>> they discussed opioid addiction in the u. s. this is 15 minutes. >> that's an easy act to follow. >> he got all the hard questi s questions. >> i want to talk to both of you about drug policy but also about more largely the opioid problem. the abuse of opioids and i want to start on the personal level. if i could ask you, most people don't think of the agricultural department as the place where you would work on drug control policy. talk a little bit about why you have invested so much of your final year on that topic? >> i think there's two reasons.

one, this epidemic is ravaging rural areas that i care deeply about and it is most difficult in rural areas because we have such a lack of treatment capacity in rural areas. so it is the people that i care about that are being impacted and it's personal. the reality is my mom suffered prescription drug addiction and alcoholism and i understand a little bit about the pain and agony that those addictions can cause and i'm deeply concerned about the attitude that we collectively have in this country toward this issue. i will tell you that if there was another illness or disease that cost 28,000 lives, that cost the economy $25 billion of lack of production, that created $25 billion of unnecessary health care costs i would believe that the congress of the united states would be falling all over itself to provide the resources to expand treatment and to deal with this issue. they have not done that and they

need to do that. >> and this is a bipartisan issue. when you're talking about rural america you're not just talking about the democratic party that's more inclined to spend more on domestic legislation. and you're also talking about a republican party from a lot of members that represent it and chairman rogers has dealt with drug use a lot in terms of appropriating. >> how much is the budget a factor. versus a lot of the other policy individual challenges. >> you fund your priorities. if you have 10 million americans misusing opioid and 2 million americans addicted and 28,000 that are dying and 44% of america knows someone

personally. that is aabusing opioid. it's a massive problem and a priority. >> we have to expand personnel and we have to expand prevention and they passed the bill that basically authorizes what we're doing and we'll continue to do what you're doing and any real resource to implemented that bill and any aspect of the president's budget. 28,000 people. this is more than automobile accidents. this is a huge problem that is destroying families. that is crippling our economy and many economies and and it is

frustrating to hear politicians talk about this issue but it is really chime in here and say not only is it appropriate of the magnitude of the epidemic but we can't afford not to do it. we can't find the resources to spend one tenth of that on treating people? >> it's about not just do we have the resources or is this a priority? we know that substance use in general in this epidemic has taken a huge toll on our health care systems and criminal justice systems. and some level of momentum to look at reframing this as a public health issue and we can't afford to keep doing things the

way that we're doing it. >> it's a really big point he just made. >> you recognize what this is and what it isn't. it's a disease. not a character flaw. not a weakness. not something that someone with little will power can overcome. this is a disease and it has to be treated as such. if i came with you and i said one of my two sons we just found out he had cancer. we need to be able to have that same attitude if someone comes to us. i have a family member that's addicted or i am addicted. >> you come at this from the perspective of someone that battled addiction and you look all the way up to the policy level from the entire country.

you're talking about somebody that wakes up in the morning. million of people that wake up in the morning with a craving that is stronger than their desire to eat. strong ir than their desire to take care of their children and go to work and all the way up through the doctors and talking about the criminal justice system and punishing people for their addictions. what are the keys many terms of the solution and talk about the public health crisis. and what are the keys to trying to solve this problem in a wholistic way. all the way up the chain from the person that wakes up struggling with addiction. >> we have to look at how do we prevent more particularly that opioid epidemic. one of the main drivers has been the vast overprescribing pain medication in the united states.

and the pharmaceutical industry has a role to play. but physicians have a role to play. and enough pain medication in the united states to give every adult americans their own and part of our efforts have been to have more training for preshrivprescrib preshriveprescrib prescribeers and cdc released guidelines but we also have to intervene as people's use becomes more chronic so we have been working diligently to estate based prescription drug monitoring programs so that you can identify people who might approximate going from doctor to doctor to be able to do this. we have been looking at disposal. we know people who start misusing pain medication get them free from family and friends. so we have been taught as good consumers if we get a prescription and we don't need

it or only need a few to stick them in the medicine cabinet and that's often the start of problems so we have been promoting disposal programs but i will go back to what the secretary said t biggest gap that we see and the administration continues to do everything we can is despite the advances of the affordable care act providing addiction treatment we know that there are too many people that don't get treatment in the united states. we just released data that only 11% of people with a substance use disorder are getting care and treatment for their disorder. 11% and the other people are overrepresented in all the areas that we talked about so while we can do more the president has been addiment about making sure that people that need treatment are able to get it. and i, you know, i can't agree more with the secretary. i find it inconceivable with the height at this epidemic not only

did they fund the bill they passed but have not stepped forward in a meaningful way. to make sure that people in all parts of the country have adequate access to treatment. >> when you look at rural america, you look at the opioid abuse going on now, they're not the only drugs being abused. as you look at rural america and you look at the abuse of drugs going on now and economic factors and the ability to see doctors and have solution and help that aren't necessarily tied to medication and how much it drives issues and people that otherwise might be gainfully employed or addicted or not. >> well, it is complicated everywhere in this country and the nature of work makes it

likely this you'll confront an injury so you're likely to go to that physician. that physician may not have been adequately trained about proper main management. alternatives may not approximate available. physical therapy may not be available. there may not be a hospital nearby. the second issue of course is if you actually have a situation where someone needs treatment, there's no place to go. there's over 1,000 service centers in this country located to provide services with over 1,000. only 25 of them are located in rural america. and treatments and agricultural to be creative and the department of agriculture and a billion dollars advocating.

