all you parent out there, i promise you, you're not going to be able to turn away from our feature story today. it's been just three weeks since the latest school shooting in this country. in less than a month we'll be marking the anniversary of sandy hook. just a few minutes i'm going to tell you the story of a young man whose parents called the police about him. they worried that his mendal illness will cause him to hurt somebody. will you consider him a prisoner or a patient? first, a tiny massachusetts town is weighing a ban that would make it the first in the kun troy completely outlaw toeb sal tobacco saeflz any kind? residents on both sides of the issues are pretty fired up. the public hearing wednesday night in westminster was over before it even began. here's john atwater of our affiliate wcbb. >> all right.

this hearing is closed. >> within minutes of starting -- >> freedom now! >> the board of health lost control of the enraged crowd! >> police stepped in to control passionate protesters. and escort board members to their cars. >> you people make me sick. >> the abruptly adjourned hearing brew heated criticism of a proposal to ban tobacco sales at stores in town. >> this meeting with all these cameras here is a mockery of this town in front of the united states of america. >> westminster has found itself in the national spotlight. the first town in the country that is one vote away from taking an unprecedented position on tobacco. >> about 21 years in the family. >> for brian vinson who runs a store in town, the ban could sink sales. >> it's not a $10 pack, it's a $30 total sale. >> the main focus on developing the regulations is the children in our community. >>unity. >> the three member board of health says they're trying to protect kids from new, sweeter

tobacco products. >> three people should not dictate a down of 7,000. >> but nearly everyone in this crowd feels a ban would limit their freedom. ♪ god bless america and they used a patriotic song to loudly proclaim their position. >> you startway people's rigs to consume legal products, they're going to get fired up. >> never seen anything like it. you might remember earlier this year cvs drug stores stopped selling tobacco in their stores as well. it was controversy. maybe not as much as westminster. some people say this whole thing hasn't gone far enough. some people say what about candy? junk food? sugary drinks? it's a fair point. but you know, unlike food, tobacco has absolutely no redeeming qualities. none. no calories, no nutrition, nothing. we do know is that it is associated with nearly half a million deaths per year in the united states. and smokers on average live ten years less. it was just 50 years ago the surgeon general made the firm

connection between smoking and cancer. >> make your own 30-day camel test in your t zone. >> during smoking's heyday in the '40s and '50s, raads like ts were commonplace. >> what cigarette do you smoke, doctor? in this survey of general practitioners, saergs, throat specialists, so on, the brand named most was camel. >> by 1950, american adults were smoking 4,000 cigarettes for every person. every year. but in 1952, readers digest, then the country's most popular magazine, published a two page article cancer by the carton. it was the first time a mainstream publication like this connected smoking to cancer. in a 1955, the federal trade commission forbade companies from making positive health

claims about cigarettes. blocking ads like this one from philip morris. scientific proved, less irritating to the smoker's nose and throat. >> federal trade commission and readers digest have done you a favor. >> it's a moment to help launch fictional ad whiz on mad men. >> we can say anything we want. how do you make your cigarettes? we breathe insect repel anlt, plant them in the north carolina sunshine, grow it, cut it, cure it, toast it. >> there you go. there you go. but everybody else's tobacco is toasted. >> no, everybody else's tobacco is poisonous. lucky strikes is toasted. >> in fact, that was an actual lucky strikes slogan. in real life. but evidence of harm became

overwhelming. on january 11th, 1964, dr. luther terry issued the very first surgeon general's report. >> the strongest relationship between cigarette smoking and health within the field of lung cancer. >> a strong relationship. just how strong in he reported a 70% increase in mortality for smokers. heavy smokers at least 20 times more likely to develop lung cancer than nonsmokers. the first warning on the pack in 1966 was a milestone. but also a major understatement. cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health. today, it gets right to the point. it causes lung cancer, heart disease, and more. lastly, something i always like to tell people who are thinking about quitting, you don't have to wait years to see the benefits. in fact, just 20 minutes after your last cigarette your heart

rate and blood pressure start to drop. in 24 hours, your heart disease risk goes down. two weeks later, your lung function improves. you probably feel better. after five years, your cancer risk declines. at 20 years, according to studies, your overall risk is comparable to a nonsmoker. so it's a good idea to quit. can you get tools and tips at smokefree smokefree.gov. coming up, putting an end to mass shootings. a year long investigation into the mind of a troubled young man incarcerated for a crime police say he was plotting but he says he wasn't really going to commit. all around the world the dedicated people of united airlines ♪ are there to support you. ♪ that's got your back friendly.

