one of the ironic and sad thing is we see people like cory monteith and mr.et out of treatment after a short period of time of staying sober and maybe battling the addiction and winning for a long period of time. while their tolerance is low they go back to using and overdose. their body is not used to the same quantities of the drugs. >> there are a lot of options out there. and it's a lot cheaper than other option too to use heroin now? >> is it. as your story pointed out. the past stories you have done. it has to do with young people who are struggling with these drugs. they normally come in through the prescription route, no doubt. but these -- getting heroin on the street out here, it's tar heroin. in new york it's china white and the pure kind of forms. but what ends up happening is it's cheaper and sometimes easier to get. it's difficult to get oxycontin on the street and more expensive. they move on to heroin. affluent children, kids, 16, 17, 18 years old who get into the prescription medication first and find the heroin is cheaper for them. >> and er

hoffman or cory monteith.it does illustrate clearly that this is a disease that knows no boundaries. >> reporter: after john's death his mom started open hearts, open eyes, a facebook based forum for children and parents dealing with heroin addiction. she is also trying to push for kits which reverse the effects of an overdose to be made more widely available. she is motivated to keep kids alive because she misses her son terribly. >> every moment of every day. >> felt like no one can stop me. >> reporter: gabby has been clean almost three years. eshe spent two years in prison for heroin possession. those two years she says saved her life. some of her old friends, however, are still using heroin. she worries they may not be as lucky. >> our thanks to ted. stories like that one and philip seymour hoffman's death bringing attention to an alarming trend we have been talking about. great to have you with us. let me start with you. there are reports that hoffman's partner, they had three children toorlth, had kicke

last year it was young "glee" actor cory monteith. he overdosed on a mix of heroin and alcohol.apartment not har from hoffman, heath ledger succumbed to a mixture of drugs and alcohol. >> it's pervasive in hollywood and it's an epidemic in hollywood. >> reporter: hoffman's legacy will live on in his award-winning films. >> it was too painful. >> reporter: and in several new releases due out later this year. >> it actually keeps the -- you know, if you just go to what you need to go to, the gratitude stays instead of the cynical thing that will start to wear on you. >> reporter: nypd sources tell abc news their top priority now is tracking the origin of that heroin and determining its purity. a toxicology report on hoffman is expected next month. john and marci? >> devin, thank you. his tragic passing casts light on the dangerous growing use of heroin in the u.s. heroin usage has increased 45% and concern over heroin mixed with potent painkiller fentanyl. 22 people died in western pennsylvania after using the drug mix but it does not appear hoffman's death was linked to the combi

last summer "glee" star cory monteith overdosed pushing it back into the spotlight. you're asking why the resurgence? it's inexpensive. the crackdown has sent many looking for alternatives. unlike prescription drugs, heroin is far from regulated. it's often cut with unknown substances. investigators found baggies marked with ace of spades and ace of hearts. common street brands of drugs are known as these ace types. police are looking at whether the heroin was tainted. >>> former second lady joan mondale has passed away. described as a traditional political wife, she was known as joan of art. former vice president walter mondale served under jimmy carter from 1977 to 1981. yesterday he released a statement about his wife's passing saying, quote, he is grateful for the expressions of love we received. joan was greatly bofd by many. we will miss her dearly. joan also advocated for equal pay between men and wimp. she is survived by her husband and two sons. joan mondale was 83 years old. >>> for hillary clinton, any chance she'll be hearing the phrase madam president in

last year it was cory monteith. a year earlier, whitney houston.ffman heath ledger to a cocktail of prescription drugs >> with the death of hoffman we see how drugs are pervasive in hollywood. >> the legacy will live on in his award winning films. in several releases due out this year. >> it keeps gravity. if you go to what you need to go to, gravity stays. >> hoffman was privacy. >> we have breaking news a convicted can ier has been captured in indiana. a 40-year-old broke out last night, last seen in indiana. investigators say he car jacked a woman that was able to escape from him. and called authorities from the rest room. he was serving a life term in 1993 >> details of nelson mandela's will being released today he left behind $4.1 million, beneficiaries include family, and schools he attended and the political party that now governs south africa. the former south african president died at age 95. >> and taking a look at a man from mexico claiming to have been lost 13 months. he turned up in a damaged 26 foot boat in the south pacific on thursd

