by contrast, oxycontin sells for about $6 a tablet in pharmacies. personally, he will never forget the very chilling phone call i received one night from a constituent of mine who told me that his son had had a gun put to his head because he couldn't pay the street price any longer for his oxycontin. so what is the answer? i believe my legislation the ryan creedin act and the top oxy abuse act are good starting points. my goal is to improve proscriber education by getting doctors, dentists, nurse practice tissuers in and other practicers up to speed that powerful drugs such as oxycontin are to treat severe pain only, not moderate pain like a toothache or a sore knee. in far too many cases, addiction becomes a much greater health threat than the original pain itself. and in far too many cases, death is a final result of failed rehab. let's not continue to blame this on gram ma in and her medicine chest. she knows better. and in our hearts americans do too. i'm happy to recognize the gentleman from north carolina, the ranking member of our subcommitte

if you have reported narcotics, oxycontin. knowing just from here have a heck of a lot of data. why aren't we doing every week another intervention at another pharmacy. it seems like it is a target rich environment. >> we are. we have active investigation as cross the country based on complaints and our arcos data. some times the arcos data it might show up with a pharmacy that is indeed a legitimate pharmacy that has the a high volume. the reason they have a high volume or next to a hospital, oncology. >> i can imagine a cross tab. the variables we find aassociate yalted with, you know, again, google with analagy rhythm would data mind, are you formally data mining. >> we look at arcos data on a regular basis. we look at the top 50, top 100 in different areas of the country. we make sure we do background. make sure that those pharmaciep, wholesalers are operating within the confines of the law. and if we have further information on it we open investigations. yes, that's what arcos is for. it is a targeting tool. >> how active investigations do y'all have right now? >> i would h

against prescription drug abuse, florida went from having 98 of the top 100 dispensing physicians for oxycontin pills to having 13 dispensing physicians residing in florida. so frankly, her success in this effort results in recognition for the national association of drug diversion investigators, the florida police chiefs association, and from the florida board of medicine. so i want to welcome her, and i thank you, madam chair, for the opportunity to do so. >> thank you. and i just want to point out that there is a hearing going on in the health subcommittee with a cabinet secretary. so a lot of members are bouncing in and out. if they're able to attend, i want to thank the members who are here. >> madam chairman, that's where i was until i figured out i was in wrong place. >> i'm glad you figured out. but we do have three panels before us today. each of our witnesses has prepared an opening statement that will be placed into the record. each of you will have five minutes to summarize the statement in your remarks. the good news is the clock is working and there is a timer in front of you now.

the suspect fills up the basket full of oxycontin and the thefts occurred since january 1st of 2012. all around the greater houston area. the crimes fear concern the d -- concerns can the dea concerned they are going to end up in schools. >>> we hear about a thief flying into a burglary. three planes were hit in south carolina. 34,000 dollars worth of equipment was ripped off from all three planes. airport security says this's no evidence of a security breach -- there's no evidence of a security breach and thieves had to have flown it in. >>> north carolina student is being suspended for hugging his teacher. teacher broke up middle school horseplay and that's when the hug occurred. according to the school board, it's a violation of two school politician. the student's father says his son is falling behind in school and upsetting to be suspended over a hug. >>> here at home fire bands have been -- bans have been lifted but that doesn't mean the threat of brush fire has gone away. a brush fire started last night near edgewater marina behind holiday point marina. no injuries were report

. >> reporter: this pharmacist say they were after oxycontin? hundreds of pills?he pills. >> reporter: it is interesting, they are not going after cash. they are going right to the drug cab knelt. what can pharmacies do? many are beefing up security. storing drugs in safes. and adding watchdogs and guards. some are even refusing to stock painkillers. as for this man, he built a steel cage. a sign of the epidemic of prescription drug abuse. pierre thomas, abc news, rockville, maryland. >>> and coming up, a ghost ship drifts toward the united states. the coast guard is on the hunt, and we'll tell you why. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about market volatility. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 in times like these, it can be tough to know which ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 way the wind is blowing. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, we're ready with objective insights about ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 the present market and economic conditions. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 and can help turn those insights into ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 a plan of action that's right for you. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 so don'

her middle son, justin, became addicted to the opiod pain reliever oxycontin during his freshman year in college. once an outgoing athlete, he became withdrawn. >> when i looked into his eyes, there was just an emptiness there. it wasn't him. it was-- he totally changed. >> reporter: justin hawkd his mother's jewelry to feed his habit. since in rehab failed. eventually, he turned to heroin, which was cheaper than the pills. nine months ago, he overdosed and died. >> he all these dreams, all these expectations of what he wanted out of life. he just wanted to get himself better. >> reporter: abby started a chapter of grass, grief recovery after a substance passing and sees disposing of unused prescriptions as one step toward preventing a repeat of what happened to justin. >> i truly believe in my heart that if he never tried a pill, those pills that he would still be here today. i really do. >> axelrod: the federal government says prescription drug abuse is responsible for 15,000 deaths a year. that's more than the number of deaths caused by cocaine and heroin abuse combined. still to c

