Journalist who made that remark you just saw. [applause] us and doory, can you tell a little bit about how thads , pain kirl an addiction began, and how it progressed . In january of 2015, he had an injury. His hand and foot. We took him to the emergency everything. He got prescribed painkillers. We had no idea he got addicted painkillers. 2015, around october of his om found some items in loom. Room. Of course i was upset. Him. Led at i said, pat, this is what inmates conditions snsed to the prison system. Thats when he told us about his addiction. To painkillers. Looked it up online. Educated myself a little bit about it. Went back upstairs to the top of the steps and yelled over to thad, im sorry, i love you. He was on that medication in attempt to beat his painkiller addiction . Said, thad, i love you, if nything ever happened to you i wouldnt want to live. And then of course we had him rehab a couple different two different went back times. First time he went to rehab he was doing real good. Eal excited. Went in to get clean. Elt really good about going to meetings. Nd everything. First time he went to rehab, he vivitrol. Get the blocker. Long acting blocker. Then it only lasts for 30 days or so. Call around to different places. Couldnt find any place to prescribe him that. A place in milton, they only prescribed patients that treatment at the white deer treatment center. That. t able to get him eventually he really lapsed. Doory, relapse is common dory, that. Hopeful . He relapse is common what did you think might happen . Well, i thought this was in the road. Ecause he really wanted to get better. And. He just i mean, its just totally out of our family, i was going to say, it just doesnt happen to s. When he did relapse, what clues did you have . You see . That i some behaviors just said, you know, youre reminding me of when hes like, no, no, no. That i just said, you know, youre reminding me when he relapsed was he back o using pain kills or street drugs . What finally turned out drugs . What finally turned out to happen . When he didnt have pain pills, thats when orsovolexin, thats when he turned to heroin. He relapsed so we took him back to rehab. They didnt do as good when he came home as he did the first time. Wasnt as excited. He had drug court coming up. All the anxiety all the anxiet everything. Like about three days before he would have i think drug court would have been real good for him because it would have held hibble accountable, ould have like been structured. Would have had structure in his life. Would have to go to so many meetings, so many help groups. Be held accountable. And three days before he would is when i g court, woke up to my wife screaming in morning, thad, wake up thad, wake up went over as soon as that happened, like i knew what was going on in my head. I jumped out of bed. Phone. Ed the dialed 911. Ran into my sons room. Breathing. And he was blue lying on the ead. I had the phone in one hand. Grabbed him, drug him to the charted chest depressions. Then the started chest depressions. Personnel rgency arrived. My wife and went got narcan they arrived and that didnt do anything. Thats the antidote that reverses an overdose. Yes. Didnt work. No. Emergency personnel worked on im for 45 minutes while me and wife sat downstairs in the kitchen. Finally they came down and said there was nothing more they do. So we had to sit there and wait pronounce our to son dead. Then we went in another room ile they were bringing his body down. Doip what had he overdosed on . Heroin. Heroin. Do you know how he obtained it . Not exactly. Dorie, the grief group that us about the tell ear since thad has died. Sort of a ridiculous question, but what has the year been like you . Well, my sisterinlaw shared with us about a group she went to years ago out in called grief share. Just so happened that a local church had one that had. Arted up and we, for the 13week thing, we jumped in about week our. Thad was 11 days gone. And and it was really that was really helpful to go through the i dont know if word. Tion is a good just to go through with the through their grief and just talk about it. Program, so ased hat was a good fit for us. I we went along, i felt, ok, think were doing ok here with our grief thing. Right way. The in we went to an event williamsport, saving lives and bower. Id e told us about a group that meets. We have been going monthly there. Together. We laugh together. Unfortunately one thing in common. In talking with ll these folks, have you learned anything about grief, about this on, particular way of losing a child . Theres no way i think to describe, but a this epidemic has it been helpful to meet with other amilies . Dorie yes, yes. One thing i learned right away theres nothing hat i could have done. In the beginning you were pretty guilty about the death. But theyre telling you you couldnt have. Dorie right. From s nothing i could do y 21, 1994 to october 2, 2016. Nothing i could have done to. Ange hats hard as a mom. Alice, you spent months on went up to williamsport, met with all these folks. Attended the grief group. A have been with them at 5k walk afterwards. What was your ambition when you started . What did you find out . Alice i think it was important, this is something we we ussed early on, that wanted to show its easy to talk about numbers. Easy to talk about the statistics. But to really get to the heart hurting the most i think was something that we wanted to showcase. We first went down to were told , we about this grief therapy group. T sounded like a good place to meet more families who the was