>> a significant infusion. in order to get that 11% to a more acceptable rate. >> your friend secretary clinton has talked about rural drug use on the campaign trail. has she made any commitments to you about what she would do as president or any other policies that you see forth coming that might be helpful for her? >> it's hard to answer that question because this is an official event so i have to be careful. very careful. here is what i will say, you cannot travel in any rural community in this country and any region of this country for any period of time without running into someone that will tell you a heartbreaking story about how their family is

wrecked by addiction. you can't and when you talk to professionals if there are any in the community wroul learn how limited the resources are to deal with it and how hard it is in rural areas for people to acknowledge that they have an addiction. >> it's self-reliant, self-independent. we're tough. we don't want our neighbors to know all of our problems. it's hard to break through that. in addition to everything michael indicated and in addition to budget we have to have our faith based communities and community at large, make it easier. make it acceptable. make it okay to talk about this as a disease. so that it's easier for people to seek out. i know in my mom's situation she made the decision but in that magic moment when she made the decision she had a whole lot of help. she had a treatment center she could go to. multiple aa meetings that were available and sponsors that were there. just a phone call away. she had a supportive family. you don't necessarily find that in rural communities.

that's why it's necessary for us to make this more of a priority than it has been. >> one of the things that we know is you can have as must have treatment capacity as you want but fundamentally if we don't change the way we perceive people with substance abuse does orders shame and stigma plays a huge role in people not seeking care and delaying care and contributing to bad public policy and public laws. we talk publicly about our own experience with this. so it empowers other people to be able to talk openly and honestly about our own struggles. we talked to countless parents and i have to get give parent ace lot of credit talking openly and candidly about their struggles about solutions to this. we have got to create an atmosphere where it's acceptable and non-judgmental for people.

>> are you finding that there is more openness and there is less stigmatism overtime and that's not happening fast enough. what do you think folks here can do to try to destigmatize this idea. >> i probably have a skewed perception but i do think that we're seeing people in recovery and parents being much more open and candid about their own struggles. i was in philadelphia for september as recovery month and marching with 26,000 people to talk openly and honestly about this issue. we just hosted parents that have come together to talk about this issue. i do see it's changing. we have a long way to go. i still read too many articles where people feel like it's okay or question why we're reviving

people from an overdose. so we do have a ways to go but we have turned the corner in reframing this as a disease and not a moral failure. >> i just add for folks in the audience, you need to ask some tough questions of local officials. do you have access to reversal drugs so you can save lives. are your first responders equipped? if not, why not. are your schools thinking about ways to create sober schools and sober locations so schools struggling with addiction in a high school don't necessarily have to be returned to the environment immediately after they seek treatment. that they are given space to strengthen their ability and capacity to with stand the temptations that occur with any addiction. asking those questions and asking members of congress, what's up with no money. what's up with no treatment? why aren't we addressing this as aggressively as we have

addressed zika. other things that have been in the news. [ applause ] you cannot spend time with a mother or father or grandparent who has lost a son and daughter or grandchild. you cannot spend time with one of those families without being impressed with how much we have to do and how quickly we have to do it. there's 78 to 80 lives lost a day from this. not to mention the tremendous pain friends and family are suffering today. they're scared to death they're going to open up that door some day and their child is going to be fwon. we have to make this a national priority. we have to redefine this in terms of a disease and character flaw. and when you have a decision to

make which direction you're going to go you're in the position to get the help you need to save your life. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> learn more about the leading third party candidates when gary johnson joining us at 8:00 p.m. eastern and then at 10:00 we'll hear from jill stein. that's tomorrow on cspan. >> live debate preview starts at 7:30 p.m. eastern. the briefing for the debate studio audience is at 8:30 p.m. eastern and the 90 minute debate is at 9:00 p.m. eastern. stay with us for viewer reaction including your calls, tweets and

facebook postings and watch the debate live and on demand using your desktop, phone and tablet on cspan.org. downloaded from the app store or google play. >> officiinitially when i was t to come up with my documentary for student cam i was a little bit daunted because there were so many elements i was trying to put into it and it's just a lot of information to try to communicate in 7 minutes but then i took a step back and i realized that it really was just like a visual essay and i have been writing essays all throughout high school so it was something that became a little bit less daunting as i looked at it from that perspective of gathering information and instead of writing that information i'm filming it. >> i would urge anybody thinking about making a piece for student cam to reach out to as many different people as they could

to get a lot of interviews. get as many different perspectives as you can because there are experts out there that are so much more knowledgeable about the subject than you are and as many of those people that you can get in your piece, the more credibility your piece is going to have and it's not just going to be a high school student trying to solve this massive problem. it turns into your contributing useful information by compiling these different perspectives. >> this year's theme, your message to washington d.c. tell us what is the most urgent issue for the new president and congress to address in 2017? our competition is open to all middle school or high school students grades 6 through 12 with $100,000 awarded in cash prizes. students can work alone or in a group of up to 3 to produce a 5 to 7 minute documentary on the issues selected. include cspan programming and explore opposing opinions. the $100,000 in cash prizes will

be awarded and shared between 150 students and 53 teachers and the grand prize $5,000 will go to the student or team with the best overall entry. this year's deadline is january 20th, 2017. mark your calendars and help us spread the word to student film makers. >> now a look at the presidential transition process when two former white house officials in the clinton and bush administrations. they discuss how leadership positions are filled to ensure that the next president is ready to govern on inauguration day. this is an hour.