number two ashley you said he had a history of addiction to percocet. categorically do not know that. what the attorney said is that his sibling were procuring percocets for him for abuse. he abused percocets. no evidence he had a life long progressive illness we call addiction. more recently what we see is dependentsy. he is needing more, he has hyper allergiesia, where the medicine intensifies the pain. he looks like an addict. but i can't say that, and i certainly can't say it based on what the attorney said about abuse years ago. >> dr. howard kornfeld is renowned in his field. but when you go off searching for your own tailored medicine like this, it is a recipe style. conrad murray style. >> have we learned nothing from conrad murray? and special people demand special care. here you have the person using the medication dictating the care. that never disturbs out well. have we not learned from conrad murray, the outcomes of special care for special people. >> dr. gupta, i medically walk me through what happens to the body when you have a use, an ov

as far as percocet goes, 81% of the percocet prescribed on earth between 1991 and 2013 was prescribed country. nearly 100% of the vicodin tablets on earth were prescribed in that same time interval in that country. we have a grotesque, a grow test tsunami of overprescribing of opiates. so it's easy for him to have gotten his hands on this. as far as him having a valid prescription, he probably had a prescription in somebody else's name because he clearly was getting special care. here he has a doctor dispatched across the country when, in fact, as sarah mentioned, hazel ton betty ford treatment center, the city center, is four miles from his house. the premiere addiction treatment center in the country. simply throw him in the car, get him to that center. it would be confidential. he would get thorough treatment there. now, it looks like what he was going to get was sort of the conrad murray easying care in his home of somebody attempting to detox and manage his care in his paisley park home which, again, have we learned nothing from conrad murray. >> if they had called you for help,

we now have information about a percocet addiction. what do you know?put this all in context here. what we're understanding from the lawyer representing the cornfield there was an intersensing being waged by prince's camp, that they made the first call wednesday night and he was supposed to see a local doctor on thursday morning. we obviously know now that he passed away and the new revelation that cnn has learned from a lawyer who used to represent two of prince's half siblings, both of whom are now passed away, in particular duane nelson who is the source of this information saying that according to this attorney had said that he had seen prince use percocet in the past, not just seen him use it, helped procure it for him decades before the iconic singer lost his life. we do know also that duane nelson used to work for prince and that he worked for him as paisley park but then was fired, and then went on to sue his half brother, but he said that prince was using the percocet to come down after performances. this is according to prince's half sibling w

doctors say percocet is a medication that can do more than just numb pain. it can also give patients a high, and because of that, is considered high risk for addiction. >> they like that feeling of overall well-being or euphoria. ♪ >> reporter: the midwest medical examiner's office saying they haven't released any information about prince's cause of death to anyone yet, including law enforcement. but the singer's inner circle was reportedly trying to get him help for an addiction to painkillers. the night before he died, they called a california doctor, dr. howard kornfeld. kornfeld's lawyer says he rushed his son, andrew, a pre-med student who works at his clinic, on a red eye to minneapolis. carrying with him buprenorphine, a drug used to treat addiction withdrawal. >> it's typically not very common to transport any sort of medications across state lines. >> reporter: david, tonight, many asking why prince didn't go to a treatment clinic nearby, especially because, one of the top centers in the country is right here in minneapolis, a city which clearly lov

she's clean new but years ago she started taking percocet that was prescribed to her for migraines.e at first it just made her drowsy. >> but one day, a switch just flipped, just like that. >> reporter: she knew then that she was hooked. her prescription wasn't enough, so this career woman and wife started to buy more pills on the the street. >> it wasn't so much a moral dilemma for me, it was a dependens and i could not stop. >> reporter: then ann became pregnant neonatologist doctor joan donahue says if a woman is physically addicted to painkillers, stopping the drugs when pregnant can be more harmful they can suffer a seizure in uterus and stay on percocet but told no one. when her baby girl was born, it was obvious that the baby was going through withdraw. >> muscle pains, spasm, your it an, she cried a lot, she was throwing up. >> reporter: the treatment is to give the babies morphine and slowly wean them off opioids and babies spent five weeks in the n icu. >> it is upsetting on many levels. >> reporter: donahue says while some mothers are getting some drugs on the street, man

