candidate, elizabeth warren will speak at a democratic hearty dinner in new hampshire. on c-span2, politico is hosting conferencesolution with governors who are in washington for their winter meeting. that gets underway at 9:00 a.m. eastern. this weekend on american history tv, free speech and the rights of students. sunday morning, we take a look courtt the 1969 supreme -- with tinker versus moyne. mary beth tinker and her brother john talk about their experiences and take questions. at 8:00 a.m., american history tv will continue the discussion with mary beth and john tinker live on "washington journal."

>> jack riley is on your screen. he is a retired special agent. you say you were compelled to write this book because of the glorification of el chapo and the drug crisis. what do you mean by that? >> good morning. i was somewhat troubled by all of the time that so many heroic dea agents and policeman and prosecutors spent bringing el chapo to justice. , inou go along the border some cases he is revered as a robin hood figure. the attention he was getting even in this country was getting my attention. to hisconnect that responsibility for much of the

opioid problem we have today in this country specifically, when you're talking about heroin and fentanyl, el chapo is front and center on that. did you see that glorification continue through his trial last week? >> somewhat. first of all, let me make it clear that i knew the evidence and the prosecutors and the agents. i knew he was going to get convicted. what i did take away from the trial that was positive was the american people got a glimpse into how nasty, vicious, and cunning these major drug cartel leaders are. chapo, in my opinion, other than osama bin laden is the number when bad guy of our generation responsible for thousands of , ashs and his organization it stands today, is still

responsible for killing people. >> when did you first hear the name "el chapo? >> in the early 1990's. 1990-1991. i was attached to a special operations division and we began looking at mexican methamphetamine traffickers. el chapo had a piece of. but what really got my attention was his ability in terms of logistics. he is a mass murderer of grand proportions. no doubt about it. he is also one heck of a corporate ceo in the way he managed. he was innovative. he did research on the u.s. market to make sure that his organization could supply the demand. we saw that come to fruition with the opioid crisis and how it spread. in the early 1990's, we were still concentrating on columbia -- colombia.

we were beginning to piece together the evolution of the mexican cartels. quite frankly come up to that point, the mexican cartels were not really cartels. we refer to them as federations. they were loosely tied smuggled -- smugglers. smuggle anything. and el chapo honed his teeth in the early days as a marijuana smuggler. he was extremely attuned to the logistics of the border and how to satisfy the u.s. market. >> one passage -- crime families in the united states drew violence to their illicit activities but guzman never shied away from that. he built terror into his business plan. can you talk about how you saw that when you worked around the country both in chicago and in el paso? >> when i was the boss for dea

in el paso, it was 2006-2007. a stone'sk at juarez, throw from el paso, it was a battlefield. some say it was more dangerous than baghdad or kabul. hundreds of people were killed and it was all because el chapo was at work with the remnants of two other cartel struggling to control the corridor into the u.s. i saw on a daily basis and i saw with my mind the prescription drug problem

became. and then how he shifted his drug practices. he stockpiled cocaine on the border increasing his supply of cheap and potent heroin. for the first time, we saw it was smoked and snorted. we saw different user groups become addict did and get involved in it. it was an evolution he recognized long before many others. when you are addicted to prescription drugs, however that occurs, even -- either through or prescribing from a doctor a pharmacist or you steal it out of your grandmother's medicine cabinet, it runs out and it is too expensive. you're still addicted. what happened at that point for many in this city and even the affluent suburbs, you take that long road down to using heroin. i saw that take hold in chicago. the other thing that el chapo did that got my attention was he

formed a toxic alliance with the nearly 100,000 documented street gang members in the chicago area who really were his unwitting salesman. -- salesmen. they did not realize they were working for him. but they were putting the heroin and other drugs on the street. they were responsible for the spike in violence. el chapo was really pulling the strings from his mountain hideout in sinaloa. for become i could not just stand by and do nothing. it started in the early 1990's. i pushed to make sure that we kept an eye on him. i knew what he was capable of. was a tough year. i was in el paso. i had just gotten there. i had naïvely given an interview with the local newspaper there. i am here on

behalf of the american people and we are going to go after el chapo and sinaloa. and he evidently took notice of it. shortly after that, some of our mexican counterparts contacted us and said they had developed information that el chapo had put a hit on me. cut off my head. that was pretty cheap i thought. $100,000. at that point for me and even until last week, it was almost an obsession. a personal hunt to make sure that he saw justice. not in mexico but in the u.s. retired deay is a special agent, the former acting --. we invite you to join in this conversation as well. the phone lines are a bit different.

