wow not walk the streets. do you. know walk the street. i can see. the. st joseph. 66th st. jude. oklahoma in the heart of america one of the most deeply afflicted states in the

opioids addiction crisis oklahoma might change the course of history. for the 1st time in the united states a doctor will be sued by the state for 2nd degree murder for over prescribing opioids here's the accused that to reconnect calls. a family doctor for over 22 years she is now suspected of being a prescription murderer. the judge has to ascertain if there is enough material to go to trial. the plaintiffs in the row have lost a child a brother a friend from an opioid overdose. dr nichols was their doctor she was the one prescribing the drugs.

let him serve unbox i'm an attorney at oklahoma city i practice cripple defense i've got a police officer and i've been a prosecutor and i've been a judge i've been here all my life born and raised in oklahoma. provided the hard to the oil production we're right on the edge of we're cowboys are that and so we've got a lot of people in here that are hard working people and it's a pretty peaceful city as far as that goes. in box knows these roads inside out and who's on 1st name terms with the local people all his career he's defended this community but to date the clients have changed before i was having people from more the poverty level and i have people all walks of life i have lawyers i have doctors children that become addicted to the opiates now it's every level in every area of life is for is for the low income high income. all of what effected by the opiate

use. he represents several families from this town everyone has lost a relative deceased if a cardiac arrest following a painkiller overdose drugs prescribed by dr nicholas. tough enough it really is this and. this oklahoma city lawyer has never seen a case like this and you victim wants to press charges. to come in and see you can see you. have a seat and that marshall has been raising her 2 children alone since her husband died of a painkiller overdose my math shows that's 99 per day that she would prescribe him and he passed away and got my 2nd. one in 20122012. he was a fireman she works in education counselor a regular family. all it took was back surgery to turn everything over in

a few months her husband became addicted to the painkillers prescribed by dr nichols of course once you have that surgery it's never quite the same and then they get some other treatment anyhow and you know it's another issues with just on the judge just injuries it from being to having such a physical job and i think it just snowballed you know he persisted with the pain but instead of trying to wean him off though she did those after dose after dose after dose and really became his drug dealer. more drugs than the regular drug dealers of the street would prescribe but she's doing it in the name of medicine. according to her doctor nicholas would swiftly see patients without any physical exam a few dollars for a prescription her husband would have been prescribed $100.00 pills a day $3000.00 a month the doctor should have been the response well course and they're trained

and that's what their job is is to make sure they're treating you in a healthy manner and they're doing what's best for you and not what's going to bring harm to you. it happens to just your next door neighbor to your uncle missy firefighters here comma city police officer to your school teacher to your you know it's a it's not a it's not a disease that is specific it could hit anybody. how come opioids invaded america pain has become a market and the idea of not suffering even likely is a gift in drug stores that look like fast food anyone can shop for pain killers physical or psychological a pain killer exists for almost any reason. imagine facing the day with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine with less pain. amongst the pain killers on prescriptions or the

opioids usually prescribed for back aches or headaches 2000000 americans are addicted to these pills for a reason that most ignore their opium based. i'm jason b. minute and i am the chair of psychiatry at oklahoma state university's center for health sciences our oath is essentially 1st do no harm and i think that that's one of the biggest problems is that doctors don't realize that by prescribe opioids. that they could doing more harm than good and we've seen that in a lot of a lot of cases what with the originally prescribed for well historically the uses been for what we call cancer pain cancer does a lot of horrible things street your body and can cause a lot of pain nowadays it's used for a lot of different things these pills. are

found to know other drugs that are legally sold on the market share the same component a powerful narcotic heroin and sometimes they are a 1000 times more concentrated. the opioid compound comes from a plant called the opium poppy and these plants are really grown mostly in asia and then they're imported by drug companies into the united states but what we do with the pills is we take the good parts of the flour that you would smoke and we concentrate them in a little pill. and so the pills are much more potent than smoking ever was but in the united states we outlawed the smoking of opium in the early 1900 if you get a 3 day per script there's a 13 percent chance that you'll be taking those opioids

a year later so whether it's a few prescriptions or a few pills it's a very small amount that it takes to get addicted. to the left a lethal dosage of heroin to the right it's equivalent to opium samples. to date you know something for your pain talk to your doctor. to be able to not feel pain has become a tacit agreement between doctor and patient this is what price. these drugs are ticking bombs who's aware of that fact did dr nichols know. a wrongful death lawsuit was filed today against a midwest city doctor regen nichols is already accused are prescribing a massive amount of opioids to 5 patients who later died when i heard that there

