discusses the federal role in reforming state and local police department. in bloomberg ranking reporter lara keller will talk about the findings of the six-month internal investigation of wells fargo's are authorized account scandal. be sure to watch washington journal, live at 7:00 a.m. friday morning to join the discussion. >> friday, former health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius joins a discussion on improving end-of-life care, hosted by the aspen institute. see it live starting a new eastern here on c-span. friday, a discussion on sexism in the work lace, hosted by the american association of university women, starting live at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span two. >> all month we're featuring our student cam winners in c-span's

video documentary competition for middle and high school students. this year, students told us the most urgent issue for the new president and congress. our second prize middle school winner is 8th graders from maryland. they believe the heroine and opioid epidemic is an urgent issue in their documentary titled "on the edge." >> i noticed over the summer that in huntington, west virginia, 28 people overdosed in a county in just over four hours. i started getting more interested in the opioid epidemic. that is how we got to where we are at. >> we started i think it was in december. we worked until middle of march. middle of february. we were working every day in

class for 2.5 months. it took us a while. it was a long time editing. we had to plan everything out. we had to plan what we wanted and where we wanted it. it was not a simple process. >> going to huntington in november right after the election, that took about three days overall planning all the interviews and talking to people. >> i did not know this existed before charles joined our group and was like this is the topic i pitched for. my original topic, we each had to write our own individual pitch, mine was about the decriminalization of drugs and how that might be a better alternative to jail time or it might not.

we kind of combined them. >> huntington, west virginia, overlooking the midwest. it used to be one of them most successful frontier towns. now it is one of the most depressing industrial failures in the u.s. another thing on the rise in the community, heroin addiction. huntington has always been a bridge between the midwest and the east. the railroad ended here, with allowed the industry to flourish. the transportation trains began to blossom in huntington. things began to get worse. >> huntington was like a lot of cities in america that at one time produced a lot of products, whether it be railroad cars or

glass, and a lot of that industry went away. >> as the industry went away, the number of jobs also went away. sadly, this depression was in the middle of the opioid craze. companies marketed oxycontin to a large population. >> there is no doubt they played a role. when you look at how many substances were marketed and pushed into west virginia when our population is one of the smallest in the united states. >> slowly but surely, people began to be addicted to miracle drugs. people became so dependent on them, they did horrible things. >> i literally ran over my ex-husband's arm.

i ran over his arm so it looked like he got hurt so we could get painkillers. >> the government began to realize the issue and took away drugs like oxycontin. the elimination of these drugs did not help solve this problem whatsoever. people looked to the next cheapest option for their fix, heroin. while local government and marketing played a huge role in the addiction epidemic, coal production also affect the prices. >> we are such an economy that is based on coal. a person goes for making $80,000 a year as a good coal miner all of a sudden loses his job.

his income is completely gone. >> recreational or extermination -- experimental use of drugs can also cause addiction. >> i think it started out with marijuana. i am sure a lot of people can use marijuana and stop. and then from there it went to , pills. >> it nearly destroyed her life. >> the matter what i would do, i would hurt him i would sit down, it would hurt. >> matthew believe it was caused by a genetic predisposition to addiction. >> substance use disorder runs in my family. i believe some folks are genetically predisposed to have dependency issues. >> on august 15, 2016, the crisis in huntington hit a staggering piece. 28 people overdosed within a matter of 4 hours.

luckily there were only two , deaths. first responders were quick to help. most experts believe this is not a normal batch of heroine. normally, large overdoses are contributed to other drugs. addiction does not discriminate no matter where someone might be from. >> i have lost everyone. >> heroin addiction has affected the populace of huntington and deteriorated huntington itself. poverty runs rampant. not only can you see heroine affects specifically, but you can see the depression heroine has left on huntington economically. a possible way to alleviate the problem is treatment. recovery point, west virginia, a six to nine month program.

many believe this sort of treatment deserves much more funding than it currently has. >> we need funding for treatment. we need funding for people when they get out of treatment because a lot of them have been in trouble with the police and the law. >> sadly, this sort of treatment is normally completed in over five months, which can be a hit hindrance with those who wish to see help immediately. another way is to lock up many of those who take drugs. this in theory takes addicts off the streets. >> we know what to do with people that are addicted. they belong in the criminal justice system. if we do not have a drug problem, they would be stealing rolexes or cars. >> it is a well-known fact the u.s. has the highest incarcerated population in the world. >> we don't want people to do this so we will have a really extreme penalty if they get caught.

what that penalty is if you boil it down to simple as terms, it is putting someone in a cage. >> ideas on how to alleviate the crisis are conflicted. but there is one thing unanimously agreed upon. there must be funding put into the alleviation of the crisis. huntington is beginning to put money into treatment and mitigation of addiction. >> i am really pleased to say that our state is finally coming together. we have a lot of different organizations and people that are working together to fight this epidemic. we have the people at marshall university. we have the law enforcement people, the police, the hospitals, the emergency rooms. we have a lot of people working together now. schools that we have not had before. >> if we all come together and help with funding behind some of these programs, critics, and campaigns, we can possibly cure the disease of addiction. if we stir up enough of an outcry against the epidemic, we

can possibly get the attention of our president donald trump and his upcoming legislation. >> to watch all of the prize-winning documentaries in this year's studentcam competition, visit studentcam.org. announcer: next, a discussion on the rise of prescription drug addiction. panelists include two documentary filmmakers who examine the relationships between politicians, drug companies, and the media. the university of southern [indiscernible conversations]