and a special line if you have been it -- impacted by the opioid crisis. you were about to get there when you spoke about the price on your head. >> it is somewhat of a dangerous job. you get numb to the fact that bad guys would like to see you hurt in your pursuit of bringing them to justice. 2007,as a strange time, you had to pay attention. you could not blow it off. thetly after we got

information that he may have put a hit out -- you could not verify these things. i was on my way home late one night. es, outside las cruc of el paso. as i was getting on the road, i at aed a couple of cars closed down fast food restaurant. i was getting on the interstate. they were part driver to driver -- they were parked driver to driver. i thought they looked like undercover cops. as soon as i got on the ramp, their lights went on and away we went. that led me on a 40 mile high-speed, just trying to get away from them. a ventilator, i ended up in a schoolyard playground south of las cruces where i thought at that point that i was in real trouble. theye very last moment, pulled off and drove away.

i don't know if it was intended to scare the heck out of me or if they were carjackers -- but it was too incidental. that woke me up and made me concerned not just for my safety, my family safety, but for our employees. not just the gun carrying agent but the civilians who are just as important many of home live on the border. z eachven came from juare day. it opened up my mind on how we had to attack this organization. warrior: inside the hunt for el chapo." mike is in the gounod woods, california. you are up first. caller: it strikes me that drug prohibition is a foolish replay of alcohol prohibition

causing the same social problems including high crime. of theng the el chapos world with millions of dollars. instead of spending four decades so far pursuing this so-called drug on -- were on drugs. something that occurred to me recently is this is profoundly contrary with america's founding principles. may i have your comment, please? >> yes. certainly. thank you. i will say one thing from me. when i hear the term "war on drives me crazy because it suggests a beginning and an end. unfortunately, i do not think there will be an end to addiction. to have changed my

mind over the years. i would've told you as a young agent, blood in the streets of chicago, we can arrest our way out of this. i am telling you right now i think we cannot. it is important to have a robust law enforcement presence both domestically and foreign. four and is really important because we do a lot more than narcotics enforcement overseas. rule of law, institution building and places that lack that. and it can affect the security of the united states. i also want to make sure that you understand that i think we have to rethink a lot of things we are doing in the whole context of the drug issue. education, the way we are doing it right now. education of the most at risk folks. it gets me when a lot of people think the only thing we do for a localn is to invite

uniformed officer to the third grade classroom. that is important. but we need to work on our at the groups which comes from addicted people. we need to get to the people that are most at risk, yet in adults, high school kids, young professionals. people who are finding themselves in the grips of addiction. and we need to follow-up with i think universal treatment for those that want it, that need it and maybe it is not available or they cannot afford it. i'm not talking about repeat offenders, violent offenders. those problems need to be taking care of within our correctional institutions. and some of the best drug treatment programs are in prison which is alarming. i am thinking differently. i am a copy.

i do not make the law. i took the notes to enforce the law. that is up to our governing bodies to change that but i do not think it would eliminate the black market. we are beginning to see that even with domestic marijuana sales. you mentioned talking to congress. you testified before congress. you can go back to our archives to watch that testimony at c-span.org. comments on the line for those that have been impacted by opioid. from massachusetts, go ahead. caller: hello. i am a little nervous so give me a moment. personally impacted by the opioid crisis. on a personal level. it got to my soul. heroin for aed

small amount of time because of prescriptions. my doctors overprescribed me because of my tonsils being taken out. and i knew a friend that happened to be selling heroin and he told me it would take the pain away. by the time i knew it, i did not want to take it anymore. but my body needed it. my mind needed it. and i am so lucky that i had the family and friends that i did because i found recovery and i have been in recovery for three years. i have a great relationship with my daughter, my parents. i got my life back because i had great people in my life pull me back from that addiction. riley?