. >> the doctor at the end said do you want 30 percocet or 90? i am like i don't know that i should be determining this. i went for 30, as soon as i took it, i wished i took 90, glad i didn't. god knows what would have happened. the guidelines we talked about, the cdc, my understanding is they just put these out this year. why is it taking so long? >> this is medical culture. it has taken so long because of all of the marketing by drug companies. i feel badly now, i am an emergency physician, i prescribed so many opioids without thinking about what that could be doing to them in terms of causing overdose stats, in terms of causing them to be addicted. i wish i could take it back. that's why we have to start with doctors and patients working together to stop the culture of excess. >> sanjay, has the medical just been far behind on this? >> i think they have been far behind, lots of different reasons why. what i think is amazing is that much of this started 30 years ago in 1986 with a single paper, small paper of 38 patients. and that paper before

. >> reporter: percocet. >> 10 milligram and 90. >> reporter: 90. >> 90. >> reporter: that's a lot. > i've been told. >> reporter: within a month he was addicted and when he ran out of percocet, heroin was cheaper and easier to find. john has been sober a year but last week he had a kidney stone and came to st. joseph's e.r. >> reporter: were you worried they might give you something that would be dangerous for you? >> yeah, always in the back of your head when you go to the hospital for something that's really painful. you don't want to be put in a compromising position. >> reporter: if they had put you on an iv with morphine or something. >> yeah, i could have ruined my sobriety. absolutely. >> reporter: instead they used a non-addictive numbing agent. >> my pain went from an eight to a two. >> reporter: wow. it worked. >> really well. >> reporter: that it works for john and others is critical. the goal to avoid addiction but not at the cost of patients suffering. >> we're not opioid-free. we are looking at using alternatives to opioid first. if we can relieve the symptoms, then we'

what it does is goes into the brain, and it protects the brain by blocking all the sites that percocet morphine or heroin would go to, and they can't get to the brain. and the second thing it does is it stops cravings. so if it protects you from using and it stops the cravings, those are the two things you need to stabilize the brain so that the real treatment, the counseling, can held you with the coping skills to make your life changes. >> so doctor, if a famous person called you and said you know, i really need help with addiction, would you send someone else with that drug? >> well, you have to ask questions. if you call my business and you ask to get screened to be a patient, we ask you questions. one of those questions is, have you ever overdosed. and as soon as you overdose, as soon as you have history of an overdose, the level of treatment that you need is high enough that the risk may require you to go inpatient, especially if it is a recent overdose. overdosing is a hallmark in looking for treatment. everybody is looking for help. everybody has had problems. but as soon as yo

they also add it's not clear if percocet was related to the cause of death.s source is citing information about the preliminary autopsy, but we spoke with the medical examiner's office not long ago. they said the information did not come from them, nothing is leaking out of their office, they don't know where this is coming from. they say toxicology results have not been fully completed yet. all of this they say is just speculation. the federal authorities have joined in the investigation. the d.e.a. particularly because if prescription painkillers were involved here, they'll have the resources to determine where the prescription came from or house prince was getting those drugs. >> there was that press conference yesterday with a lawyer for a doctor saying that his son was there when the -- actually made the 911 call, you can see why the d.e.a. may get involved. let me ask you about what's behind you, more and more people still showing up to remember. >> reporter: yeah, it's amazing, because this is the two-week anniversary of prince's death. we still see pe

as they wait to find out from the coroner if there was percocet in his system. >>> and a fedex truck weaving in and out of traffic. and a truck spilling potatoes on the highwa causing a nasty pile-up in nashville. i was just underneath a semi >> reporter: incredibly, despit laws in safely operating their vehicles. in the u.s., there are 100,000 crashes a year because of drowsy driving. just look at what happened today in charlotte. a potato truck driver charged with failing to maintain lane control, allegedly telling troopers he fell asleep at the wheel. and of course that wal-mart truck driver in 2014 crashing into tracy morgan's limo, injuring the comedian and killing a friend. asleep at the wheel after be mi torn off their cars. a car ltime. >>> and the drone owner lincont this building the balcony on the seventh floor. inside? we'll be right back. and cause a stroke. pradaxa was better tha a heart valve replacement. don't stop taking pradaxa without talking to your doctor opping increasr ooclement. and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual br

