Transcripts For CNNW This Is Life With Lisa Ling 20191014

Garden died overnight. He did have a prescription to at van. One of the hardest things to detox from. Your hair is blowing off your head. We wanted to take a closer look at what people are saying about these drugs. I was shaking, sweating, thinking crazy thoughts. We uncovered a growing community that believes these drugs are holding them hostage. This is the prescriptions. Trapped in a virtual prison of the mind. Is there any room for error in this at all . To me its a life or death mistake. Even if you dont take them, you probably know someone who does. Do you remember how out of control your body was . I remember riding in the ambulance. For years america has been struggling with an opioid epidemic. Could benzoes be the next big killer . First hit the scene in the 1960s and quickly became immortalized in mainstream culture. When valium was popped like candy. Side effects are rarely encountered. Pain, ive never known pain like this ever and it never stops. This is what thousands of people are saying about benzoes today. I cant sleep. I have become the tremors never stop. Help me. There are thousands of these videos of people in desperate situation just trying to show the world what theyre going through while on benzoes. These videos are hard to watch. I was a productive member of society. Could they reveal something we all should know about this fdaapproved class of medication people have been taking for decades . Tom and Debbie Wagner had zero concerns when their 35yearold son jonathan was prescribed clonpen. Can you give us a sense of what jonathan was like . Jonathan was very loving, caring person. He loved being out with his friends. Super social . Very social. Very caring about people. Did he ever deal with any emotional issues . Was he ever depressed about anything . When his marriage failed, he was depressed. Of course, he got depressed, but it was normal depression. We all have ups and downs. But by early 2016, jonathan was enjoying a new lease on life. Several years removed from a divorce, he was saving money to help launch a family dream, their own food truck. Jonathan moved in here. He was saving money, and he was so excited. Jonathan worked as a floor manager at a casino trying to save money and still have a little time for a few rounds of golf with his buddies. In february of 2016, he was offered a night shift. So jonathan took a 5 00 at night until 3 30 in the morning shift. When jonathan couldnt fall asleep when he got home at 4 00 in the morning, he went to the doctor and thats when they put him on clonpen. Jonathan took one pill every day as prescribed for seven months straight. And it worked. Until he decided he could get to sleep on his own. He decided he didnt want to take a pill the rest of his life to go to sleep so he quit taking it. Just cold turkey, didnt consult the doctor . Just stopped taking it . Yes. Then what happened . It came on mild. He was like i dont know why im depressed. Then one week he started getting real anxious. He started saying his heart was racing. He thought maybe he was just having anxiety. So he went back to the doctor, and the doctor gave him xanax. Another benzo. Tom tells me his son didnt like taking pills on principle. After about a month he stopped taking the xanax, also cold turkey. All of a sudden, he cant function. Cant eat, shaking. Crying. At that point, were you thinking that it could be the medication that hes on . We had no idea. Were like jonathan, whats wrong . Their sons transformation left the wagners stunned. Just a few months before, jonathans life was full of promise. This is who jonathan was right before it all started. I mean, he just looks like a normal guy having a good time. And i have the video of jonathan after. I took this video not having the struggle. Where do you go from this point . Desperate for answers, debbie accompanied her son back to his doctors office. Im in there with jonathan. And the doctor looks at us and hes sitting in the round stool. And he turns around to us and says there is nothing i can do for you. Youre in withdrawals. At that point, jonathan and me are speechless. Im like what are you saying . What do we do . And he gave us a card to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist put jonathan on valium. I cant deal with it. I cant deal with it. As the months dragged on, jonathan was prescribed more medication. Tell me what is wrong . But nothing seemed to help. In fact, his symptoms became more alarming. At one point, debbie called me, and i left work because jonathan wrote a note. It was a suicide note. He said get the guns out of the house. I went in your closet and i was looking at your gun. How often was he having feelings of suicide . He had just said it keeps crossing his mind. He didnt know why. Jonathan was admitted to the hospital on suicide watch. It was during this time that he was taken off all his medication and prescribed an antipsychotic. After a few days, he was discharged. A month