of the top 100, oxycontin dealers in the country. 89 were in florida now we have 13. with legislation in effect barely a year. last year we had over 900 pain management the clinics registered within our state. today, we have 580. and i guarantee you, that number is going to continue to plummet. i want to outline now briefly, our comprehensive legislation and what we have done in our state. as you know, we have become the oxy-expre oxy-express. that's why i worked closely with general conway, and general dewine in ohio. what was happening people were buying their drugs in florida, taking them to kentucky. i had to hug a mother in kentucky when high was with general conway who lost her daughter two years ago to prescription drugs that were bought in florida. and that had to stop. so we passed with that, we passed tough new legislation in our state. we are very proud of that legislation. it was long, long, overdue. let me tell you that. the common characteristics of a pill mill in florida, little to no medical equipment at all, shelves and shelves of pills. these doctors

the pharmacies could be held responsible to check that registry and find out that they just got oxycontin just one day earlier for three months' supply, and they would be able to say no. isn't there something, some form -- i know we don't want to have -- because as we've had other hearing here of somebody being able to hack into that information. >> right. >> there are penalties that are related to that. but we all know if we had a list, if someone had a list, we could go -- hold those people responsible more so than the distributors that are doing the best they can to curtail that. tell me a little bit about what efforts we can do in security, the privatizing those names so that individuals can't be identified, but yet a pharmacy would be able to know that they have now -- this is their third prescription for the same medicine in the last two weeks. isn't there something you're doing on that? i saw this other, and i think that's just great, education. it works so well with teenaged pregnancies and everything else, hasn't it? sanctions against governments that they continue to do. so i re

enough oxycontin and hydro codone were dispensed to give enough to every single man woman and child inrculation of these two drugs is booming from new york to mexico. >>> now if you would like to spend more time outdoors, listen up, the extra mile went -- mild winter and early spring means you could see tickets sooner than expected experts say tick season is usually may to august but because of the warm weather the eggs may start hatching earlier than usual. >> gross and nasty. >> at the same time all together. >> all at the same time, 8:21 a.m., 49 degrees on thursday morning chilly out there google testing its augmented reality glasses, a look at the design and what we can do ahead. >> holly morris is learning about rowing coming up a look at the annual george washington rowing invitational, we will be right back ck  >>> don't be surprised if you see some planes flying low, very low over our area this morning starting in an hour nasa will begin taking pictures of the dc region using two, t- 32 training jets, nasa and faa want to see if the 747 bringing the space shu

two-year period, the army investigate show at least eight soldiers died from drug overdoses, including oxycontinnd morphine. in one announcement, the defense department described the manner of death as noncombat related. >> we are not interest violating privacy of the families but you can't find public reporting about this. >> they are going to give as much possible about the death. thigh are waiting for responses. in washington, catherine herridge, fox news. >> the european parliament is condemning argentina's move to seize control of the biggest oil company. it has taken 51% interest there the yps division of repsol. the e.u. parliament called the read nationalization attack on free enterprise. the imf raised more than $430 to deal with the european debt crisis and other emergencies. that nearly doubles the capacity. vice president biden does it again. something that they have in mob they won't be bragging about. grapevine is next. ♪ [ male announcer ] for our families... our neighbors... and our communities... america's beverage companies have created a wideange of new choices. developing sma

have you ever done oxycontin? >> yes, sir. >> okay. have you ever been through any treatment for drug abuse? >> no, sir. >> okay. do you think you might be interested in participating in something like that while you're here? >> yes, sir. >> okay. we'll have you up here monday, okay? >> okay. >> next is a counseling session designed to give new inmates a sense of what to expect in their daily lives at brushy mountain. >> i try to comfort the guys that first come in because most of them are scared. a lot of them won't admit it, but if they would, they are. just let them see a friendly face, tell them they are not going to get raped and beat up, things like that that they've been told. you're pretty much going to be in a two-man cell 23 hours a day. >> i've heard of that. >> you're not going to be showering with eight or ten guys. there's not going to be 20 guys standing there watching you. you'll shower and eat. other than that, you'll pretty much be in your cell. >> not only is john kerry an intake counselor, he's also an inmate. >> i'

massive increase in both teens and adults using prescription painkillers to get high, mainly vicodin, oxycontin opiates. >> volkow: you know how many prescriptions there were for opiate medications last year in this country? 210 million prescriptions for opiate medications. 210 million prescriptions in one year. >> safer: that's enough pain pills to keep every adult in the country medicated 24 hours a day for a month. there's been a huge spike in hospital emergency cases, and overdoses from pain pills killed nearly 15,000 people in a year's time. >> volkow: either we're a nation in severe pain or we're over- prescribing. >> safer: when doctors prescribe these very powerful pain medications, do they know what they're doing? >> volkow: being honest, i think that many physicians have not been properly trained on how to prescribe opiate medications. >> safer: even as a teenager at mexico's national university, volkow herself was no stranger to the heartbreak addiction has caused to so many families. addiction research became an obsession. >> volkow: as a medical student, i was very frustrated by th