former lawyer for duane nelson, one of prince's half siblings that duane told him that prince used percocet after one of his performan performances. he said he would pre-cure the painkiller for prince. duane did work for prince at paisley park, but was fired and sued his famous half brother. christine and john. >> stephanie, thank you for that. a new transgender bathroom law in north carolina which is a violation of the civil rights act. critics claim it opens the door to discrimination to the lgbt community. if the ruling stands, north carolina stands to lose hundreds of millions in education funding. >>> california is the second state in the nation to raise the legal smoking age to 21. governor jerry brown signed the measure in law on thursday. california will monitor electronic cigarettes. the governor vetoed a bill to allow local governments to allow taxes on tobacco products. >>> emotional visit for president obama in flint, michigan where the tap water is undrinkable. he said he has their back and said progress is being made. >> there you go. you know, generally i have not been doing

. >>> the medical examiner's office is furious of the media reports that percocet was disclosed in prince's bloodstream. the medical examiner is the only person who has seen the test results and she has not shared them with anyone. >>> another victory for the sandy hook families. they can gain access in the internal documents and can depose in the remmington lawsuit. targeting a young man adam lanza. the gun maker is trying to stop the discovery face and asking the judge to throw out the case. >>> terrifying ordeal for passengers to pittsburgh on a flight from the dominican republic. forcing the plane to land in ft. lauderdale. four people hospitalized for injuries described this morning as non-life threatening. everyone on that plane said it sure felt like a near death experience. >> i thought it was over. i thought we were all going down. the plane just dropped. it was like it nose dived and dropped out from underneath. >> it was like in the movies when you see a crash and everyone flies up. >> it dropped. everybody flew in the air that wasn't in a seatbelt. people, the flight attendant i

. >> it's drugs like percocet and oxycontin that leads to other problems. they are trying to rein in the use of those drugs. >> after surgery is not the right time. you need the conversation, dr. anita gupta is having daily with colleagues at hahnemann hospital. how to rely less on opioid medications. they launched the comfort -- educating patients about other options to control pain. we use tylenol and ibuprofen and do nerve blocks, there are nerve blocks to minister 30 minutes before the actual surgical procedure your, some could last for 24 hours or more before an operation. doctors can put a local anaesthetic into a surgeral site but these methods are underutilized. kathleen has struggled with constant pain for years, she went through the roller coaster of pain killers, she felt she needed them but they didn't work well. now the approach helps her with the pain. >> i meditate and rest when i have to. and before surgery, she talks to all of her doctors about pain control. about what to expect after and how long the surgeon expects you to be on an opioid.

we caught her with a bunch of xanax, percocet, stuff inside her vagina.r since then, when she comes in the facility, security comes and we interview her. >> angela has been booked into the jail several times since she was a minor. she's back after failing a truck test, which is a violation of parole on a prior conviction of attempted burglary. >> bellianos. >> hi, santa cruz. >> back in the facility. >> i violated parole this time. i peed dirty twice. >> you have nothing on you now? >> whatever i had is gone. >> so you came in and brought heroin with you? >> yeah. i didn't right away because i thought you would come after me. >> if i was here i would have. >> when you got search in property they didn't find it. >> it was in me. >> up inside of you. >> i always do it that way. >> that's your m.o. >> that's my m.o. it goes inside. >> so 100% gone. >> it's 100% gone now. right off the bat. there is no cameras in the holding cell. >> no, she stiffed it off the bench. >> off the bench. >> you haven't changed. [ laughter ] >> no, i haven't. >> no. >> no, i have