was 4 other deaths then i think oh good evening oh midwest city doggie doctor i'm homeless tonight 3000000 jobs davis i'm just reading and listening to the raising as many times you should stop and he. was very happy shout and read question on t.v. oh. we don't know where it was said because this is from the doctor and he did she harm i didn't know any internet i met a man why america should surrender men and marriage to. a met. you. mean these are navy have spent their entire life in this house this is where their daughter chelsea was born 21 years ago here also that she passed away as a painkiller overdose in 2013 their story is one of an analgesic burdened family

hiding in the secret and shame with addiction. she's headed for back surgeries dr nichols was liza's doctor for 7 years she was the 1st to fall into the trap when i 1st started seeing her i thought she was going to be ok and she was giving me pain medicine to help my back but as the years go by course your body gets used to that medicine so that it doesn't work you know you used to take one pill. you know and now you're having to say 2 or 3 pain pills because the pain is so bad. so it just increase and it's just a vicious cycle because you know you've got to have the medicine but you know you don't want to have to take that much medicine but you can't i could work and do my job if i didn't have as. much as lisa had her own

addiction what she didn't know is that her daughter was doing the same thing for 3 years chelsea had diabetes which causes muscular pains it was her turn to consult with dr nichols. night i asked her about the quantity of medicine she was given her and her response to me was chelsea was an adult that she couldn't talk to me about chelsea's medical but she could talk to me about chelsea's diabetes but she wouldn't talk to me about. the medication that she was i did trust her maybe money for you or. maybe just that the love of money maybe could get to her because i know that when she chose to be a doctor i would say i don't want it and she chose to want to help people.

i i i i . so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be an arms race off and spearing dramatic development only i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk.

there's a war of hope of the global solution of the whole new leader. of the. sentiment but it sounds the guy. was only as a name for almost any of those almost. with the newest do you see both of you so. the point was to be used to move the book with those ghost discussing the films with use of these is the play that you see with the media of course treatment.

and we met dr nichols almost a year ago i think she has a very good heart she wants to help people maybe a little awkward but she's got a really sweet heart my name's tommy adler i'm in a criminal defense attorney here in oklahoma city we represent dr ragan nichols or i really like her very much. doctors lose patients all the time. to accuse a doctor of of acting in reckless disregard for her pace. when we believe that she was genuinely attempting to care for them. is a big step for the government that say. that exposes doctors to a lot of risk troubled people these patients were abusing the things that they had access to. it wasn't the amounts that dr nichols prescribed these people that killed them it was the announcer they decided to. speak to. her

line of defense is set to shift away the shadow of responsibilities dr nichols was an irreproachable professional who was duped by drug addicts and she never had any awareness that her patients were facing any danger whatsoever nowadays in oklahoma city addiction can be seen at every corner. i think america got here because we are the most medicated country in the world klein we are a country of fast food quick fixes now now i now feel bad here's a pill her here's a pill. dysfunction here's a pill all of those things are right there at the doctor's head pain is good pain

or mines is that we're alive. he went to the center as a patient since then he's become the head of the facility in order to save others like himself everyone here has to learn to live without pain killers this private ranches 30 places a year it receives 40 requests a day at 21 years old kyle is in rehab for the 1st time. sub rather. i'm good well cool man are you feeling. u.s. state planes will say this is your eddie all right ron. get your mom in here and we'll get we'll get everything started. right after you guys. has been to college and he's the father of a little boy. but 4 years ago he became addicted to opioids and then heroin.

writes opiates heroin and oxycontin anything else now ok and this is the 1st treatment on right is alright are you feeling very emotional i actually. the motion of everybody she's waiting for her boy to come back. is going to take cal bout 30 days for you to really begin to see a change. so is life and death man there's only 3 ways out of this which is get sober which is what i pray for you on the 2nd one is is prison if you're lucky. 3rd one is. the berry. i don't know how else to say it but i'm at my end i can't do that said norm or as.

our own so much that i would rather not see. them who are more at this moment i don't know. really would be out of the. call to good care or. kyle has 90 days to learn to live without opioids. and how it feels a war like love my body is a us law. my thought process it's slow. and just about a lot of anger and down a lot of satin lotions and they assist out ok keep my lotions in one place. you know it's. her i just love the little bit.