. >> not just philip seymour hoffman and cory monteith fought addition.eroin use has jumped 80%, close to 670,000 people using today and its use getting younger. its use still less popular than cocaine and marijuana. much of america's heroin actually comes from mexico. second largest sploir after afghanistan. it is the northeast and the great lakes region that consider heroin one of their biggest threats. meanwhile in other parts of the country meth or cocaine are the bigger problem. overdoses and deaths in some places. frankly other drugs are just now harder to get. crack downs on prescription pills. a bag costs as little as $6. one in four people become addicted, users underestimate its power and they sadly overdose. >> thank you jonathan. let's bring dr. carl williams into this conversation. he is the chief medical examiner in allegheny county. he is investigating a fentanil overdose. what does it do to heroin? i'm assuming it makes it more potent. >> yes, it does. fentanil is a drug that was invented in the '70s. all narcotics are based on the morphin

of course, we were reminded by that when cory monteith died from "glee," circumstances that were similarfman in a category like no others. 46 years old and academy award winner. there was a twitter message from "time" magazine. a lot of deaths feel sad. philip seymour hoffman feels like a robbery. >> it's tragic, very sad. hold tight for a second. i want to bring in reporter michelle turner, also there in new york. michelle, this news clearly hitting everyone like a ton of bricks. a talented actor, still in the midst of projects ongoing. this discovery made in his west village apartment. his body with a needle in his arm, found unconscious. what do you know? what are your sources telling you? >> what brian is saying. sometimes deaths are tragic, this one feels like a robbery, definitely the reverberation i'm hearing. i'm at metlife where the super bowl will be played later this evening. the word has just started to spread here and they were shocked. talking about philip seymour

i don't mean to take away anything or say anything callous, but there is an element to -- with cory monteithif you shoot heroin and you don't give it up for a little, and you come back, that's kind of what's happened with all three of my friends earlier, they did too much later. their body wasn't ready for it, or just their demons caught up with them or whatever. i don't even like to say demons that way. >> that's what they are, they all talk about it in that way. is there also, it's not about being harsh, but perhaps realistic. if you have children, if you have families, loved ones and so on, is there a degree of selfishness to coming back if you're an addict into that world again? >> absolutely. i mean, addiction is all about being selfish, do a certain extent. and so -- it's about this crazy brain, if we try to figure out, you try to numb sometimes and try to cope or just -- whatever it is, and you try to have fun or whatever, but yeah -- >> for those of you who have never been addicted to alcohol or drugs or whatever, what is that feeling when you maybe have been incredibly well behaved

. >> a star of the popular show "glee" found dead in his hotel room in vancouver, the body of cory monteithlayed finn was found by the hotel staff. >> there you have it, each and every one of those celebrity deaths was caused by substance abuse, why doesn't hollywood take a stand to stop this trend? the independence co-host on our sister network, the fox business network, and also from nextgeneration.tv, cory fields. this is just a small list. we can go back to elvis, janis joplin and work our way through a lot more names, why? >> i think people in hollywood don't live in reality, they have lots of enablers, yes men around them. they don't have to face the consequences. if they get in trouble with drugs, they don't go to prison like everyone else. they hire a great attorney, and they end up in some beautiful resort in malibu for rehab. there are no consequences, they don't live in the same world we all live in. >> kennedy, i have to be honest. you look at the media, they build us up, they love taking the guys down. >> it's consumers of media, it's not just the media that decides. it's justi

>> also cory monteith from "glee," the autopsy found traces of heroin in his body. the addiction that people don't think of philip seymour hoffman, as the face of heroin addiction, and with the media coverage and celebrities coming forward and grieving mourning his passing, people may realize this isn't something they think can just affect one person. the face of heroin addiction isn't just one face. i think that's a good message to put out there. as people continue to mourn and grieve, and it's very unexpected. i don't think a lot of people were expecting, you know, people in hollywood are just completely shocked. >> general, what about that? i mean, the pop culture impact here? >> well, it's a problem. our msnbc viewers need to understand, if you've got a heroin addiction and you're a family among your employees or diversion of pain pills, treatment is effective. it's astonishing how well we can do with methadone, new drug vivitrol combined with counseling, but one of the ways to get over a tragic death of an actor, you've got to stay in relapse prevention. so he'

keith ledger comes to mind, whitney houston, cory monteith, amy winehouse, all extraordinary talents, their lives cult so short battling a monster that is oftentimes just too hard to defeat. dr. drew pinsky host of hln's "dr. drew." i want to pull these up. since you are in new york, you woke up to these two big headlines. >> super bowl monday and these are what the front page of the daily news and the "new york post." this is one of the last photographs taken in january of him. >> we should remind ourselves that because this gentleman had a chronic medical condition we call addiction, it does not diminish him as a person, as a father or his legacy he has left behind. it is something we have to constantly remind ourselves about. this was a wonderful human being with a terrible illness, such as cancer. >> he was sober for so long. >> it is always lifelong. even if he was, the population that relapses after many, many years, a very challenging population to treat. the disease knows too much and it takes advantage of that z i want to make sense for people. what's being found in his apart