[áñ doctors say percocet is a medication to doe' more than jut patients a highám and because of thatdwng they haven't releas%q(á5($(l 3 informationâ about prince's cause of death toao any one yet but the singer inner circle was reportedly trying toyc get him help for addiction to pain killers. iedd he called california doctor, dr. howard cornfeld. his lawyers say he rushed his son andrew pre-med student who works at hads clinic on red eye . the drug used to treat addiction withdrawal. >> typically not very common toÑ transport medication across state line. >> many ask why prince didn't go to treatment clinicw nearby especially because one of the top centers in the country is right here in minneapolis. city which clearly2lves him and where he lives. abc news minneapolis, into the environmental home of the future. >> called a passive house. see the action that goessç undetected by those livings$ toni pet moments are beautiful, unless you have allergies. then your eyes may see it differently. flonase is the first and only nasal spray approved to relieve both itchy, watery eyes and conge

lawyer for duane nelson, one of prince's half siblings, claims that duane told him the singer used percocetce. duane told him he would procure the powerful painkiller for prince. the account cannot be confirmed because duane has already passed away. christine and john. >>> stephanie, thank you. a new chapter in the johnny manziel saga. due to appear in a texas courtroom in a case that could land him in jail for townshup t year. we have andy scholes with the bleacher report next. i earn ued 2% cash back on everything i buy for my studio. ♪ and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... that's huge for my bottom line. what's in your wallet? hey, we're opening up and we need some new signage. but can't spend a lot. well, we have low prices and a price match guarantee. scout's honor? low prices. pinky swear? low prices. eskimo kisses? how about a handshake? oh, alright... the lowest price. every time. staples. make more happen. a blade. many blades. tsharp blades.g. blades here, blades there. some more over there... whoa! that's no

d on percocet. they had to give him a shot on the tarmac to save his life.ve surveillance video from the airport with the charles: the plane is fast approaching. remember this is just after

as to reports prince had percocet in his system when he died, the medical examiner says results are still pending. >>> turn focus to weather. a house in the san francisco bay area took a direct hit by lightning. >> two people needed to g the hospital. as for today and mother's day weekend, let's get the forecast from accuweather's justin povick. >> tracking low pressure that's going to provide more rain to the northeast as if we haven't had enough. we'll try to kick this out of the way for the upcoming weekend. but at least here throughout the daytime expect numerous travel delays along that stretch of 95 running from new york city to d.c. getting into the weekend, it's mother's day on sunday. we're getting the rain out of the way. it's just going to take time. again, showers along the i-95, these kick off the coastline later on in the afternoon and also the evening. severe weather possible over the central plains for mother's day. that's running from nebraska down into kansas and texas where we can actually have some tornados and some large hail. the west looking wet as well. kendis, dia

in terms of percocet, yes.had to do with bad hip problems that ultimately resulted in surgery in 2010. and prince was taking percocet for that and ended up getting addict to do it this almost killed him six days before he died, you remember, with that overdose that caused the plane to make an emergency landing. but, we are told by family members, various people that prince was -- prince had used cocaine in the 1980s. that there were things that were kind of on and off over the years. in terms of the opiates, this really kind of blossomed in a bad way during the problems that he was having with his hips. >> harvey, thank you. of course tmz always seems to get it first. thank you, harvey. >> okay, greta. >> and this is bizarre, was there foul play in the disappearance of two florida teens in the father of one of the teens is standing by to go "on the record." test test. [ cheering ] thank you! thank you! what a week! we sat down, we kicked back, and we watched tv! [ cheering ] this win is just the beginning! it d

we learned prince struggled with dependence on percocet and used multiple doctors to obtain the painkillers. ♪ purple rain >> aretha franklin honored wns this weekend in washington, d.c. there is newly discovered poignant footage of the pop icon. ♪ we can be heroes that's prince 26 days before his death singing "heroes" as a tribute to david bowie after his passing. in los angeles, prince's inner circle gathered to say good-bye. among them good friend george lopez. >> we sat down with one of prince's brothers last week. he mentioned you had been working with the family. >> i wouldn't know if i was working with the family. but i assisted the brothers in need at that particular moment. >> george is being way too humble. we learned he wrote a check somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000 to assist prince's family. good guy. >> that is being a good guy. >> the daytime emmy awards were handed out last night a big night for our friends at "the talk" who won. >> kelly and michael won for outstanding entertainment talk show host. their awkward soap opera goes on and on and on. >> and the emmy goes

