up dead. So there's a lot of people out there
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: that are like, you know, my kid would never mess
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: around with fentanyl. I don't got to worry about that.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: My kid's not a heroin junkie until he's at school
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: with little Albert and little Albert has some kind of
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: opioid pill. And before you know it, well, little Albert's
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: giving little Jimmy one of these opioid pills. Little Jimmy
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: takes the pill while he's in his bedroom thinking it's Adderall.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: And before you know it, he slumped over at his
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: desk dead. Drug overdoses now rank third among the top
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: killers of children every year behind gun violence and car crashes.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: And if you look at the numbers, they add kids
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: that are 18 and 19 to the gun violence numbers,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: and I don't think that's actually an accurate portrayal of
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: children gun violence. Once you're 18, well, you're not a
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: child anymore, right? So I think those numbers are a
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: bit skewed, and I would say that we're trending towards
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: this stuff, meaning drugs, being the most dangerous thing that
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: your children are facing. Especially for people who are living
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: in like the suburbs and places where there's not much violence.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: You really think that your kid is going to come
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: across some maniac with a machine gun before they come
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: across someone with a pocket full of fentanyl? The thing is,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: the gun issue, the gun violence debate, that draws a
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: lot of eyes. And it gets a lot of things moving,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: politically speaking, in a direction... if you're a politician, that
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: you're trying to get things moving. Whereas this overdose problem,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: they don't even want to touch it. And they won't
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: until they find it politically expedient to do so. The
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: nation's drug overdose crisis has struck everyone, with a record 107,622
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Americans dying of a drug overdose last year. More than
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: 70% of deaths were caused by synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Overdose deaths due to fentanyl far outstrip those caused by
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: other drugs including benzos cocaine heroin methamphetamine and prescription drugs
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: and as bad as all of those drugs are heroin
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: out of all of those is the biggest one that
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: you're going to overdose on and it's not something that's
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: super common honestly how many junkies have run around for
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: years and years doing heroin a whole lot of them
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: but with fentanyl showing up And with how strong it is,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: it's changed everything. A report published by JAMA last year
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: showed fatal overdoses caused by benzos increased by about 7%
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: from 2010 to 2021, while deaths caused by cocaine, prescription opioids,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: and heroin declined. The thing with cocaine is you're not
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: going to overdose from cocaine for the most part unless
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: you have a medical problem, right? A pre-existing medical issue.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: that you don't have diagnosed or whatever. See, with cocaine,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: the issue is the violence that comes along with it.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Not so much the overdose problem with cocaine, but the
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: violence that it drives because of the competition for market share.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: So that's what makes cocaine such a dangerous drug. Nowadays,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: when people are overdosing on cocaine, it's because there's fentanyl
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: inside of the cocaine. It's not because, you know, the
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: cocaine is killing them. Dr. Julie Gaither, a pediatrician at
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: the Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, wrote in JAMA Pediatrics,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: mirroring trends seen among adults, pediatric deaths from fentanyl began
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: to increase substantially in 2013, resulting in a more than
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: 30-fold increase in mortality between 2013 and 2021. A surge
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: that began in 2018 has led to a nearly three-fold
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: increase in deaths among older adolescents and nearly six-fold increase
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: among children younger than five years. In total, there were 13,861
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: opioid deaths in youngsters under 20, of which 5,194, nearly 38%,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: involved fentanyl. The vast majority of these fatalities, almost 90%,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: occurred in teens aged 15 to 19, while 2% occurred
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: in infants under 1, and 4.6% in toddlers 1 to 4.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: And unfortunately, these toddlers, they grab these pills that their
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: careless-ass drug addict parents leave around, they end up taking them,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: and they end up dying. We just had an incident
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: like that here in Las Vegas not too long ago.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: And the person who was responsible for those pills being
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: left out is charged with murder, like they should be.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: But when you think about drug overdoses, the last thing
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: you think about really are little kids, right? but it's
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: a reality that we're facing nowadays. It was revealed last
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: month that a 19-month-old baby girl died of a fentanyl
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: poisoning in 2021 when she and her parents stayed at
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: an Airbnb property in Florida. It's not clear how the
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: infant got access to fentanyl, but the parents alleged in
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: a wrongful death suit against the company that the property
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: was a known party house despite being advertised as a
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: peaceful place to stay. So all it takes is some
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: residuals of that fentanyl to be left around on a
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: table or something like that, on anything really, and the
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: kid gets a hold of it, puts it in their mouth,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: and you have this result. Fentanyl has devastated American cities
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: and towns of all sizes. A recent government report shows
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: that fatal overdoses involving the synthetic opioid more than tripled
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: from 2016 to 2021. rising from 5.7 per 100,000 in
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: 2016 to 21.6 in 2021. San Francisco, the West Coast
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: epicenter of the fentanyl crisis, saw a staggering 41% surge
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: in the number of drug-related deaths in the first quarter
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: of 2023 compared to the same time last year. Data
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: from the city's medical examiner shows that 200 people died
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: due to overdoses between January and March compared to 142
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: in 2022. That amounts to one overdose death every 10 hours.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Let that sink in, folks. One overdose death every 10 hours.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Pediatricians are urging parents to keep their children as far
