against trafficking. >> reporter: many children have lost their childhood to the growing cyber sex industry and many fill phene owe children need to be protected there is much more real news from al jazeera at our website. take a look at aljazeera.com >> this is where i'll be buried. >> right next to her. >> mmmhmm. >> six years ago, roy bosley's wife, carol, died after overdosing on prescription painkillers. she was 60. >> it should have never happened.

>> in what's being called a 'hidden epidemic' a growing number of elderly americans are dying after taking too many narcotics. >> when you remember her, how do you think about her? do you think about her as the woman you married? >> i think about the woman i married and the fun we had. and i also am caused to pause about the times that weren't so great. and i try to put those in the far corners of my mind. >> when she was on all the painkillers? >> yep. the far corners of my mind. she was between the ottoman and the floor. i couldn't see her face. so i rolled her over.

>> and her pills were? >> her pills were on top of the ottoman. i grabbed the telephone. i started doing cardiac massage, called 9-1-1. and from there it's history. this is horrible. >> on the day before thanksgiving in 2009, roy bosley came home to find his wife of 38 years, collapsed on the floor of their den. >> she basically stopped breathing. >> carol was dead. it wasn't the first time roy found her passed out. >> this is the back door of the house, and she is unconscious, laying over the shoe thing. >> so you come home and you find her that way? >> yeah. >> so this is different than being asleep? >> she's not asleep. she is out. you have to shake her and shake her and shake her to get her to wake up. would you consider this a

normal sleeping position? same thing here, same thing here, she's totally out. no idea whats going on. she had been eating oatmeal and she went out while she was consuming the oatmeal and you can see that it's coming out of her mouth. it's a miracle that she didn't choke to death. you can see that she was watching television and she was using the remote control and passed out. >> roy said he took the pictures to prove to carol and her doctor that she was overdosing again and again. she'd started taking painkillers after she was injured in a bad car accident and had several spinal surgeries. in 2008, she went to lifetree, a pain clinic in salt lake city, utah, and was prescribed 7 different drugs, including

painkillers and antidepressants. >> the two big ones that stand out are the oxycodone and percocet. and you know that those are both opiates. so why is she on two? we're talking about 224 pills of oxycodone and we're talking about 112 percocets. >> over the next year, carol's doses more than doubled. by the time she died, she was taking 600 pills a month. >> that in itself is quite a message. totally completely out of control. and she didn't overdose because she was depressed or anything like that. she overdosed simply because she would take the medication and there was enough of it that it would make her confused and she would take more. >> so what was carol like when she was on all this medication? >> she was withdrawn. she didn't leave this room much

at all. she spent much of her time in pajamas. didn't leave the house for anything. >> after repeated trips to the er for taking too many pills, carol's family finally convinced her to get treatment for addiction. >> and two weeks into that program, she was managing her pain on tylenol. nothing else. and she was happy. that was the neat thing. she was happy. she was in control of her life. >> but that didn't last long. soon they were back at lifetree, meeting with her pain doctor. >> we were ushered into a room, and he informed me that a chronic pain sufferer could not be an addict. >> this was dr. webster. >> yes. then he told me that he was her physician. and that he would prescribe what he felt was appropriate.

period. and from there, it went downhill, the result of which is she died. >> i'm not gonna respond to any of my former patients. there would be a hipaa violation, and i think it would be unethical for me to talk about it. and it's always tragic when somebody dies under our care. i think if people over-take their medication they can get foggy, and then they can keep taking more medicine. that's a risk. and - and it can end in death, when that happens. ideally --. >> who's responsible for that? >> the patient themselves has to be sure that they don't take more than what's instructed. >> would you prescribe someone opioids if they come out of recovery for drug addiction? specifically being addicted to opioids? >> i would have to evaluate it. it would depend upon-- it would depend upon the situation. >> roy bosley sued dr. webster for medical malpractice. they reached a settlement out of

court. a couple of years ago, dr. webster told a newspaper that as many as 20 of his former patients died of opioid overdoses. he sold his pain clinic in 2010, and no longer sees patients. >> should have stopped him then. should have stopped him. it's been so hard to deal with because i literally regret every day that i didn't do something different.

>> every year, at least 16,000 americans die after overdosing

on opioid painkillers. more than cocaine and heroin combined. and as the country ages, the face of the 'typical addict' is changing. but there are just a few rehab centers in the country that focus on treating elderly patients addicted to painkillers. we travelled to florida to visit one of them. >> i think many people think of the opioid problem as something that's affecting young people who are abusing painkillers that were not prescribed to them. we see the highest rate of drug overdose death in older americans. and when you look at the groups that have had the greatest increase in problems associated with prescription opioids, for example, visits to hospital emergency rooms because of opioid misuse, it's americans over 65 that have had the largest increase.