specialist had been called for help the day before prince died, second, the prince used the painkiller percocett do we know about this appointment with the specialist? >> reporter: right. to break it down for you, jake, what was going to happen here, people from prince's camp reached out to this doctor in california the evening of the 20th. the doctor was not able to fly there on thursday so he sent his son to explain how prince how the treatment would work, he took a red eye flight, the son did, he got to paisley park wednesday morning, when he got there that's when he was found unresponsive to the elevator and it was actually the son who called 911. this all coming from the attorney representing the son and the doctor. prince was also scheduled to meet with a local doctor thursday morning, but that never happened. so we're learning more about that timeline. separately cnn has also learned from an attorney who used to represent one of prince's half-sib rings, duane nelson, that he said duane nelson told him decades ago prince would use percocet to come down after performances and sometimes he

. 90 percocet in one bottle. >> 90? which is way too many. you only need three or 4 in that pain situation. he told me i took one and then one, one, a few days in, your body develops a tolerance. one in the morning and at night and then a few davis that, i need one at noon and taking three pills a day. by the time he finished that bottle he was an addict. it is very possible and conceivable something happened to prince and he developed this kind of addiction. >> this is also a very serious topic. you are saying to me more people now die of a drug overdose in this country than those that die in a car accident or firearms. >> that's right. more people die of drug overd e overdoses than car accidents or firearms. it is an epidemic. cds cal cdc calls it that. prince may be unfortunately another example. >> so much to learn yet such an important topic for us to continue discussing. kate, thank you as always. >>> i want to get you to a live event happening in i believe bowling green, kentucky, where bernie sanders is speaking

the star tribune the preliminary autopsy findings show they had percocet in his blood.he drug enforcement agency and the us attorney's office joined a local investigation after a prominent addiction doctor revealed prince representatives reached oup to him for help. the federals are now cracking down on e cigarettes. e cigarettes will now have federal oversight and will have to follow the same regulations as other tobacco products. they must also have health warning. these new rules take affect in three months. e cigarettes turn nicotine into a liquid vapor. kfc is getting in the beauty products business. the fast food chain is releasing -- it sounds like a joke, but it's a real story. they're releasing nail polish that is tastes like chicken. the company claims it's, quote, finger liking good. have we verified this? it comes in two flavors, original and who the and spicy. >> shut up. it comes in spicy, too? yes. right now it's only available in a limited release in honk con. no word if it will be release in the us. the boll is labeled with edible, but it's not clear if

they confirm the painkiller percocet was found in his system. this as we learn a are doctor from here in the bay area specializing in drug addiction was set to meet with prince the day after he died after getting a call from prince's representatives on april 20th. the doctor september his son on a red eye to paisley park. he got to prince's home and was carrying a drug to help prince deal with addiction withdrawal. >> he arrived and went looking for prince. staff representatives apparently found him in an elevator unconscious. one of the staff members started screaming. >> the music legend was pronounced dead at 10:09 that morning. it could take weeks to determine the official cause of debt. >>> happening now, tracking the return of rain. this is a live picture from our abc7 roof camera. let's get to sandhya patel and live doppler 7hd. >> may shower chance will remain in the forecast. let's show you live doppler 7hd right now and we are are seeing cloud cover. no rain just yet, but as you take a look, we have a system that will sit off our coast

. >> he came over and he brought some percocet pills. i think it's a morter and pestle type thing. >> what was he going to do with the percocet pill that is you -- that you and he ground? >> he was going to give it to her so she would be drugged. >> and then drowned, said yolanda. the plan to kill wendy hit an unexpected snag. at the honeymoon hotel, wendy balked at the taste of the drugged cocktail. this time she drank the cocktail but for some reason he couldn't manage to drown her. yolanda recalled that escoto showed up at her place in the middle of the night with a dazed wendy in the front seat of the car. >> did you see anything in the passenger seat? >> i saw a movement. somebody inside the car. >> wendy was still alive. yolanda said escoto ordered her to follow him in her car. >> then what happened? >> he got out of the car, walked over to my car and he told me, drive around. give me 20, 25 minutes. >> eventually, yolanda said she spotted escoto again, walking down the street, splashed now in blood and carrying a tire iron. she sa