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: away from drugs, especially fentanyl, as possible. and speak honestly
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: and frankly to their children about the threat that opioids pose.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: And that's why I talk about it so much on
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: the podcast. I know there's a lot of people out
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: there who don't think that this issue is ever going
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: to reach them or touch them until it does. And
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: if you think your kids aren't out there wilding out,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: doing shit you have no idea about, I hate to
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: be the bearer of bad news, but the vast majority
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: of them are going to experiment with drugs and booze
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: and all of the same stuff that we experimented with. However,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: the playing field has changed. And where it used to be,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: you could be relatively safe, relatively speaking, partaking in some
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: extracurricular activities, if you will. But nowadays, it's not even
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: worth the risk. You get a bag of blow and
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: forget it before you know it. you're dying from a
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: fentanyl overdose. Dr. Scott Hadland, an addiction specialist at Mass
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: General for Children Hospital in Boston, suggested that caregivers ask
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: teens what they know about fentanyl, ask if their peers
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: use drugs, or if anyone they know has overdosed, if
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: they know how to respond to a fentanyl overdose. Don't
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: try to scare teens. Play to their strengths. Equip them
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: with the knowledge and power to stay safe. Dr. Hadland
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: and countless other physicians have called on the public to
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: make sure naloxone is a standard component in their first
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: aid kits. Think about that. In your home first aid kit,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: you're now being advised naloxone as a standard component in
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: their home first aid kits. So they want you to
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: have Narcan or naloxone in your home first aid kits.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: That's how dangerous this issue is. So if you find
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: your kid overdosing on some kind of bunk ass pill
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: or something, you have a way to stop that and
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: counter those effects before it becomes deadly. And I know
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: it's almost unreal that we're even having this conversation, but
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: this is the reality of our country, of the world.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: The FDA, the key federal regulator of drugs, took steps
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: to make the reversal drug, specifically the nasal spray formulation,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: marketed as Narcan, available without a prescription, or even having
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: to visit a pharmacy. Naloxone is an opioid antagonist, meaning
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: it works by binding with opioid receptors to rapidly reverse
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: the effects of opioids, the symptoms of which can include
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: slowed heart rate, low blood pressure, loss of consciousness, slower
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: shallow breathing, gurgling sounds, blue lips or nails, and vomiting.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: And if you've never seen someone overdose, count yourself lucky.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: I've seen it multiple times. In fact, I had to
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: shove my whole hand down someone's throat one night, when
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: they were ODing on GHB. So it's not something you
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: want to see, it's not a cool scene, and it's
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: nothing you ever want your children to have to ever experience.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: The antidote can reverse an overdose within minutes, but only
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: lasts for about 90 minutes at most, meaning it is
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: possible for someone to experience an overdose even when naloxone
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: is worn off. Some opioids may also require more than
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: one dose of naloxone to counteract the effects. Narcan is
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: already available without a prescription in all 50 states, where
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: state leaders have issued standing orders for pharmacists to sell
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: the drug to anyone who asks for it. But not
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: all pharmacies carry it and those that do must keep
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: it behind the counter. And even without the necessity of
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: a doctor's order, many people feel reluctant to approach a
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: pharmacist for the medication, wary of the stigma attached to
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: drug misuse. Dr. Hanlon said, Most teens who overdose die
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: at home when someone else is there and could respond.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: But most teens who die never get Narcan and are
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: pulseless by the time EMS arrives. The FDA's distinction paves
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: the way for the antidote to be more accessible than
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: ever in gas stations to vending machines. And I am
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: all for it. It's certainly a good idea to have
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: it on hand, even if you're never going to ever
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: have to use it. If I had kids, you better
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: believe this would be in the medicine cabinet. Imagine, God forbid,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: something happens to your child and you don't have something
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: like this, the regret you would feel. And I know
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: it feels like a dystopian world we're living in that
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: we even have to have this conversation. But until we
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: address the root cause of the problem, which is the
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: addiction amongst our youth... All that's left to us are
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: these sort of preventative measures in the aftermath of them
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: actually doing the drugs. The idea is that they never
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: do this disgusting poison in the first place, and that
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: if they do and they get addicted, we catch it
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: early and we have the facilities and the resources to
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: throw at the problem. Because until we deal with the
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: root cause, we're just going to be spinning our wheels
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: in neutral. Meanwhile, the deaths due to overdoses will continue
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: to pile up. All right, folks, that's going to do
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: it for this one. All of the information that goes
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: with the episode can be found in the description box.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. The
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: war on drugs is an ongoing topic here on the
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: podcast because I think it affects us and you more
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: than just about anything going on right now. I know
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: that things like the coronavirus steals all of the headlines.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: But did you know that in 2020, that more people
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: in the age range of 18 to 45 died from
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: fentanyl overdose than they did of coronavirus? Or because of
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: gun violence and car accidents combined? Did you know that? Well,
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: if not, we're about to talk about it. Because guess what?