one of our friends and it's all of us friends and. after that. we in my friends kind of stuck together and were doing these pills and it was just blocking out so much pain or so stressed out. fighting back tears every day i think that's how i wanted to think it was just blocking out that pain. and it made me feel good it made me forget it. actually helped me out with a lot of things depend on it. i was. that was my girl you know that was my love and then. just this last year like too many too many bad things of loss

for family and that wasn't enough wasn't enough the right room changes and mentally in my head by now it's gotten close to suicide. these pills are. a. little. just like tobacco addiction the dangers of opioids have been hidden it is taken 20 years for the government to take action for financial these. in my office while the lawsuit against purdue pharma. allergan

so long and janssen pharmaceuticals. in putting this lawsuit together. we believe these companies are culpable for the tragic heartbreaking number of oklahomans who have become addicted or who have died as a result of the opioid epidemic in our state. he's the oklahoma attorney general and the 1st one in his country to go to battle. my counter is publicly accusing pharmaceutical companies of having caused this epidemic. he wanted to prove that he and his team have been investigating for more than a year. yes my name is regina whitman the attorney here in oak on the city . in my mind this model burrage i while you're in oklahoma.

carol hunter hired my law firm verged to represent the state of oklahoma and. try to recoup all of the costs that the state has incurred because of the opioid epidemic we've this person. and. i think we're going to be able to prove that 80 percent of all the crime in the state of oklahoma is directly caused by this opioid epidemic in our prisons are over feel because of the loss of productivity of taxpaying citizens costs the state money but i'm anxious to get this 1st this 1st battle started what they did to this country. it's pretty amazing.

their estimates bring the cost of the epidemic to $7000000000.00 in oklahoma. city this is a story called hearing will take place in a few days. today reggie which will explain his motivations to a group of students that this struggle is a personal one. partner a gene has been involved in the opioid addiction the opioid crossus ever since the death his son brian and i had a nice that also related to drugs and so when the attorney general talked to us about representing the state. in this case. i think he knew that we both had family members that because of the epidemic. we're going to talk to the incoming freshman athletes at the university of oklahoma

i'm going to tell on. the story about my son brandon and that's the power of addiction and how dangerous it is. and. maybe. save somebody's life. i think i got a chance to shake almost everybody's hand when you came in i was trying to figure out what sport you are it's hard to guess every sport from your you know your size but thank you guys for coming so let me introduce you to my co speaker tonight this is brandon. and ran is not here today and i'll tell you why later this is me when i was at o. u. and i had this young son also when i had more hair. was a cute little kid brand his plan was to go to college and play football which he

did. he ended up playing on a national championship football team never got in any kind of trouble in the drug that brought him down. and it did not come from the streets it came from a pharmacy i just told him stop using those pills and i found that it's not that easy i found out it's like telling a diabetic to use more willpower and stop needing insulin you can't do that that's crazy. i never told him about addiction i never warned him. and so now i i have survivor guilt now but i'm living with it so i started a foundation called fighting addiction through education because i think education is the key to this problem when i tell this story is schools it gets so quiet you

could hear a pin drop. and they're not really interested in me they're interested in brandon but i show pictures of him he was one of them he's just ordinary kid and if an ordinary kid like brandon can end up getting hooked they could and that is the truth these pills that big pharma sells. they're essentially heroin pills most people don't know that but these opioids are essentially the same this here one that's the key telling patients that they're not addictive that's the killer literally please thank you guys for being a good audience and i'm hoping some of the information i've shared with you today might help you in a good way. richie

son never managed to quit. there is someone responsible for his misery. pharmaceutical. is you'll be via reflection of reality. in a world transformed. what will make you feel safe. isolation community. are you going the right way or are you being that. way. what is true what is faith. in the world corrupted you need to descend. to join us in the depths.

or inmate in the shallowness. i didn't want to listen to or. probably have. back seems have to be acceptable people point to a show. before they wrote down to society because. there is a real risk undermining faith in the vaccination system. and i think governments are under such pressure to introduce a vaccine. that the willingness to consult to ensure acceptability is somehow the new road.

but with oppose. this bill for the last time we chased. each one of them carrying 20 kilos 'd of drugs. first offense. they just stopped working for. it's the 3 we have mean. they have this is the this is for me. it will be up well i don't know maybe they'll get a make or. break right.

now. in the headlines this saturday germany says it's accepted moscow's request to cooperate on a probe into the alleged poisoning of office figurehead i would say in the army as the issue fires of german lawmaker. at a debate in parliament why does novell need such a level of protection from the security services. parts of the putin system why would the russian government be so stupid that and even let me fly out to germany instead of hiding him in russia. you know about activists restart their rallies across france to find a ban on large gatherings scores of arrests high.