jamie yuccas >> reporter: the headline of today's minneapolis "star tribune"-- percocet found in prince's system-- prompted the medical examiner to push back against such media reports saying in a statement released late this afternoon, "her office has not released any information to anyone, including law enforcement." law enforcement sources tell cbs news they are trying to determine the source of prescription pills found on prince and in his home. an attorney for howard kornfeld, a prominent drug addiction treatment doctor in northern california, sails the doctor was contacted to help prince the day before the singer's death. kornfeld sent his son, andrew, to minneapolis to facilitate treatment. william mauzy is kornfeld's attorney. >> andrew's purpose in being there was to describe the recovery without walls program, to familiarize prince with that. >> reporter: instead, an driewfs among the group that found prince unconscious in the elevator the next morning. andrew kornfeld had in his possession an drug called buprenorphine. dr. shiela specker is an addiction specialist at the univer

percocet found in presence, not yet clear if it contributed to his death.only coming from one source close to the investigation. when we called the medical examiner's office to see where the autopsy results stand, they said no and they said this leak did not come from them. they have not released anything. so there is no official cause of death at this point. now, federal authorities are joining in the investigation, because if painkillers did contribute to prince's death, the feds have more resources than the local sheriff's office who may have been writing those prescriptions, where the drugs were coming from. back out here live at paisley park, we still see people coming up to the fence to pay their respects. i had chance to drive up to downtown minneapolis today. look at what i saw outside of first avenue nightclub. prince's star on the side of that building had mysteriously been painted gold overnight. that star standing in uniqueness on that wall as prince did in life. >> so true. blake mccoy for us this afternoon. thank you. >>> that's going to wrap

they confirm the painkiller percocet was found in his system.s as we learn a are doctor from here in the bay area specializing in drug addiction was set to meet with prince the day after he died after getting a call from prince's representatives on april 20th. the doctor september his son on a red eye to paisley park. he got to prince's home and was carrying a drug to help prince deal with addiction withdrawal. >> he arrived and went looking for prince. staff representatives apparently found him in an elevator unconscious. one of the staff members started screaming. >> the music legend was pronounced dead at 10:09 that morning. it could take weeks to determine the official cause of debt. >>> happening now, tracking the return of rain. this is a live picture from our abc7 roof camera. let's get to sandhya patel and live doppler 7hd. >> may shower chance will remain in the forecast. let's show you live doppler 7hd right now and we are are seeing cloud cover. no rain just yet, but as you take a look, we have a system that will sit off our coastline

. >> law enforcement sources close to the investigation confirm that the painkiller percocet was foundin prince's system. both the u.s. attorney and the dea have now joined the investigation as abc news learns the pop singer's inner circle was trying to get him help for an addiction to painkillers. investigators still do not know the cause of death. >>> police in texas are investigating a workplace shooting that left two dead. marion williams dismissed from a houston area transportation company stormed into the building shouting that they'd ruined his life and then opened fire. he killed a supervisor and wounded two others before turning the gun on himself. on average there is one deadly workplace shooting every day in this country. >>> some terrifying moments played out in the sky over indonesia yesterday. take a listen. those were people screaming on board this flight that hit sudden and severe turbulence as it prepared to land in jakarta. some hospitalized with serious injuries. it landed safely but turbulence enough to damage cabin storage areas. >>> getting our first look at an ac

er to his rotator cuff and was a prescription for 90% percocet. percocet pills got expensive he, trped out of college and one day, not being able to find pills because of price and lack of availability he was offered heroin which was cheap and stronger from that day on he was hooked an injected heroin for nine years. matt transformed into a shell of who ehe used to be, who he who he wanted nd to become. could i get an extra minute and 30 seconds? ms. clark: i yield the gentlelady one minute. ms. kaptur: he's now a convicted felon and overdosed and died. how could this have happened to such a promising young man? heroin and opioid abus sees no boundaries. it is death masquerading as medicine. in toledo there are only 16 federally funded detox beds for an estimated 10,000 opioid addicts. we simply have to have legislation that allows for more detox facilities, there are programs like team recovery that have made a difference in the lives of individuals like tracy whose story i will place in the record and let me just say that if there are families o