later on may 4, 2017, he told his mother he was going around the corner for some snacks. Ten minutes later he wasnt home. Call him. Im on my way home. Well, we know now, he went to the local gun shop up here and bought a gun. And friday there was a text that had come. It said that he loved us and to know that he was going to a better place. And i called and nobody answered. He shot himself. It was about six months from the time jonathan stopped taking it and began the downward spiral that led to his death. His parents have tried to move on, but they cant bear to touch his room. Is this the way it was left . This is how it was left. Nobody has been in here. The trouble is coming in here to clean it up, it has a psychological thing that youre cleaning him out, i guess. Is that a bible on his bed . He read the bible every day. Every day. At one point he asked me about suicide and whether it was a forgivable sin. And according to the bible, there is only one unforgivable sin and thats blasphemy of the holy ghost. It was the hardest question i had to answer in my life, because i didnt want to lie to him. And i knew by saying no that i kind of gave him a little bit of a license to do something. I couldnt lie to him and let him go to his death thinking he was a sinner, because he wasnt. Out of all of this, that was the hardest part for me, because i couldnt lie to him. I had to tell him the truth. There is no denying that jonathan took his own life, but could this tragedy have been avoided . And can anyone be held accountable . They had given him so much medication, we didnt know where to stop, what to take, what not to take. After my dvt blood clot, i wondered. Could another come around the corner. Or could it play out differently . I wanted to help protect myself. My doctor recommended eliquis. Eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot. Almost 98 of patients on eliquis didnt experience another. And eliquis has significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. Eliquis is fdaapproved and has both. Dont stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. If you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling numbness or muscle weakness. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily. And it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planed medical or dental procedures. Whats around the corner could be your moment. Ask your doctor about eliquis. Cdc guidance recommends topical pain relievers first. Like salonpas patch large. Its powerful, fdaapproved to relieve moderate pain for up to 12 hours, yet nonaddictive and gentle on the body. Salonpas. Its good medicine. Hisamitsu. Seeing what people left behind in the attic. Well, saving on Homeowners Insurance with geicos help was pretty fun too. Ahhhh, its a tiny dancer. They left a ton of stuff up here. Welp, enjoy your house. Nope. No thank you. Geico could help you save on homeowners and renters insurance. Between 1996 and 2013, the number of adults filling a benzo prescription increased from eight to nearly 14 million. I want to know more about these drugs, how risky are they . And how are we supposed to know . Ill go ahead and show you where these are kept. Mohammed works at a familyowned drugstore in the suburbs of chicago. We will always hand them these leaflets. Each prescription comes with a leaflet instructing patients on what they are about to gulp down. Avoid drinking alcohol, driving. Like most people, i casually glance through this kind of sheet. Tell your doctor if you have an allergy, feeling tired or weak, weight gain. These side effects sound so benign. By this point i probably would have tossed the insert, but if you keep reading, there is scary stuff further down. Low mood, depression, thoughts of killing yourself, nervousness, thinking that is not normal, anxiety or lack of interest in life. A lot of patients that are taking these medications for such simple things like sleep, anxiety, but little do they know once they start taking it that they can ultimately become suicidal. Once a patient becomes physically dependent on these medications, as soon as they stop that consistent dosing that they are taking, they can experience severe withdrawal symptoms such as tremors and even seizure which can be fatal. Do you get the sense that people read them . Thats completely on the patient. I can only emphasize the importance of reading them and understanding what can happen with the medications. So the Drug Companies do provide warnings. If you go online to the fda website there is more data from dosage size to potential side effects, an almost dizzying amount of information. When jonathan got the material that the pharmacists give, most people dont read through that. Do you think if he had or if someone had i think the paperwork is written very softly. It says it can create suicidal thoughts, its kind of washed over, as far as im concerned they say you might get bad thoughts. People when they get their drugs, theyre suffering. So they just want to get that drug