>> first of all, congratulations. i think what you have been through is a living hell and the way you have emerged really gets my attention. the massachusetts-new hampshire area, all of the east coast have really been almost ground zero for the opioid problems. and there are some really innovative programs going on right now and that part of the country. i can think of several in new hampshire where we are really starting to see community efforts -- where they accept this as an illness and not a crime and to make sure that we use all of the resources that we can and get the people back that want to come back. my hats are off to you, sir. >> your book is about el chapo's network but how much blame for the opioid crisis do you put on pharmaceutical companies, overprescribing doctors, or pill mills?

>> i have to tell you -- a story from a couple of years ago. i was talking to a rep in the american medical association. he said for years, physicians going through medical training were given 8-10 hours of pain management instruction through the whole training. whereas if you look at a veterinarian school, they received something like 40-80 hours on how to treat animals with pain. there is an issue, clearly, with the medical field. i know they have done a lot in the last several years to provide training for physicians to use alternatives to opioid drugs -- opioid-based drugs. you bring up an important thing. and it is a pet peeve of mine. the cozy relationship that congress sometimes has with big pharmaceutical companies, is really something we need to examine.

dea, the greatt work of the agents and the investigators would look at these large companies and, in my opinion, i wanted the executives prosecuted criminally when appropriate. and send them to jail. like the drug dealers i believe they are. but far too often, we had to settle for civil suits. a billionre suing dollar corporation and you when a civil fine of $100 million, that is like taking a truckload of narco dollars from chapo. that is built into the cost of doing business. but, if we took one of those ceos who knowingly and repeatedly violated laws and regulations and we prosecuted him criminally, i can guarantee you that a millionaire ceo in a brooks brothers suit is not going to do too well playing inmates.in a yard with

it is something we need to work on. i bring this into the realm of -- this is part of societies fabric and we have an obligation to help those that want help. >> from camp hill, alabama, bob? let me see if you are familiar with this. back a few years ago, there was about the pill mills in west virginia. two drugstores. the dea was on top of those people to stop them. 15 millionelling opioid pills in a county with a 7100 population in the whole county. pulled the deaa when they were fixing to bust

them and barack obama shut the dea down and he done it because he was getting kickback money from the drug dealers. he was involved in drugs. allowing drugs to kill 70,000 people in this country. he shut it down. >> is this something you know anything about? >> i know about the investigation and west virginia. i think there is a more striking, larger one that we took care of in south florida where we had roving pain man -- pain management clinics that would move from spot to spot. and we had people traveling down there from all of the country to get opioid and returning home and selling them. i think pill mills and pharmacies that are doing this are every bit -- let me make

this clear. every bit as guilty as the guy and heroinstol standing on the corner. we have to do a better job legislatively to make sure that we have the ability to go after them and shut them down very quickly. we of the criticisms that took was that we did not move quick enough. we can only move within the constraints of the law and the legislation. i think that is something we should look at also. come back to the el chapo story and his undoing. a passage from your book -- you people knew how much information we had collected about el chapo over the years. houses, habits, his inner circle and his tastes. can you talk about his undoing? >> for the first maybe 15 years of his dominance, he really was an old-school trafficker. he stayed off the radar.

he for the most part stayed in remote sinaloa and ran his business from there. but then, he began to make mistakes. he would come down to a more populated resort in cabo. he began to think he was invincible. he had a security apparatus that was probably as good as many mid-level city police departments in terms of his ability to collect information and move around. but towards the end, he did have a zest for women and other entertainment and in doing that, he made some mistakes. i think what is important about that part of the book and what we did was we really targeted the people around him. the way they communicated. his doctors, lawyers, his

girlfriend. all of those things were really important for us to try to build guy so weon this would have a better chance of zeroing in and working with our mexican counterparts to try to hook him up and we were able to do that twice. >> what happened after the first time? heafter the first time that had been doing what he did for 20 years, he used all of his money and influence and he dug a tunnel and rode his motorcycle ride -- right out. that was the worst day of my life. >> how did you find out? >> he had been out for about an hour and a half. it was about 2:30 a.m. in the morning and my son called me. he said -- dad, el chapo is out. i turned on the cable news and there it was. we started -- i called our command center.