researchers found most of the mothers had been using pain killers such as vicodin, methadone, and oxycontina utah hiker battled hypothermia and survived four days in the wilderness after getting lost in a remote desert. victoria grover broke her leg after jumping off a ledge last week. she couldn't make it back to her car before dark. the 59-year-old is an avid outdoors woman and also a physician's assistant. she says it was her survival skills and medical training that kept her alive. grover survived on creek water and the few snacks she had with her. it was the cold nights that were the most challenging. >> i really wasn't scared until i stopped shivering. that was the point when i got scared. that was the point i thought if somebody doesn't find me pretty soon i'm going to die of hypothermia. >> she managed to stay alive by sleeping in the sun during the day and staying awake at night. the local sheriff's department began a major search on tuesday. she was rescued on saturday. >>> at madison square garden, dan, a big game tonight. >> a huge game up here tonight, vance. it's going to be t

researchers found the number of mothers using or abusing opiate pain killers like vicodin, methadone, and oxycontinrocketed since the year 2000. the majority are covered by state medicaid programs. >> states are really incentivized to do things to limit opiate exposure before the babies are born but potentially promote innovations to care for the babies most effectively after they're born. >> reporter: the cost for treating the infants reached more than $700 million in 2009 as the babies must stay in the hospital and be weaned off the narcotics sometimes over a period of weeks or months. erica edwards, nbc news. >>> first it was jennifer lopez then kim kardashian and now nicki minaj, all women known for their larger rear ends. well, now some people are trying to look like their favorite celebrities but using an illegal procedure and it is leaving some of its victims sick, disfigured, and even dead. tonight at 11:00 doreen gentzler has more on the illegal silicon injections. >>> there is a new effort under way to make sure the metro-to-dulles project isn't derailed. the first phase of the silver lin

. >> i don't understand the world without drinking adult beverages or oxycontin. >> we're in gave debte class is addicted to entitlements. >> oh, my god. >> those are the expenditures and it is a middle class that benefits. so when you see large numbers of middle class folks getting government checks, that's when things start to break down. >> tucker's father was an ambassador. that's how he got into the news business. and he has been canceled from every major network, except for fox. >> he looks like richie rich was modeled on him. and now peter johnson. >> no! no! not at all. >> they attack the class fair -- or enables the class war fair to continue forward. >> it does. it provides the dissatisfied for a target for their anger and rekrimre rekrim rekriminnation. >> oh. he is not [overlapping speakers]. >> i'm assuming just based on the complete lack of quality dee bait that that is from the five? >> yes you are correct. >> you are a connoisseur of right-wing draft. >> america's next most favorite canceled show. [ laughter ] >> to hear them you know, it's always go back to the white h

or five years and then pop and rock to cotton, for example, -- drinks 4 or 5 beers and then pop oxycontin, for example, it shuts down the part of your brain that tells your body to breathe while you are sleeping in the last couple of months, two men that i knew personally died in their sleep. they were not addicts. they had no intent to die. they had no idea they were putting their lives at risk. no one had told them the simple biochemical impact of mixing a prescription drug with a couple of beers. this is happening all over the country. this is a simple thing that is claiming people's lives. it simply deadens the part of your brain that tells your body to breathe while you are asleep. if it happened at noon and -- somebody passed out, the survival rate would be 100%. if it happens at night, you are alone and the mortality rate can be 100%. everyone of you can go back to your campuses and make sure every single student at every college and university here represented knows that simple fact. no money and next to no time, and you can save a very large number of lives. [applause] and since

they removed records looking for unusually large orders of oxycontin. top sellers of the drug. they want to make sure the pills do not end up out on the streets. >> the price on the black market of prescription drugs mainly painkillers, is so high, and that they can actually buy heroin at 25% less than prescription drugs. >> walgreen's said it is fully cooperating with the investigation. >>> in our economy watch at&t is negotiating a new contract with the labor union representing 4,000 workers. the previous contract expired midnight. the union can call a strike but employees say they'll work without a contract at least for now. their part of at&t's local phone and long distance service located mostly in california and the midwest. at&t wants to cut workers' pensions and decrease health premiums and co-pays. >>> the new york times reports consumers received 4.5 billion spam texts last year alone. that is double the number of spam texts from 2009. the federal trade commission is trying to crack down on this spamming, and that could include legal action. >

numbers every year because they do not know that if you drink four or five years and then pop and oxycontin, for example, it shuts down the part of your brain that tells your body to breathe while you sleep. and the last couple of months, two young men i knew personally, including one who was a student here whom i love very much, died in his sleep. they were not addicts. they did not intend to die. they have no earthly idea they're putting their lives at risk. no one had told them the simple biochemical impact of mixing a prescription drug with a couple of beers. and this is happening all over the country. this is a simple thing that is claimed peoples lies. it simply deadens the part of your brain that tells your body to breathe while you're asleep. if it happened at noon and somebody passed out, the survival rate would be 100%. if it happens at night when you're asleep, you are alone. and the mortality rate can be 100%. every one of you can go back to your campuses and make sure that every single student at every college and university he represented knows that simple fact, for no money a