and sometimes in the lives of cory monteith and philip seymour hoffman, a, they don't have the supportsing that's the case here but it's tricky and hard to deal with. when the sufferer can make sobriety their number one priority, they can have success. they can stay sober. >> adi, is there too much glamour with heroin and other drugs? somehow they seem to -- the people who engage in them, okay -- i'm not going to name names but we know who they are. they are in the new york post all the time. it's almost like it's okay. it's almost like we don't have any moral -- you know, as steve said, once you get into the cycle of addiction, it is just about the hardest thing in the universe and you've got to have a lot of help. have we put our moral guard down? >> you know, i think this is something that steve might be a really great person to talk about because i deal mostly with normal individuals. they might be vice presidents or ceos or cfos of companies. i think there's an extra add element that happens when you're a celebrity. part of your job is to be in the public eye, to have people see an

last year, actor cory monteith, overdosing on heroin and alcohol.nd in a bathroom with cocaine in her blood. in an apartment not far from hoffman, heath ledger. >> hoffman's legacy will live on in his award-winning films. >> and some several new releases due out later this year. >> it actually keeps the gratitude -- you know, if you just go to what you need to go to, the gratitude stays instead of the cenacle thing that can wear on you. >> sources tell abc news their top priority is tracking the origin of that heroin and determining its purity. a toxicology report is expected next month. john and marci. >> devon, thank you. hoffman's death sheds light on the growing use in the u.s. heroin overdoses increased 45% in past years. concern has risen with heroin mixed with fent nal. it does not appear hoffman's death was linked to the combination. >> the big story this morning is the recapture of an escaped convict in indiana. michael elliott on the run for 24 hours before taken into custody last night. police caught him after reporting a stolen car. now

as you remember last year during the summer, cory monteith of "glee" also overdosed on heroin.kind of pardon possible of what we saw -- it is kind of part and parcel of what we saw, people abusing oxycontin, ,ydrocodone, which are opioids the same type of drug as heroin, which is an opiate. host: has it been a situation where we have prescription drug problems that are coming under control and people are looking for something else now? actually, what happened is all these people get addicted to the pain pills, the oxycodone, the oxycontin, so the u.s. realize what was happening there was a huge countdown, suite have these things called pill mills like in florida, and doctors would prescribe thousands and thousands of these pills, people would drive up the interstate and sell them in kentucky, tennessee, north carolina, and the law- enforcement kind of got a hold of this and started shutting it down. startedill mills disappearing, states adopted things like description drug monitoring programs, which monitor how much of the oxycodone and the oxycontin you are getting, and puts i

as you remember last year during the summer, cory monteith of "glee" also overdosed on heroin. it is kind of pardon possible of what we saw -- it is kind of part and parcel of what we saw, people abusing oxycontin, ,ydrocodone, which are opioids the same type of drug as heroin, which is an opiate. host: has it been a situation where we have prescription drug problems that are coming under control and people are looking for something else now? actually, what happened is all these people get addicted to the pain pills, the oxycodone, the oxycontin, so the u.s. realize what was happening there was a huge countdown, suite have these things called pill mills like in florida, and doctors would prescribe thousands and thousands of these pills, people would drive up the interstate and sell them in kentucky, tennessee, north carolina, and the law- enforcement kind of got a hold of this and started shutting it down. startedill mills disappearing, states adopted things like description drug monitoring programs, which monitor how much of the oxycodone and the oxycontin you are getting, and

cory monteith. we had dr.er than a lot of other -- >> what they're seeing, almost respiratory arrest with this particular mix. it's a lesson for everybody. people are claimed every day by virtue of heroin abuse. but when you see philip seymour hoffman at 46 with little kids, one of the most incredible -- small kids that were at the playground as he was dying in his bathroom in the lower west side of manhattan, it brings home just the utter, utter chaos and horror of this. >> we don't know what happened, right? >> we don't. >> sometimes i drug addict, you say one more time. it could have been -- the needle was still in the arm. what was going in there that killed him instantly -- >> they got a search warrant, they found 44 envelopes. the law enforcement will be looking hard to see can they find the man or woman that provided him with these drug as soon as i guarantee you that person will be indicted if they find it. that's the missing ingredient. >> they don't care about that. >> what's the follow-up? what's th