had not even notified even our guys and mexico for several hours which i was not happy about. i think they thought they could apprehend him. they were trying to figure out what to do for damage control. the interesting part of that was several months before that, i had traveled i think to mexico city for a meeting and i had an opportunity to talk to the head of the federal police. we had heard some chatter or information that he might be tunneling out. i told the head of the federal police. and he looked at me like i was from mars. how dare i tell him how to do his job. and several months later, out of the tunnel he went. i thought it was strange that they held him in the same cell that he was incarcerated in and it was on the first floor. when you put two and two together of his history, was not

a good move on their part.

riley. there is so much i would love to say. i was first going to mention going back to the 1800s and the dutch american robber barons and the lpn moores -- opium wars in china in the 1800s and many people profited from it and how it will never stop. just like prostitution. the other thing i wanted to mention was the pendulum swings one way. the guy from alabama blaming obama and the tennessee drug dealer and how much they were trying to help people with chronic pain. i familiar with a person with chronic pain. it makes me think of when we were in afghanistan and the pakistani guy had to carry water to the well was addicted to heroin and how heroin is different from any other drug as far as addiction and the stigma

attached. it is delicate physical choice this person may. i need a drink today, i need to store that cocaine today. -- snort that cocaine today. there is no choice. if you're in chronic pain and you take an opioid for more than a week or two, your mind chemically changes to need the drug. that is of no doing of any person, any class, any color. i wondered if you could speak to that. paolo escobar seemed like a robin hood, loved by his people. what else was i going to mention? host: mr. riley? guest: i think you got a good point, i really do. that is why for me that heroin problem and now fentanyl which

is just alarming, 40 to 50 times stronger, a synthetic heroin so there is no growing season. they can be produced 24/7. it is also produced in china and mexico. i do agree with the caller. this is the worst addicted drug i have ever seen, and i have everybody justke ruin and decimate communities. the important thing is that understand it is now in every corner of our country. for city,t matter large, small, rural or urban, it's a problem. we as a country of to stand up and take responsibility at all levels because it is everyone's problem. it only law enforcement's, is policy makers, doctors, educators, coaches, creatures. -- preachers.

inryone has to take a role educating everyone about this and doing what we can do is communities to help the people that are unfortunately caught in it. host: patrick in south carolina good morning. caller: yes. i want to ask you about these olivers of chapo, like stone, sean hannity's movie penn and these movie stars. younger people look at them and think they are hanging around with chapo, its ok. he's a good guy. can you talk about that? guest: definitely. i think that is an important part about how we found ourselves or we are. for years i used to say hollywood can make great movies but they don't need to show people snorting coke and shooting heroin.

it sends a very conflicted message, almost as if it is being glamorized. i do agree. there is a part in the book penn andbuddy sean how that meeting with chapo put many good hard-working mexican law enforcement and to some extent u.s. agents who were helping them in peril, in jeopardy. i was very vocal at the time. i thought they should be prosecuted for obstruction of justice. claimed, and evidently the powers above me believed he was there as a journalist and therefore should be protected. i don't understand. what i was worried about is what the caller is talking about. it was not really him. it was the message he sent by

being allowed to do that and writing what i consider to be a worthless article in rolling stone. it said nothing new. his interview of chapo was such a softball. trio of asked him, is a you murdered 10,000 people and are murdering people today? you torture them a cutter has often put their bodies and acid and you kidnap young girls for your own pleasure. these are the types of people these guys are. even to connect that with legitimacy, i think it is a real mistake. host: joseph in new jersey, good morning. caller: i had a question for mr. riley. i like his take on the legalization of marijuana. this drug is considered illegal as far as the federal government is concerned, yet you have individual states passing their own laws legalizing the consumption of marijuana. yet the government nor the dea

does anything about it. host: mr. riley? guest: that's a great question. let me clarify something. misunderstood dea has nothing to do for it is legal or not legal. status of the other agencies based on science and what they look at in terms of helping being a medical assistant. all we do is enforce the regulations congress imposes on us. i do agree with you. i'm a firm believer that the cartels are involved in marijuana. at 1.i think it was a number one cash crop. as these states begin to russell with their own version of marijuana, i think they are under the false delusion it will generate long-term tax benefits for the states. in reality, they are just trying

