he died here, in our own home here, in my arms, with my son, john, right there with him and tayler, hislfriend, as well, attempting to revive him, unsuccessfully, of course. >> reporter: across the nation, the number of drug overdose deaths has increased 118% since 1999, with more than 100 people dying from overdoses every day. according to the white house office of national drug control policy, those numbers represent a dramatic spike in the abuse of opioid drugs, including prescription pain killers and increasingly, heroin. >> we have more people in the united states dying of drug related overdoses than we do motor vehicle fatalities and gunshots. and so from a public health perspective, we know that we have a huge epidemic on our hands. >> reporter: michael botticelli is acting director of the white house office, a job often known as the "drug czar." he says the vast majority of heroin users started after abusing pain medicine. >> we know that the availability of very cheap, very pure heroin, has been on our streets. we know that addiction is a progressive disorder and that people of