inside their body. Tom raises a good point. How many of us take the time to really weigh the risks when were feeling at our worst . Isnt that where doctors are supposed to come in . I dont believe this doctor knew. How can you give out a drug that changes your brain and especially give it out for sleep, but never ever tell you what this is doing. I would love to tell the doctor this is what you took from me because of your ignorance. The wagners are adamant that jonathans nightmare started with the first prescription for klonopin, but by the time he took his own life he had been prescribed a cocktail of drugs ranging from benzoes and antidepressants to antipsychotics. This is medical records, prescriptions. This is a prescription that we ended up with. So over the course of seven or eight months, he was on all this stuff . Yes, all of this plus more. Valium, klonopin. At one time, i think he was taking seven or eight different pills a day. With so many prescriptions that could have contributed to jonathans state of mind, as much as you might want to, can you really hold one drug or any one doctor accountable . Did you talk to lawyers about taking on this case . Yes. Yeah, we called a lot of lawyers, a lot of them. Heres one list of lawyers that we had contacted. The wagners scoured the yellow pages in search of legal help. I want to speak to one of the lawyers who consulted on jonathans case. Hello. Hi, allen is a lawyer specializing in personal injury law. My take on jonathans case was i thought that there was something seriously wrong, but the reality with indiana was that if the decedent was not survived by a spouse or by children, the damages on the wrongful death were capped at 300,000. And to finance a medical malpractice case, the cost can be tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire experts to have the files reviewed. It really wasnt a question of can we prove our case. Sadly, it was a question of the economics involved. So its kind of your hands are tied. Your hands are tied and your heart sinks to know that they think there was wrong, but there is nothing we will ever be able to do. My producers and i reached out to jonathans doctor and the Hospital System he works for. They expressed condolences to the wagner family, but declined to comment. While i cant talk with them, there is an expert on the forefront of this phenomenon. Dr. Anna is a practicing psychiatrist and has been prescribing medications like these for 25 years. What is the proper way to administer or prescribe benzoes . They are a great tool short term for anxiety and insomnia. When i say short term, i mean a couple of weeks. They shouldnt be used daily for more than two weeks. When we take it, it increases the calming neurotransmitter in our brain. It allows us to relax. The reason we dont want to use them more than that period of time is because the brain and the body adapts and then the body becomes dependent on them. Jonathan wagners doctor continued to prescribe klonopin for seven months. Major medical institutions warn against taking them for more than six weeks. What happens when you stay on them for longer . Could they be exacerbating the problem . Yes, yes, absolutely. They absolutely will make anxiety worse over time. As a result, what were seeing is more and more emergency room visits and more and more people dying. There has been a sevenfold increase in deaths in the past 15 years. Thats horrific. I think we have a very serious silent epidemic on our hands. Jonathan isnt the only one who has been harmed by benzos. There is an entire community. I felt like my mind had snapped, that i had just gone crazy. This is a rare meetup in the suburbs of chicago. They come from all walks of life, but one thing unites them. They or their friends and family were all prescribed a benzo. And for a multitude of reasons. The reason i was put on xanax was for my excessive sweating. My doctors put me on klonopin for hot flashes. I had mild anxiety and trouble sleeping. Few studies have been made on how many people are harmed by benzos but the manufacturers state that one out of every 500 patients may have suicidal thoughts or actions. What kinds of things were you going through when the symptoms were the worst . There is really not a day that goes by that i dont have a suicidal thought, but i try to fight it. I would just think i have to walk out in traffic and just kill myself. As they continue to share, Something Else emerges, trying to get off the drug can be another kind of nightmare. I felt so alone and isolated. This feeling of absolute terror. You lose all your friends cephali want to kill myself. Suicide. Suicide. It was like a water fall of symptoms. I was vibrating on the inside. I couldnt walk, because it felt like the floor was moving. I felt like i needed to run away from my own body. What do you do if the medication youre taking makes you feel bad, but trying to get off makes you feel even worse . It was like pure torture and nothing i did could stop it. Biopharmaceutical