to see the overall effect. maybe they were able to collect a billion dollars in taxes, for what they are seeing in social services, emergency room admissions, loss of productivity, car accidents in colorado are becoming more and more of people driving impaired. than the other side of it. the edibles, the oils taken, the thc extracted and is extremely potent. all of these things are byproducts of our decision at the state level to make these laws and make marijuana available. i think it is a slippery slope. that if it ispe going to be done, it is done with proper regulations and services required to keep it consistent with the law. for me, federally, we have

criteria. we still go after marijuana traffickers. don't think we don't. has always been a misconception that the dea guys are looking for guys in the basement with a bong. we go after the major organizations involved. the states, i think, we'll have to struggle with their decisions for some time to come. host: 15 or 20 minutes left with jack riley this morning. if you're in the eastern or social time (202) 748-8000. mountain or pacific, (202) 748-8001. if you have impacted by the opioid crisis, (202) 748-8002. the book is "drug warrior," jack riley about's hunt for el chapo. his 30 years fighting drug cartels. i want to ask you your thoughts

on what president trump had to say less week when he declared the national emergency on the border. his comments about how illegal drugs or boot into this country. [video] president trump: but big majority of the big drugs don't go through ports of entry. they can't go through ports of entry. you have people, some very capable people. the border patrol, law enforcement looking. you can't take human traffic, women and girls. be can't take them through ports of entry. you can't have them tied up in the backseat of a car or truck or a van. they opened the door and look. for it can't see three women with tape over the mouth or whose hands are tied. they go through areas where you have no wall. everybody knows that. nancy knows it, chuck knows it. they all know it. it is all a big lie, a big con game. you don't have to be very smart to know you put up a barrier, to

people come in and that's it. they can do anything unless they walk left or right and they find an area where there is no barrier and they come into the united states. welcome. ?ost: esther riley -- mr. riley guest: i'm not a politician. i'm just a 30-year dea agent who spent time on the border. unfortunately the statistics show the majority of the drugs, heroin, fentanyl -- fentanyl, marijuana come through existing checkpoints. it just does not in my opinion make business sense for the large cartels to move the volume of drugs through isolated areas. i do think the wall will have an effect on the illegal alien migration. i'm hoping the president does

this, that if we enhance our technology and manpower at checkpoints, i think we can make a difference. the only have to look three weeks ago. at one of our checkpoints the --gest fentanyl caesar occur seizure occurred and it was in a compartment in the floor of a truck. had we not been able to x-ray it we probably would not have been able to catch it. a guy like guzman put this together. if we are only searching up to 35% or 40% of the vehicle traffic, and there are thousands of trucks and cars they go in and out of the country every day. if they are only searching that percentage and your businessman, there's a pretty good chance of i sent 10 cars 3 were vehicles through in one day, i might get six or seven through. 300 to gete to bat . into the baseball hall of fame.

once you clear the checkpoints, you have access to major highways which is handy can take the stuff down the road. i'm not saying drugs come through on walled areas -- un walled areas, but from all the informant we have talked to, all the corroborating defendants and from legal wiretaps where we are listening to bad guys talk to bad guys and telling us what they're doing, there is not a lot of evidence that drugs come through unwalled areas. caller: i lived in south texas for about 13 years in the corpus christi area in spent time along the border. brownsville to del rio. the violence, not all of it is reported other. these guys will blow you away for the slightest reason. they are not playing.

why we are talking about allowing these folks to come across the border, they are here now, but to allow more to moving we arein and out, inviting a cancer into this country that needs to be stopped. a fortunately or unfortunately have known a lot of folks over the years. most are dead so i can name some names. a friend of mine was leasing their clients -- airplanes. when they crashed, they would turn around and buy the middle east them. these guys are working here now on connections from canada to miami. that is what it is about, the dollar. how much they can get. guest: i think he is exactly right. that is why i think on the immigration issue, yeah, much of the border already has walls and barriers. i think there are ways to do it but i don't want to dismiss enhancing the checkpoints with