. >> nor could percocet or oxycontin morphine dilaudid. >>reporter: according to the cdc since 1999 a number of unintentional overdose deaths has quad rupped. >> we were taught as part of our training to treat pain at any cost. >>reporter: doctor sameer aware took part of the prevention conference. >> these medications are designed for cancer pain we ended up using them for any type of pain. >>reporter: they are also highly addictive and led to an increase in patients who doctor shop one patient getting different doctors to write multiple prescriptions for the same drugs. in a too weeks a new state program designed to prevent that will be mandatory for every doctor in california who prescribes thighs painkillers. it's called cures 2.0 which stands for controlled substance utilization review and evaluation system. >> every prescription that a parent has filled in the last 12 months and who the prescriber was. >>reporter: dr. kayman is among those who say this will cut on patients who doctor shop and reduce number of doctors who write too ma

i didn't know the ramifications of percocet, i'm a lawyer, not a doctor. but i realized that whatever it was, the cure was worse than the disease and i asked them to take my mother off of percocet and for me never to see that again. now, how many families do that? she did get off of it. thank god, she healed and walked out of that hospital. that wasn't the time that she passed. she lived for another day. but we need in this opioid discussion, as we're moving against mass incarceration to explain to families and physicians, to talk about what these painkillers can do, because in essence, they are sometimes so toxic that they, in many instances, easily cause addiction as i've heard many parents say about their youngsters who had athletic injuries. so to congresswoman, thank you for yielding to me because i think this week has been a magnificent week when we have eeped the door, kicked the can, not down the road but we've kicked it to open the door for all of us to say to america, it's ok. addiction can be cured. but we're going to work alongside of you so th

to go on an extra website to determine whether their patient has had a previous narcotic like a percocetand it takes time. i call it the by the way problem, where doctors enable people on the way out the door, by the way, doc, can i have my vicodin. you're under pressure and say what's this for? it's a vicious cycle and, arthel, you need more and more and more of this stuff. by the way, not only 14,000 deaths from prescription narcotic overdoses every year, there's 13,000 from heroin so people stop getting those prescriptions and get it from a brown bag on the street and that leads to even more overdoses so the whole thing is a big endickic and doctors are part of the problem. >> it's interesting what marc is bringing up because a few days ago was the day that you were supposed to get rid of all of your extra medications in your closet and that's a big message. if you're not using them, first of all, don't share them with other people. >> right. >> and don't get addicted to these. don't take them for a long time. >> flush them down the toilet, best way to get rid of them, flush them? >>

attributed to the abuse of heroin and prescription painkillers-- opioids like oxycontin, vicodin, percocet, and methadone. this epidemic, in part, was due to the surge in prescriptions being written over the last two decades. however, a new analysis reveals that for each of the last three years, prescriptions being written for opioids declined. to discuss the implications of this, i am joined from washington d.c. by sabrina tavernise of the "new york times." sabrina, you've been reporting about this and writing about this for the "times." what has contributed to this decline. >> so, first of all, it's surprising there even is a decline considering the fact there had been so many-- had been rising for so long, for so many years. there are a number of factors that are going into driving it. for one, there's been a big, big change in public consciousness about these drugs. people believe that they are dangerous drugs now. doctors are sort of holding back from prescribing. my colleague talked to a number of doctors that said they didn't want to be the one who had got a call from someone, a par

as authorities reportedly wait to find out from the coroner if there was percocet in his system. >>> next tonight to the invisible danger on the highway next to us every day. with drivers suspected of being drowsy behind the wheel. a fedex truck weaving in and out of traffic. triggering a multicar accident. and a truck overturning, spilling 50,000 pounds of potatoes on the highway. here's gio benitez. >> reporter: watch closely as a fedex truck weaves in and out of a lane. and look, here it moves into the middle lane, hits a vehicle, and then loses control. slamming into other cars, causing a nasty pile-up in nashville. >> there was no time to think. i was just underneath a semi going down the road. >> reporter: incredibly, despite a fire on the road, no serious injuries. the driver of the fedex truck, cited for fatigue. and tonight, fedex tells abc news that all drivers are expected to obey all traffic laws in safely operating their vehicles. in the u.s., there are 100,000 crashes a year because of drowsy driving. just look at what happened today in charlotte. a potato truck driver