unfortunately shared. The same thing in common which was losing a loved one to this pidemic. So when we first went to the in p, therapy group, it was the backyard of the quounlors home. As a beautiful counselors home. It was a beautiful evening. It was just it was these eaking hearing all stories and going to the 5k and 10k. W many people had been impacted in this community by this epidemic. Too, to lly curious, hear when you guys you 10k ere also at the 5k, run. Were you taken by surprise how impacted e this had and touched . Or was this something you were aware of even after your own going through this . Dorie we last year was the that they did that 5k, 10k, it happened to be probably about three weeks thad passed. My sister, who lives in the area, she said, hey, my friends want to start a thad. Or so we had there were nephews, like my their friends. Family. And i think First Time Ever hey had over 600 people at the 5k, 10k thing. So this year i think it surpassed that. Thad. Was surprised because everybody has a story. Them r it affects directly like as it did us, or its a nephew, a cousin them directly, a. Iend, grandchild it seems like theres no more than one it seems like theres no more than one degree of separation at this point in the epidemic. If you dont know someone who has died personally, then you have a neighbor or a cousin or a nephew or someone who knows omeone who has died. So many of the stories are the same about how it starts painkillers. I have heard so many stories that. At starts out with and progresses to heroin or other substances. Was he his injury, was a football injury . No. It was an and progresses to heroin or other substances. Acc an accident. And then the painkillers were prescribed at the hospital. Yeah. Alice, were you surprised by nything you found in doing the work on this . Alice i think i was surprised by how many people were at the ace, honestly. That did take me that did bit. Me back a little i think especially when youre hysicallyyoure seeing everyone who is there and how many people have been impacted by it, it is were in for people who dont know, its the home of Little League baseball. So you go there and theres of little kids who are playing baseball. It is as american pie as you can get. So it is kind of this environment to be in. You see all these families who have been impacted by this pidemic. There are ment three u. S. Starts waiting to here senators waiting to come out here and speak on the opioid epidemic. There are a whole bunch of d. C. Area from the who may be able, in their own this world, to be ble to do something. As parents of someone who ssed, who overdosed on opioids, what do you want them to do . Ot speaking as policymakers or anything, what needs to be done on the opioid ve pidemic . Well, as people have seen 60 minutes episode, that one bill needs to change. And i, for the life of me, i attorneys tand why. Or the d. E. A. Switched sides unethical, its immoral. For them to switch sides to be d. E. A. And the then the attorneys for the Big Drug Companies companies. Something i cant understand. Youre in the law yourself. World todd yes. When i was first told about it a couple months ago, i thought, against anything i worked in a federal prison. Ainst anything that ties the hands of another federal Law Enforcement agency to ffectively do their job. How about treatment . Was it difficult for thad to get treatment . Pointed out it wasnt the most effective, though relapse is such a difficult subject. Dorie right. Research we were so naive. Do dnt know how to anything. Ok, find him a place to go. K. But our daughter is quite the found the nd she place. Thad loved to lift weights. He was at the gym every day. That id, mom, i found one was has a little gym, you now. Everything just fell into place. From our terribly far home. Shall wish the nd results would have been better. Was there a reason . Do you have any reason why you thad relapsed twice . Now i think maybe the drug of his upcoming being nervous about, what if i fail. Ecause he had friends who that he met through meetings were going at through it. Or maybe maybe had not done well and failed. E didnt want were going alice todd, i see you tilely thad. Tattoo of would you mind showing that . Todd this is a portrait i had of my son. I think in december. Then this was to go back to il. The first tattoo that he had. This is the crest for bern switzerland, thats where my from. Grandfather came and then this i had done in he june 28, i think. He had this on his back. So i wanted this arm to represent my son. In my s always with me heart. Hes here on my arm. Hes here, his ashes, some of his ashes are in here. When we at we take travel places so that our sons always with us. Were es we take this if going somewhere to spread his like at his grandparents house, different places in pennsylvania, and out in indiana at the lakes where he liked to go. But when he passed, there was about a little bit left in here. Dumped that out and put some of his ashes inside it. He preworkout drink. Dorie he didnt like to travel so much. Those, kind of one of gotcha. For me. Thats all the time we have this session. Todd and dorie, thank you so ch for coming down and speaking. Your story is heartbreaking. Effective in the war on opioids. Alice, the video, obviously speaks for itself. Im going to turn this over to going ague, mike, hes to ask questions of the next spaniel. Thank you very much for listening. [applause] hello, everyone. Good morning. Im mike, a congressional reporter hello, everyone. With m joined by two senators who have seen their States Affected by