>> hey, larry. >> hi larry. thanks for meeting me. >> larry moore came here six years ago to treat his addiction to prescription painkillers. >> this place has good memories for me. i was able to start my road to recovery, and what i think is a better life. >> it was his family that pushed him to get help... staging an intervention. his wife of 40 years even threatened to leave him. >> my detox room right here. very first night. i came in here. they checked my luggage and made sure that i wasn't sneaking in anything. >> larry had been painkillers for ten years for back pain - mostly oxycontin and hydrocodone. he calls himself an "accidental addict". >> it was taking exactly what the doctor prescribed, when the doctor prescribed, how the doctor prescribed. >> but his family hated the medication's side effects - anger, volatility and depression. >> how many grandchildren do you have? >> three. i have two grandsons and a granddaughter.

before the drugs i could reason with anyone. on the drugs, no i would confront you in a heartbeat and didn't care you know of the outcome and i would treat my family to the point that, you know, i learned that that my grandchildren were afraid to be around me, uh, which to this day breaks my heart. took away years of time that i could have spent with them and really been happy, because of drugs trying to ease my pain... uh, uh, no. that's horrid. >> who should have stopped that process, who should have said, it's gone too far? >> the doctors. i did not know that there was, that maybe there are alternatives to it. i was just doing what the doctors told me to do. we're gonna feed the turtles.

watch 'em. >> the painkillers made larry so foggy that he says he was misdiagnosed with early onset alzheimer's disease. his pain hasn't gone away, but he's learned to live with it. >> so this is peaceful? >> oh yeah. lord, yeah. this is the things that you can't really enjoy when you're on drugs. everything is hazed over it's just nothing. you go from having a veil over your eyes to this, to sun beating down and breeze on your face and all of this nature, and everything being alive from where you were which was down in a deep, deep hole.

>> as more and more seniors get addicted to prescription painkillers, the question is who's responsible? here in california, two counties are suing the major opioid drug manufacturers. they say they waged a campaign of deception, and it specifically targeted vulnerable groups like the elderly. >> the lawsuit says drug companies overstated the benefits of opioid drugs and downplayed the risks. especially when it comes to treating chronic pain like migraines, back pain and joint pain. >> hi i'm libby. >> hi i'm danny. paragraph nine alleges that it was defendant's marketing and not any medical breakthrough that rationalized prescribing opioids for chronic pain, and opened the floodgates of opioid use and abuse. the result has been catastrophic. before the 1990s, opioids were rarely prescribed except for acute pain and for palliative

care, for the treatment of, like, cancer pain. in-- in order to change that culture-- the complaint explains how the drug companies implemented a decades-long scheme to alter the prescribing habits of doctors, as well as the drug use of patients who suffer from chronic pain. >> the counties say the companies made record profits by creating a market for opioids among a massive group of "chronic pain sufferers." a market they argue never should have existed. they claim the elderly in particular were targeted - because they're more likely to suffer from chronic pain, and they're well-insured. according to the plaintiffs, the efforts paid off. since 2007, opioid prescriptions for the elderly have grown at twice the rate as those for middle-aged adults. but the lawsuit says in the process older patients were misled about the risks of taking opioids. >> this is an example of the

marketing the companies engaged in that's mentioned in the lawsuit. >> that's right. this is one of the publications cited in our lawsuit. >> it lists opioid medications and what some of the myths and facts are. one of the myths it lists is that the medications are always addictive. it says that that's not actually the case. they're rarely addictive. >> as explained in our lawsuit, that's one of the examples of the deceptive messages that drug companies disseminated about the risks and benefits of opioid use. and that's simply not borne out by the scientific evidence. and-- and in fact, you're seeing increases in the rates of addiction among the elderly. >> none of the five opioid drug manufacturers would speak to us on camera, and only one of them responded to our questions. in a statement, janssen pharmaceuticals said "the allegations in the lawsuits are both legally and factually unfounded." on august 27th, a judge put the case on hold until the food and drug administration completes a study about the safety and

efficacy of opioid drugs. another major claim by the counties is that the drug companies had help in changing popular opinion about opioids, from "key opinion leaders," prominent and influential pain doctors. >> they simply didn't just hire these individuals to talk about the drugs, they actually influenced, worked with, and used them to spread their deceptive messages about the risk and benefits of these drugs for the treatment of chronic pain. >> and how did they allegedly do that? >> the lawsuit explains in detail about the various ways that they worked with these individuals, including sponsorship, money, as well as editing and control oftentimes over their messaging. >> can you name some of these key opinion leaders that are listed in the lawsuit? >> one of them is dr. lynn webster. >> well-- i'd like to see the evidence. i've looked at their document. i don't see anything in their document that says that i was promoting the use of opioids. >> the california lawsuit claims

that you were the author of numerous education programs sponsored by the drug companies-- that contained virtually all of the defendant's misrepresentations that are described in the lawsuit. and at the same time, you were receiving significant funding from the drug companies. >> you have a question? >> is that a conflict of interest? >> no. i was never receiving significant fund-- i don't know what "significant" is. you tell me what significant is. >> well, how much were you receiving? >> and i wouldn't be receiving it from the pharmaceutical companies. i would be-- i would be paid for an educational--um, lecture, by an educational group. >> so, an independent group that gets money from the pharmaceutical companies will contract with you to give a lecture? >> usually in in edu-- educational forums, yes. that are cme -continuing med-- medical education. they have to be -- certified programs that are not um-- they're not biased. they're academically based.