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the tragic confluence between mental health and our prison system. at first this story is going to sound familiar. a young man commits a mass shooting n this case, authorities say they averted it. blake lamber's family found his receipt for a gun, they called the police. as a result, blake is serving two concurrent 15-year prison sentences. he didn't shoot anybody. it was a big misunderstanding but he wasn't a threat but in need of help. you might say i, of course that, shou parents should feel. but as i dug deeper, i found

some troubling questions. that's what happens when the fear of another tragedy runs smack into the complicated life of a family that is coping with mental illness. like other new inmates, he is locked up 23 hours a day. blake lamber is 22 years old. i met him at the jefferson city correctional center. that's the maximum security prison many n. missouont in miss home. >> what did do you to get here? >> i bought two guns. i didn't tell my mom. she found a receipt in my pocket and she called the sheriff's department and they came and found me. >> the interrogation you were asked lots of questions. >> yes. >> at some point you said you intended to cause people harm. >> yes, and then detective, he came out november where and said i was in a threatening movie theater. i just started agreeing with him. i knew either way he was going to charge me for something. >> police eventually did charge

lambers with making a terrorist threat, first degree assault, armed criminal action. would you have hurt anybody? >> no. i would hurt myself before i hurt someone else. >> while it is impossible to know what exactly was going on inside his mind when he bought those guns, we do know in this incident, he didn't hurt anyone. no doubt blake has had a troubled past. in 2011, he plead guilty to an assault on his co-worker at a mail facility. in 2009, he was arrested at walmart carrying a butcher knife. he told a psychologist he thought about killing a woman there. >> you know, i just want to get on with my life. >> his parents say that was all in the past. and they agreed to talk about it. including the day they called the police on their own son. >> i gathered up his clothes from the bathroom floor. and came upstairs and was going through his pockets and i found a receipt from walmart that he

had bought a weapon for will $8. i called bill and said what do we do? >> was that the concern that he was going to hurt somebody? >> my concern is he would take the guns and kill himself. >> you decided to call the authorities. >> the next day, thursday morning i went to the sheriff's department with the receipt. >> according to police documents, blake's mother trisha was concerned blake might shoot people at a movie theater. she says not true. that they had twisted her words. she claim all she said was that blake's gun look like the one used by jam holmes in the aurora, colorado, shooting. she told me she wasn't worried about a mass homicide but rather a lonely suicide. so what did they say to you? >> they said okay, thank you for coming. i said he didn't seem like he was too concerned. okay. thank you. >> trish yshgs did they put him in jail? >> they said they were doing a well-being check so they picked him up at sonic and said we need

to take tout police station for questioning. >> and then in an instant, the lives of this family changed forever. within minutes of meeting blake, you could feel and see and hear the cause of his parents worry. he was a broken kid. lots of smiles but lots of pain. >> trying too hard. the need to fit in we are other people. at one point in my sophomore year of high school, i never went to the bathroom because i didn't know anybody. i didn't know anybody that ate lunch at that time. >> that is kind of sad. >> it s looking back, i was like man, i should at least try to talk to people. i was shy in high school. i was afraid to talk to someone because of what i would say. >> he did flag football and basketball and karate. >> diagnosed with dyslexia as a child, blake struggled in school but he eventually succeeded. by ninth grade, he made the

deenz list and a 4.0 student. then seemingly overnight it all went down hill and fast. >> it was the start of his junior year. grades started to suffer. he got mixed up with some boys that were, you know, smoking pot. and things just weren't going so well. he'd already quit his job at godfather's pizza. he cut his arm. >> within six months it went from wonderful to what is going on? we have a serious problem. >> soon he was in and out of hospitals. within just a couple of years, he was diagnosed with nearly a dozen different psychiatric illnesses, mood disorder, major depression, schizophrenia. so when blake bought the guns, his parents fel felt tht they h step in. they saw their son as a patient. but authorities say that same troubled boy and concluded he should be a prisoner.

>> my mom thinks something like virginia tech is going to happen with me or walmart or the guy at the movie theater in arizona or something. >> why does she think that? >> because every one of those people have a mental illness. and they didn't tell anyone that they bought a gun. >> okay. so now let's fast forward to your situation. what would you consider your condition? >> right now? >> yeah. you take medication, right? >> yes, sir. >> for what? >> depression. >> okay. was that an illness? >> yes. >> okay. so you have an illness similar to these people. now what else do you have in common with these people? >> i have homicidal thoughts. >> his mother thinks blake was a gullible kid and easily led because of his meantal illness. but prosecutors tell us he had a real plan to kill. he just didn't get a chance to carry it out. they believe they prevented a

tragedy. psychologist john phillips treated blake at this hospital wheth when he was 17. were you concerned he was a threat? >> in the four months he was at the hospital, he was the model resident. >> did you ever feel that he was potentially a harm to others? that was the concern it seemed. >> i never once felt, you know, that he would ever try to hurt anyone on purpose. i think that he wasn't a malicious child. he never actually ever acted out any of those threats. he never, ever once was violent any any sway. >> how do you distinguish the kid that is just talking being a teenager versus someone what can do serious harm? >> you have to find out what is going on in their head and you've got to, you know, you've got to be able to assess whether their behavior is neurologically based and just based on an