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: This is the unspoken pandemic, folks. This is the pandemic.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: That is gripping the nation right now as we speak.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: Where are all of the resources? Where are all of
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: the people coming out and speaking out against it? The
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: reason they're not is because it's not a politically hot issue.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: And I say it all the time here, and I
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: don't know how much more clear I can be. These
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: people that we elect, if they really cared about us,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: this would be a huge topic. More people dead from
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: fentanyl overdoses than from gun violence and car accidents combined
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: in the age range of 18 to 45? And this
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: isn't national news all over the place every day? Why
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: isn't the media making people aware that these knockoff pills
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: are filled with fentanyl? Shouldn't that be on the TV
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: every day as one of those ads that run? But no,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: it's not. So here we are once again left to
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: pick up the slack and talk about the news that
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: matters to you. Today we have an article that does
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: just that from Fox 41. And the headline is DEA
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: sounds alarm. At least seven mass incidents of fentanyl overdoses
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: nationwide since January. And, you know, we talk about mass
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: shootings as we should, right? Of course. We talk about
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: deaths from coronavirus. We should. But we can't forget about
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: the things that are affecting literally every community out there.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Are we just going to act like this isn't happening?
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Are we going to act like what we're doing is working?
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Because it's obviously not. You know, we see people get
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: up there every time there's a shooting and politicize it.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: How come we don't see the same thing every time
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: there's an overdose? This article was authored by just the company,
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: I guess here. Fox 41 Yakima doesn't have an author's name,
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: so we'll roll with that. In a memo issued to federal, state,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: and local law enforcement agencies, she states the DEA is
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: seeing a nationwide spike in fentanyl-related mass overdose events. Involving
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: three or more overdoses occurring close in time at the
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: same location. Well, duh. They score the drugs from the
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: same dealer. And if those drugs are too powerful or
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: they're cut with too much fentanyl, party's over. Overdose time.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Hope somebody has some Narcan. Narcon, I mean. And hopefully
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: they're close by. Because if not, you're going to die.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: In just the past two months, there have been at
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: least seven confirmed mass overdose events across the United States,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: resulting in 58 overdoses and 29 overdose deaths. Many of
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: the victims of these mass overdose events thought they were
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: ingesting cocaine and had no idea they were in fact
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: ingesting fentanyl. Again, I'm going to keep driving this shit
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: home because I know some of you out there who
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: listen party still. And again, I'm not judging you. You know,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: have at it. Have a good time. Enjoy your life.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: But man, please be careful. This is a all or
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: nothing game at this point. It's not like the old days.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: Get yourself a bag of blow and, you know, the
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: worst thing that was going to happen is, you know,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: not strong enough or it's cut with too much baby
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: powder or whatever. Nowadays, bro, you're getting some fentanyl. It's
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: fucking a wrap. You're dead. Fentanyl has become the drug
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: of choice of Mexican cartels that control both sides of
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: the U.S. southern border. The cartels are flooding the country
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: with deadly fentanyl and methamphetamine, in part through illegal immigration,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: border security officials say. I don't believe that for one second.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: I've already told you folks where I'm at. Nobody's stashing
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: backpacks with all of this fentanyl and sending these people
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: across the border that they don't even know. No safeguards
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: in place. Just more scare tactics, honestly, for whatever political
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: motivations there are out there. Now, again, like I said,
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: don't get it twisted. I think that in certain areas,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: we do need a border wall. And I would prefer
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: some kind of technology deployed, but we definitely need you
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: know safeguards in certain areas but to lie to everybody
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: and say that the wall is going to stop drugs
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: from coming into America is ridiculous The precursors are shipped
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: from China to Mexican ports, where cartel employees make fake
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: opioid pills or lace other narcotics with the deadly drug.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: It's less expensive to produce and easier to transport, doesn't
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: require farms or large facilities, and can be compounded into
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: people's homes and garages, then brought north by cartel operatives
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: or illegal immigrants in backpacks. Again, I highly doubt the