researchers. Pursuing lifechanging cures in a country that fosters innovation here, they find breakthroughs. Like a way to fight cancer by arming a patients own tcells. Because its not just about the next breakthrough. Its all the ones after that. I get to select my room from the floor plan. When i book at hilton. Com free wifi. And the price match guarantee. So with hilton there is no catch. Yeah the only catch is im never leaving. No im serious, i live here now. Book at hilton. Com and get the hilton price match guarantee. What might seem like a small cough can be a big bad problem for your grandchildren. Babies too young to be vaccinated against whooping cough are the most at risk for severe illness. Help prevent this talk to your doctor or pharmacist today about getting vaccinated against whooping cough. My bladder leak underwear. Orried someone might seeist today so, i switched. To always discreet boutique. Its shapehugging threads smooth out the back. So it fits better than depend. And no one notices. Always discreet. Tthe bad news . Ouyour patience might not. Ay. New depend® fitflex underwear offers your best comfort and protection guaranteed. Because, perfect or not, lifes better when youre in it. Be there with depend®. They can be taken to treat insomnia, seizures and stress, but their most popular use is for relieving anxiety. Anxiety disorders affect some 40 million adults in the u. S. Its what caused chrissy, a young mother of two to seek help several years ago. Have you always had issues with anxiety . No. I had normal human worries. I never experienced true anxiety until after my daughter was born. She would continually stop breathing just at random times. We spent the first few months of her life in and out of hospitals. And she eventually got better. But i didnt. For two years chrissy experienced chronic anxiety. It eventually became too much, and she made an appointment with her psychiatrist. He told me about klonopin. I can remember asking are there any weird side effects. He said no, it was a perfectly safe drug to take. How did it feel the first time you took it . I noticed right away it took away my anxiety. Finally relieved, chrissy was able to focus on raising her two children. But after two years on klonopin, she started to notice a change. The anxiety started to come back. And it was stronger than what i had experienced before going on it. I remembered going to the appointment and saying whats going on. I was told that sounds like your bodys intolerant. Youre probably going to need to take a higher dose. But chrissy didnt want to take more. She wanted to get off the drugs. She was advised to cut her dose by quarters over a fourweek span which lines up with what i have seen from manufacturers pamphlets. A few weeks after her last pill, chrissys life came crashing down. One minute i was me, and the next i felt like i was in a living nightmare. My ears were ringing. The inside of my body started to vibrate. It was like a motor was running on the inside of me. Thoughts started to come into my head, completely separate from me. It was thoughts of wanting to die. And i didnt want to die. It was telling me to go in the kitchen and get a knife, that it would take away my suffering. And its a very compelling thought. Its almost like that makes sense. That will take away my suffering. But at the same time, i knew, no, dont do that. Your kids need you. It was crazy. It was a battle. It was. And i can see how someone could lose that battle. Frightened, she went online looking for answers. I started to look up my symptoms, and everything i was experiencing was due to the klonopin, coming off the klonopin. Every single symptom i was feeling. It was an alarm bell moment, and it reminds me of jonathan wagner. Like chrissy, jonathans downward spiral didnt begin until after he stopped taking klonopin, in his case cold turkey, something even the manufacturers advise against. What happens to your brain when you suddenly stop a benzo that you have been taking for an extended period of time . So if we stop all of a sudden its like an excitatory nerve transmitter thunderstorm in our brains. Its a very uncomfortable feeling, restlessness, depression, heightened anxiety, motor ticks and people can seize. Some people even get suicidal. Chrissy didnt stop taking klonopin suddenly, but she did experience these kinds of withdrawal symptoms. Maybe four weeks was too fast. In desperation, she turned to another doctor. He told her going back on a benzo would return her to normal. In lou of klonopin, he prescribed her valium. I took the first dose of it. And within an hour, everything was gone. I was back to me. The shaking had stopped, my vision was back. The ears stopped ringing. It was like i had just woken up from a twoweek long nightmare. Chrissy was now faced with a choice, stay on the medication indefinitely or try to find her own way out. On the internet, she connected with others like her, people who wanted off benzo and were desperate enough to try anything. I