>> but they're paid for by the pharmaceutical companies? >> well, you get grants. yeah. i mean, y-- they get grants, yes, that's true. >> you understand the appearance of-- >> i understand. >> -going to a lecture by someone who's essentially getting money from the pharmaceutical company talking about here's how you manage pain. here's one of the tools: opioids. >> opioids is a tool. they-- opioids are a tool for the treatment of chronic pain. there's nothing wrong with using opioids appropriately, for people in chronic pain. >> but a government study released last year concluded that there's little evidence that using opioids long-term is effective for treating chronic pain. >> when you talk about putting somebody on a highly addictive drug, on a drug that's essentially a heroin pill, and they're taking it on a daily basis, just about anybody can wind up getting addicted to it. so what we should be teaching prescribers is that opioids are lousy drugs for most patients with chronic pain.

>> you know my name, lynn webster. i'm the past president of the american academy of pain medicine. >> the california lawsuit alleges that the cooperation went beyond key opinion leaders. and that organizations like the one dr. webster once led - the american academy of pain medicine - also received a lot of money from opioid manufacturers. the academy's foundation lists a main sponsor as purdue pharma, the maker of oxycontin. >> if you are a caregiver, or even if you're a patient taking pain meds, opioids, you need to know what the signs of an overdose are... >> dr. webster's research now focuses on developing alternatives to opioids - pain medication that he says won't be addictive. in the meantime, he argues that opioids should be prescribed, despite the risks. >> we can abandon the treatment of people in pain. i think that would be inhumane.

i think that would have to be beyond cruel, to not try to treat their pain. but in order to eliminate all addiction from opioids would require we prohibit the use of opioids. and if we did that, there would be an incalculable amount of suffering.

>> i need to get that pill in me because i've been several hours without it during the night, you know. that's my percocet, and my oxycodone and vitamin d, and

this is an oxycontin 10 they suggest i take in the night. >> shirley sharr is 86 years old and she takes a high dose of opioids every day, to deal with pain that began after she had knee replacement surgery 13 years ago. her morning dose is the most important. nighttime is the longest she goes without taking the medication. >> and then i take this with me when we leave to go on an errand or something. this is always in my purse. i cannot ever forget that or i'd be in trouble. >> shirley's daughter, cari, sets an alarm to remind her mother to take the next dose, in three and a half hours. over the years, shirley's doctors steadily increased her dosage because she was developing a tolerance to the medication... it wasn't as effective. >> does it still manage your

pain? does it help? >> no. well it does. but i'm still always in pain. i'm never out of pain. >> i wanted to ask you about some of the side effects of the painkillers that you're on. shortness of breath to the degree that it can actually cause respiratory problems or respiratory failure. >> i'm concerned about that because i feel like i don't breathe as well. it makes me light-headed, you know, when i'm overdosed. >> so another side effect is slowing your heart rate down? >> when i take too much, i feel that. i feel like i'm not getting enough air. >> it sounds like you have to make a calculation every time you take your painkillers about how much it will help you and how hard it will be on you? >> oh, i do. mmhmm. i do. that leg is constantly swollen. and that's because i'm holding water, you know? i can't seem to dump it. >> is water retention from the pills? >> yup.

>> even though she's been taking opioids for years, shirley says her pain is getting worse. >> so i'm going to take this pill. will you set my clock? where's my clock? >> so it's just been two and a half hours. >> sometimes i take it early when it's this bad. >> when she doesn't want to take any more medication, shirley has a different way of dealing with her pain, which she read about on the internet. it's called tapping. >> in the middle of the night, it's my savior. i just can tap the pain down to where i can go back to bed. and there are several places that you tap on your body, and i do it three times and within three or four minutes the pain is diminished. i have pain in my knees but i do love and respect myself. i have pain in my knees but i do

love and respect myself. i have pain in my knees but i do love and respect myself. i have pain in my knees but i do love and respect myself. i ha pain in my knees but i do love and respect myself. i have pain in my knees but i do love and respect myself. and the pain, i would say half the pain is gone. anand i only do it when it's really bad so that helps but it's incredible. >> how does it work compared to painkillers? >> well, it's just as good as the painkiller i think. >> have you ever thought about reducing your painkiller dosage or going off of it and instead ining and using other methods to try to control the pain? >> no. >> but the tapping doesn't have any of these side effects like constipation and shortness of breath, and a lowered heart rate. >> that's true. that's true. it's just -- i don't know if i'd have the courage to stop it.

>> i love sewing and that really takes my mind off my pain. so i take as little as i can to get by. i don't like it, but it sure solves my problem with pain. i wish they'd come up with something else that would be more helpful that isn't so addicting. and i guess i'm addicted. i don"t know. i've done this for several years. >> while doctors and patients debate the best ways to deal with chronic pain, millions of senior citizens continue to fill