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: whole illegal immigrant in backpack situation. Now, please do not
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: misunderstand me. I'm not saying it doesn't happen. It most
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: certainly does. But how much weight can an immigrant carry
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: on their back as opposed to a gigantic tractor trailer,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: which millions and millions of them are passing through the
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: border each day? How much can that hold? Fake prescription
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: pills laced with fentanyl are made to look like authentic
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: prescription pills manufactured by pharmaceutical companies and only legally available
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: with prescriptions from a doctor. Oxycontin, Percocet, and Vicodin prescribed
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: to manage pain often are misused and can be highly addictive. Well,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: it's often misused because it's not prescribed correctly. When I
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: hurt my shoulder the first time in 2009... My right shoulder.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: I needed a pretty much a complete reconstruction of my
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: right shoulder. And I went to the doctor and this
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: doctor prescribed me Lortab 10s, 120 of them a month
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: for four months. Thankfully, I knew better than to mess
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: with that shit. But look how quickly you can catch
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: an addiction, a buzz. And then before you know it,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: it's too expensive to get the pills. So now you're
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: out there trying to get some horse, heroin, and you're
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: part of that life. The overdose deaths are occurring because
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: drug dealers are marketing and selling products like cocaine that's
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: laced with fentanyl or fake prescription pills made of fillers
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: in fentanyl, resulting in unaware buyers ingesting them, overdosing and
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: or dying. Look, that's how they do it. They get
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: the pill press. They print it out, press the pill
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: out to make it look like a regular pill. But
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: in reality, it's fentanyl. So again, let me be very
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: clear with you folks. If you're out there and you're
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: partying and you're buying pills on the street or whatever
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: it is, and you get those little blues with the
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: 30 on them, chances are they're fentanyl. So be very, very,
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: very careful. Last October, outgoing DEA El Paso, Texas Division
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: Chief Kyle W. Williamson said the cartel-driven opioid crisis in
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: the U.S. was the worst it's ever been since he
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: began working for the agency in 1991. His message came
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: after the DEA issued its first urgent public safety alert
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: in six years, warning about the alarming increase of available
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: fake prescription pills containing lethal doses of fentanyl and methamphetamine.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: It's taken them this long to release this warning? I've
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: been talking about this for months at least, and I've
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: known about it for a lot longer, meaning the little blues.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: So what are they doing? Get your shit together, guys.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: Milgram's warning lists examples of mass incidents of fentanyl-related deaths
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: that recently occurred in Florida, Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, and Washington, D.C.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: In March, six individuals overdosed in Wilton Manors, Florida after
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: being exposed to what they thought was cocaine, but the
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: substance they ingested contained fentanyl. In Texas, 21 individuals at
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: a homeless shelter in downtown Austin overdosed after they ingested
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: crack cocaine and methamphetamine laced with fentanyl. Three died. So
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: I know a lot of people will be like, who cares?
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: Just drug addicts, who cares if they died? Well, let's
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: be very clear, those drug addicts are someone's son. That's
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: someone's daughter. That's someone's wife or husband or brother. People
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: are not throwaway. People are not disposable, even if they
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: have a drug problem. Instead of trying to send these
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: people to prison, how about we do something different? How
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: about we try and get people clean? I know, novel
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: fucking idea. Also in March, three people died in Cortez,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Colorado after they ingested what they thought were 30 milligram
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: oxycodone pills, but were actually fake prescription pills containing fentanyl.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: So you get these pills off the street. You think
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: they're the regular old oxycodones or oxycontins, whatever, that are
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: 30 milligrams. So I take these all the time. I'll
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: take two of them. Before you know it, now you're dying.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: It's that easy. There's no science behind it. There's no
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: great puzzle to be solved. That's how quick it can happen.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: In February in Omaha, Nebraska, four people overdosed, two of
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: whom died after ingesting a substance that they thought was
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: cocaine but contained fentanyl. In St. Louis, eight people overdosed,
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: seven of whom died after ingesting crack cocaine laced with fentanyl. Again, Again,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: I don't even understand how this is feasible or sustainable
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: for the drug dealers. The idea is not to kill
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: your clientele. What the fuck is wrong with these guys?