environmental reaction or whether they are actually, you know, sociopathic where they actually don't care about anybody. they just care about what they want. >> is that the distinction you see with blake. >> >> absolutely. >> he is being treated with a criminal mind. >> i think his swafgs threituat threatening, they put it to the extreme and didn't give him a chance to be rehabilitated. and where he is now, there is no chance of him being rehabilitated. >> do you think prison is the right place for him? >> absolutely not. >> blake also saw a psychiatrist who had concerns. he told us blake's relationships were falling apart and he often talked about violence, even so he agrees blake does not belong in jail. neither of these men who treated blake were asked to testify at his trial. would it have made a difference? we'll never know. but for the past year and a half, his parents have been

shouting from the roof tops that their son is mentally ill and belongs in a hospital, not a prison. >> i went to the authorities for help and for them to just keep an eye on my son. i -- i did not go there for the intention for him to be arrested. >> do you think that blake would have ever hurt anybody with these guns? >> no. >> trish? do you think that could have ever happened? >> no. >> did blake blame you because you went to the authorities? >> no. >> what were the conversations like with him? >> i have a letter he wrote me. i have nothing but time. we both can get through this. just don't lose hope. this is a very important time in our lives. we can do this together. so promise me that you'll stop blaming yourself for all of this. >> lou sid, compassionate, thoughtful. >> yeah. >> they say they are shunned by their friends and community.

now aday thez barely venture out, just trying to find refuge at the end of this small dirt road. >> the second thing is don't worry about what people think about me. i don't care what they have to say. i know i'm a good person and so do you. so he is a -- i mean he is a good person. >> just one hour with the person isn't enough to really understand what's running through their mind. but as jarring as it is to say out loud, it seems entirely possible that blake's only crime here is having a mental illness. your life now here in this prison, is there anything about it that makes sense to you? >> this place is supposed to help you, i don't think it is. i think prison is supposed to keep you away from society. society is scared of you. >> should they be scared of you, blake? >> for what i said? yes.

for actual me me, no. i didn't do anything to harm anybody out there. i was just a kid living in a small town. >> and again you looking me right in the eyes. i know you've been asked this question but and i know you've been asked this question but you wouldn't with hurt anybody? >> no, sir. >> you can say that with 100% confidence. >> no, sir. i'd rather hurt myself than other people. >> in case you're wondering blaec's attorney did not pull off an insanity defense. should he be a prisoner or patient? i want to hear from you on twitter @drsanjaygupta. [announcer] welcome to the re-imagined quickbooks.

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♪ my name is lyric and my stage name is lyric the queen. >> the patch on her eye has become rap artist lyric the queen's trademark. but when she first auditioned for "the x factor" few people knew the story behind it. >> i'm totally blind. that's why i wear the patch. >> this is a disorder of the cornea that cause it to bulge. being blind never derailed lyric's career. >> i don't think i took the time to think about how you're going to be a blind rapper. >> but darkness, both literal and -- >> i haven't seen my own face in years. >> -- and emotional were crippling. all that may change as lyric undergoes a procedure she hopes will restore her vision. ♪ i'm so lost, can you help me

find my way ♪ ♪ i'm so lost >> i didn't feel anything. >> it went absolutely perfect. >> oh my god, this is crazy. i'm like looking around like crazy. i'm seeing the cars and the people and just looking at, appreciating the details and stuff. >> the surgery was a success. and lyric's patch once a symbol of loss has become something else entirely. >> this thing i used to be ashamed about and i was depressed and devastated, i made it into my thing and i wear it with pride. and i don't think i'm ready to let that go yet. see how beautiful this is? >> "the human factor" is brought to you by cancer treatment centers of america. care that never quits.

seven months, six cnn viewers, three different sports. one race to the finish line. top coaches, devoted teammates, transforming bodies and minds. >> my goal is to do a triathlon. >> the hardest thing i have ever done. >> that seems like such a silly goal now because it's so much bigger than that. >> i took an oath early on, even if i can get through this, or through the ordeal, the journey will never be over. >> all right. so now it's your turn. we're looking for good people. if you think you're ready to be a part of the 2015 fit nation team, logon to cnn.com/fitnation. submit a video, tell us why you deserve a chance to hit the

reset button with us and cross that finish line. that's going to wrap things up for me today. "new day sunday" continues right now christi paul and joe johns. so glad to have you with us. i'm christi paul. >> and i'm joe johns. it's 8:00 in the morning. we begin with breaking news. in a video published online today isis claims to have beheaded american hostage peter kasett. >> we don't know whether the video is authentic. it has yet to be determined. we see the aftermath of the beheading and the victim is recognizable. >> if the video is authentic, we should remember peter as more than just a