technology and manpower. i think he has a very good point along the border. one of the things i was worried about the short time i was the boss in el paso was spillover violence. things that really scared me were a number of cartel people who happen to be on our side of stopped byand where a lonely deputy sheriff in the middle of nowhere everybody just going to write a speeding ticket. lowered the hold, you are dealing -- low and behold, you are dealing with these guys. that is the fear we have across the border. i do think law enforcement in general in many isolated areas has got a tough job. host: nicolas from pikeville, maryland. caller: i wanted to speak about over prescription of drugs. i understand it is the policy

makers that have scaled back the ability of doctors to prescribe various certain quantities of these pain medications. i suppose if the patient needs more, they will have to go back to the pharmacy or the doctor for a prescription. i think this model could be used for many other drugs. i believe the tremendous over prescription of drugs -- a lot of pharmaceuticals are wasted. nce the patient is given the prescription and it is filled, he cannot return any unused medications to the pharmacy. there is a tremendous waste. perhaps the model we're seeing in the pain medications can be withinross the board reason and save a tremendous amount of money.

riley?r. guest: that's a good question. one of the things dea has done over the last several years is the national take back where we provide -- i think it was some 2000 outlets in one day two or three times a year people can return unused prescriptions anonymously. then we destroy them. well, iften thought, 50 oxycontin because you have your wisdom teeth pulled and you only use four, what happens to the rest of them? our fear is the end up on the street. the other issue is there ought to be a mechanism within the medical profession to immediately turn those in. i think that is not a bad idea. it occurs everyday.

my father passed away of a pretty that cancer. he fought it for a while. when he died we went into clean out his house. how thetounded narcotics he had been prescribed over a couple of years that was still sitting in his medicine cabinet. i think that is a big issue. companies -- the pharmacy companies are getting involved in taking back unwanted prescriptions. we have to be careful with it because we don't to flush it down the toilet or dump it in the garbage because they can do some damage to the environment. that is why i think these takeback programs have been so successful and we have to continue. on thectually -- ashley life is affected by the pope your crisis. caller: i live in an area that has been highly impacted. the area has been devastated by this crisis.

what i have noticed -- i became addicted and what i found was how hard it was to get into treatment. when i went the first time they would not let me into rehab is it did not have enough of a history of encounters of trying to clean up. i see that. there is not really an interest in treatment. there seems to be more of an interest in pushing this message that this is a crisis, this is a crisis. they are using this crisis as an it as a wayushing to get people on board with changing our privacy rights in regards to health information. i have seen reports where if it wasn't for the functional -- fentanyl, the opioid medication,

it has decreased significantly in the past few years. host: mr. riley? guest: i think the whole treatment apparatus in this country really needs a tough look and needs an infusion of federal money to be dispersed. from what i have been able to see, and again i'm just a cop, i have been able to see in areas i have been impressed with what they have done is the local attention by communities or states for treatment programs that are tailored for their cities. whether it'd be urban or rural. the government to do a great job of funding some of that. treatment now is an issue, although there are some private equity companies beginning to buck of to make a blo providing good treatment. i have a friend who helps them set up clinics in hard-hit

places. it has made a difference where they have done it. this also goes back to the issue between how do we provide patients with the medicine they need but don't over -provide. i think they need to do more. i think what is important is you are beginning to see patients or family members of patients who are on chronic pain management question the amount of narcotics being prescribed. by think that is a real good thing and i hope it continues. host: staying on the line for those who have been impacted by opioids. caller: hi. about a year ago i was in a bad car accident. my legs were crushed. from the hospital i got a

seven-day supply of opioids. i'm not sure what kind now. dr. i gotrom the hand another seven day supply. i had to take those pills and ahead to break them in half because i could not get no more. after 14 days of breaking up those pills i was only on medication for a month maybe and since then the doctors -- i could never get no more prescriptions because they said they were restricted by laws. so now it is either aspirin all a friend i'm lucky, will come by or i will go to somebody's house and maybe smoke a joint. it is the thing about marijuana.

