in the opioids addiction crisis. that 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 hears the accused not to reconnect calls. a family doctor for over 22 years she's now suspected of being a prescription matter or. the judge has to ascertain if there is enough material to go to trial dr nichols was their doctor she was the one prescribing the trucks. let him serve unbox i'm an attorney in oklahoma city i practice crippled events 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 hardship of the oil production we're right on the edge of we're cowboys are that is 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. box knows these roads inside out and who's on 1st name terms with the local people all his career he's descended this community but today the confines have changed before i was having people from more the poverty level and i have people of all walks of life i have lawyers i have doctors children that become addicted to the opiates every level in every area of life is for is for the low income high and. all of what affected by the opiate use . he represents several families from this town everyone has lost a relative deceased of a cardiac. arrest following

a painkiller overdose drugs prescribed by dr nichols. books about. this oklahoma city lawyer has never seen a case like this and you victim wants to press charges. you can 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 by meth shows that's 99 per day that she would prescribe you know best way. 220122012. 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 got to 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 a matter 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 just goes 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 dr nichols which 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 person they're trained in 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 miltie

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 if you get 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 and 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 a lot of cases what were they originally prescribed for well historically the uses been for what we call cancer pain that cancer does a lot of horrible things are body and can cause a lot of pain nowadays it's used for a lot of different things these pills. are found to no 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 a 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 a quick lived 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 a 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 said oh good evening the midwest city documentary i'm

homeless tonight 3000000 jobs davis i'm just reading and listening to the dr raising this many times you should stop and he. was very happy she got a rest question on t.v. oh. yeah i don't know where it was said was this is from 3 doctors i mean did she harm i didn't know any internet i met a man why america should search for the man and marriage to. a met. you. mean these are innate he has spent her entire life in this house this is where the daughter chelsea was born 21 years ago here also that she passed away at the painkiller overdose in 2013 their story is one of an analgesic burden family hiding in the secret and shame of addiction. she's headed for

a back surgery 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 page bill and now you're having states 2 or 3 pain pills because the pain is so bad. so it just increase 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. and i asked her about the quantity of medicine she was giving her and her response to me was chelsea was an adult that she could 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. i did trust her maybe money feeder if you will. maybe just that the love of money maybe that's where because i know that when she chose to be a doctor i would bet on it that she chose to want to help people. by the pandemic no certainly no borders just by 2 nationalities.

as a matter. of the black sea. fleet. judgment coming crisis with this until. we can do better we should be. everyone is contributing a general way but we also know that this crisis will not go on forever the challenges crave the response has been so many good people are helping us. it makes us feel very proud that we're in it together. as the u.s. economy was booming gaining numbers of people when they made homeless. you can work 40 hours 'd in a week and still not have enough to get housing everybody believes america still is the leader bob that's the reality of it is we're not financially quantity and the

lack of the affordable housing living minimum wage give many people no choice. that's been a problem with the city knows turn. cold to stay away all this. stuff the food that is the way it's because it's the requires. the most vulnerable in abandoned on the streets to become the invisible cliques. 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. acting in reckless disregard for her patients when we believe that she was genuinely attempting to care for them. is a big step for the government that's a. that exposes doctors to a lot of risk newsgroup trouble 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 amounts that they decided to take. 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. we are a country of fast food quick fix is now now i now feel bad here's a pill her here's a pill tell this function here's a pill all those things are right there at a doctor's pay pay is good pain or mindless that were 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 or other.

i'm good well cool man are you feeling. this. all right ron. or did your mom in here and will did will get everything started. right after you guys. are. 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 you know ok and this is the 1st treatment on right all right are you feeling very emotional. the motion of everybody she's waiting

for her boy to come back. it's going to take about 30 days for you to really begin to see a change. this is live and 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 bury. i don't know how else to say it but on them right and i can't do this in the room or as. our own so much rather not see how. them who are for the small start i don't know. really will be on the one. who. are all through to get here. kyle has 90 days to learn to live without opioids.

and how it feels a war like my body is a lot of. my thought process it's slow. and just about a lot of anger and me around a lot of sad i'm oceans of me is just i can't keep my emotions in one place and you know on top of. her i just are of the little bit. one of our friends and for all of us for ins and. after that. we are friends kind of stuck together in. were doing these pills and it was just

blocking out so much pain or so stressed out and. fighting back tears every day i think that's how i got him thinking it was just blocking out that pain. and you feel good it made me forget it. actually helped me out with a lot of things depend. i was that was my girl you know that was well loved and then. just this last year like to me tell me about things of loss for family and that wasn't enough that wasn't enough to. change. mentally in my head i've gotten close to suicide. you know these pills are creating monsters. i don't think that they should be legal. just like tobacco addiction the dangers of opioids have been hidden it has taken 20

years for the government to take action for financial reasons. in my office while the lawsuit against her do for my. knowledge and so full on 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 up in. amec 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. in order to prove that he and his team have been investigating for more than a year. is my name is regina whitman i'm an attorney here in oklahoma city and my time is model burrage i am my lawyer in oklahoma. carol hunter hired my law firm whitman burrage 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 need this person is a. case. 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 field 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. is from. their estimates bring the cost of the epidemic to $7000000000.00 in oklahoma. this is storm cool 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 reiji has been involved

in the opioid addiction the opioid crisis ever since the death his son brian and i had a nice that also related to drugs and so when the attorney general talked about representing the state. in this case. thank you knew that we both had family members and because of the epidemic. we're going to talk to incoming freshman athletes at the university of oklahoma i'm going to tell a. story about my son brandon. that 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 saying when you came in i was trying to figure out what sport you are it's hard yes every sport from your you know your size but thank you guys for coming. so let me introduce you to my co speakers and this is brandon. and moran 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 and 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. and 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 out

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 and 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 at schools it gets so quiet you could hear a pin drop and they're not really interested in me they're interested in brandon 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 here with pills most people don't know the 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 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.

tax rises financial survival guide stacey let's learn about fill out let's say i'm not so i get. grease on banks have to fight well street fraud thank you for. the story that's right. that's slavery. we've named mom. when we. didn't look good to. see usual love just thought. yes it was good to go but that isn't what i would do i. thought it would.

even against. his person with your don't. believe in it and. join me every thursday on the alex salmond shill and i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics sports business i'm sure. i'll see you then. scenario that i'm dead careless got married another researcher to be. reunified where a marriage weapon of mass communication is spreading into the

glare and intense way to marry the danger threatened and of entities that are resenting the little devices more than 12000000000 contaminated conjured if you don't need to know about that to your mother mary already against alternative visionary foster already you'll start to question all of america where he excelled the area i related to nominate is where i'm going to create an appropriate a media narrative a undercover integrated essay about osiris or larry if you will get exposed to a particular case waived decontaminate your library was alcohol use for years and for a better everything to. track down where narrow

you can defend yourself i enjoyed of the ones from the weapons of mass communications. thanks for the teen girls give the enemy up things or do you fear air it's. wrong. players. play.

in the week's top stories it's revealed that the u.s. state department was actually warned by julian a song about the massive leaks of documents prompting calls out to washington to pardon the wiki leaks founder. also the turkish president his out of washington for sanctions imposed over and purchase of a russian missile defense system. so what kind of an alliance is this this decision is an open attack on the sovereign rights of our country. the daughter of iran's former military chief assassinated by the u.s. this year gives an emotional 1st.