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: I guess they think that there are so many addicts
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: nowadays that it doesn't matter. In the old days, the
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: last thing you wanted to do was sell bad drugs
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: to people. That's your client base. You want to keep
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: making money, right? So it's crazy to me how it's
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: just so commonplace now. In January, in the same city
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: block in Washington, D.C., 10 people overdosed, 9 of whom
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: died after ingesting crack cocaine laced with fentanyl. Fentanyl is
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: a highly addictive found in all 50 states, and drug
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: traffickers are increasingly mixing it with other types of drugs,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: in powder and pill form, in an effort to drive
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: up addiction and detract repeat buyers, Milgram said. This is
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: creating a frightening nationwide trend where many overdose victims are
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: dying after unknowingly ingesting fentanyl. Fentanyl is driving the nationwide
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: overdose epidemic, she added, pointing to the Center for Disease
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: Control's provisional data. Now, this is going to shock you folks.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: I mentioned it a little bit in the opening, but
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: pay attention to what we're going to say right here, okay?
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: The data indicates that an estimated 105,752 people died of
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending in October 2021.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: Over 66% of those deaths were related to fentanyl and
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: other synthetic opioids. Think about that for a minute. Now,
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: for those of you who are, you know, mid-30s, early 40s, whatever,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: you remember growing up what it was like? Things were
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: a lot different. Look, unless you were doing heroin back
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: in the day and you got a bad bag, chances
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: are you're not going to overdose on the drugs that
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: you were doing. Or if maybe you had a bad
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: heart or something and you were doing coke. But nobody
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: was slipping fentanyl into your shit. Now again, listen very
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: closely right here. Last year, the United States suffered more
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: fentanyl-related deaths than gun-related and auto-related deaths combined, she said. Now,
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: remember that. The next time someone gets up there and
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: starts prancing around and, oh, the scourge of guns and this, that,
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: the other thing, and they never mention this. Now, don't
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: get it twisted. We do have a problem with gun
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: violence in this country, obviously, and it needs to be addressed.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: But the politicizing of all of it all the time
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: does us no good. Especially when those of us who
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: are really paying attention to the things that matter realize
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: that this kind of shit is ignored for the most part.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Because they can't score the political points they can with
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: other subjects. The non-profit group Families Against Fentanyl notes that
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: fentanyl was the top killer in adults between the ages
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: of 18 and 45 in 2020. More adults in this
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: age group died from fentanyl than suicide, vehicle accidents, gun violence,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: and the coronavirus pandemic. But yet we still have silence
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: from the authorities. Where is the grand, comprehensive plan to
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: deal with this matter that is affecting every single one
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: of us every single day, one way or the other?
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: The DEA is focused on tracing such overdose events to
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: the drug organizations responsible for increasing the domestic supply. It's
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: also asking law enforcement agencies to contact their local DEA
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: agency to receive guidance, support, and help track such incidents.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: You know, the DEA, they have an interest in keeping
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: the war on drugs going, right? It's, you know, self-sustainability.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: They don't want to lose their jobs or their pensions
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: or whatever. So, yeah, they want the drug war to continue.
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: But it's not sustainable. We're losing the war on drugs.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: We're never going to be able to stop them from
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: coming in here. So we have to do something different.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: Decriminalize and work towards getting people off of this horrible,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: horrible shit. Because if not, this is going to get
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: a lot worse, folks. And remember this conversation when these
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: numbers triple or they're times five because it's coming. It
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: is definitely coming. The more people that keep doing these drugs,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: the more people that keep getting these drugs off of
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: the street, the more of these overdoses we're going to have.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: When will our authorities stop with the silence and start
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: giving us a comprehensive plan to battle this unspoken pandemic?
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: If you'd like to contact me, you can do that
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: at bobbycapucci at protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com. You can
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: also find me on Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: link that we discussed in this episode can be found
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: in the description box. All right, folks, have a great day,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: and I will be back later.