if people were allowed to grow it and spoke in their own home home,ke it in their own you would not have problems with people going to the doctor all the time trying to lie their way into getting pills. when people really need them, the don't get them because of the laws people make that they don't even understand. host: thank you for sharing your story. think,unfortunately, i again, dea agents are cops. we are not doctors. we'll prescribed or diagnose. -- we don't prescribed or diagnose. i'm worried about a physician who is intimidated and not using good medical practice because of what he perceives as restrictions. that is the balancing act we have to do. on the marijuana side, i think

that is up to the states to try to mitigate this. caller brings up a really important component. all of these things are interrelated. until we begin to connect the dots and deal with the problem in its entirety, i don't think people make substantial changes in this country. i have said this for years. this is a marathon, not a sprint. it is a deadly game on both ends. thinkk we have to really what we do, rethink what we have been doing and put the resources where they need to be to make a difference. get to bothl try to colors quickly. lee, go ahead. the thing i am concerned about, i understand this opioid crisis, killing people, getting her drugs, taking them back and selling them. what about the people that need the medicine?

they cut us off, i am bedridden because of it. at least marijuana would help. i have not had that. i know it would help me. they cut the pills. what do we do? what is the alternative for the pain? yyy aaa you know one of the things they're doing now, some of the pharmaceutical companies are putting a lot of money into this, is looking for alternatives for pain management. frankly, for the last 50 years, they never had to. they never had to invest in that because what they were producing was making money. and getting people addicted. hope thatw there is there will be some alternative medicines available that will be addictive and we will be able to you -- to ease the patient's pain. i just had an extensive knee surgery and when i came home i was dead set on not taking the

pain medicine they gave me. i made it for about an hour. i was very careful not to go very long. i ended up getting rid of most of what they gave me. it is a slippery slope in the medical profession. they are becoming aware. i hope there is some alternatives to controlling pain. host: last call. mississippi. go ahead. caller: good morning. i want to say it is an honor to speak with someone who has served our country so diligently. successful in bringing down such a violent person. question?you have a caller: just an anecdote about living with someone who was addicted to heroin. i moved to florida a few years , i had anwas

apartment and i was looking for a roommate. i love these folks to move in with me. after they moved in, i learned they were addicted to heroin. it was really shocking to watch how they would constantly be in this position of not having enough pills because they would trade pills to other people, they would exceed their dosage. every month, it would be the same story. they would start out in a good place and have enough pills and by the last week, week .5 they would -- 1.5 weeks, they would start going through withdrawals, spent their time thinking about when to see the doctor next, it would go on and on. eventually i got rid of them because they were stealing money from me. with someone else moving me was also addicted to heroin, but she was on something called and she -- i watched her go through withdrawals over the course of several weeks and

she successfully kicked her habit and was able to move on with her life. host: thanks. first of all, thank you for your kind words. i want to clarify i did not single-handedly do anything. with honored to work ,undreds of heroic dea agents policemen, and prosecutors. it was an honor to do that. i think what you are describing is what a lot of people go through. having witnessed that, you understand the depths of what addiction can be. and how it can control people's lives and change their destiny. i think it goes back to the company dated way we have to do something. we definitely need a law-enforcement involved domestically and overseas, which is crucial. we have to look at how do we identify and get treatment and help to the people who want it. the people who need it. and try to get to the medical

profession and all the other public service people to think cohesively on how to do it. i heard the color say that she was in an auto accident. theyaw two surgeons and both prescribed things. clearly, they were not talking to each other. again, that sometimes leads to over -- overprescribing. this is a complex issue we will deal with forever. i think everybody that calls and today has got a good point about something. had,w from the job that i there is so many people out there in law-enforcement risking their lives everyday and they believe they are doing it to help people. i certainly did. and still do. host: the book is inside the hunt for el chapo. the author, jack riley.

>> on newsmakers, heather wilson. you can watch the interview sunday. here on c-span. i admire him because he is

fallible and because he will that. the united states military upgradesher and memoirs. is is a had the physical body and to the reserves of energy left in the determination to get every last ounce of strength to the memoirs because you don't want to write his memoirs initially.

quest sunday night at 8:00 eastern on q&a. governor gives the state of the state address where he looks at education, health care, and infrastructure investment. he is term limited after winning reelection in may be considering a presidential run after making recent trips to iowa. [applause] gentlemen, i have the high honor and the great tovilege of introducing you the governor of montana.