have a scale. I have syringes, and i dose four times a day. Is there any room for error in this at all . No, none. Man 1 . Caused liver damage. Vo epclusa treats all main types of chronic hep c. Vo whatever your type, ask your doctor if epclusa is your kind of cure. Woman 2 i had the common type. Man 2 mine was rare. Vo epclusa has a 98 overall cure rate. Man 3 i just found out about my hepatitis c. Woman 3 i knew for years. Vo epclusa is only one pill, once a day, taken with or without food for 12 weeks. Vo before starting epclusa, your doctor will test if you have had hepatitis b, which may flare up, and could cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. Vo tell your doctor if you have had hepatitis b, other liver or kidney problems, hiv, or other medical conditions. Vo . And all medicines you take, including herbal supplements. Vo taking amiodarone with epclusa may cause a serious slowing of your heart rate. Vo common side effects include headache and tiredness. Vo ask your doctor today, if epclusa is your kind of cure. [ referee whistle sounds ] sport dr[ cheering ]s when you need the fuel to be your nephews number one fan. Holiday inn express. Were there. So you can be too. [ turn around, look at me there is someone walking behind you turn around look at me there is someone look at me only roomba i7 uses two multisurface rubber brushes. And picks up more pet hair than other robot vacuums. And the filter captures 99 of dog and cat allergens. If its not from irobot, its not a roomba™. After several years on klonopin, chrissy tried to quit, but was plagued by extreme withdrawal symptoms. They only stopped when she was put on valium, another benzo. Feeling let down by the medical community, chrissy turned to the internet for help. When you were going online, were there doctors involved, or were these just people who were suffering from benzo withdrawal . There were no doctors. They were experiencing the same things that i had just experienced. They started sending me all this information on how to do this liquid microtaper, where you just take out one one hundredths out a day. Its a way of easing your body off of the drug. I remember a guy from australia that i had met online called me from australia. Hes like heres what you got to do. And i listened to this guy, because he had been there. Its crazy. Someone you never met before. Im on the phone with a guy from australia. Im like okay. Putting your health in the hands of a stranger seems risky to me. But the doctorprescribed method of weaning over four weeks hadnt worked. Chrissy felt she had nowhere else to turn. How often do you do this . I do it every night. I have gotten good at it. In the beginning, getting it figured out was overwhelming because it dealt with a lot of math that i couldnt grasp at the time. I always have my four jars set up because i dose four times a day. And i have a scale. I have syringes so i can measure accurately. This is microtapering. It looks like something out of high school chemistry, portioning out the correct amount of medication over four daily doses while cutting back 0. 001 mill graham each day. This seems like such a daunting process. This way of tapering has helped me lose my symptoms. How to you track your taper . I keep a record in this note book. I started here july 30 of 2017. I see you have written hold a number of times on pages. What does that mean . My symptoms were escalating. To feel safe, i just would not make a cut in my dose that day. Is there any room for error in this at all . No. To me, its a life or death mistake. I just dont want to go back to that place again. Its been 13 months since chrissy began her tapering journey. Along with her new online family, those closest to home have been a strong form of support. These are pretty powerful images. I love my mom. Youll get better soon. I love you. I made it a little shrine especially in the beginning when i was feeling so hopeless. If it all goes well, chrissy has about six months to go before her body is free from this drug. While her doctor is supportive and prescribes the valium she needs to slowly quit, this way of microtapering is not an industry standard. Its just incomprehensible is that you are following a regimen that is not doctor sanctioned. No. Its just unbelievable. It saved my life by doing it this way. The people who have helped me have saved me. Last month four people took their lives. I could have easily ended up one of those names that i see in my groups every month. I cant wait to be free of this to have my life back. I feel like im chained to this medicine. Any anxiety im sorry. Its my dose to take my dose. To hear people in person talk about going through withdrawals, so many of their symptoms are so similar. As i was listening to all these people, i just couldnt help but think about my own father. He went through a period going without sleep for days. His body was jerking profusely all the time. He was crying all the time. And he was prescribed klonopin. And i just have to wonder if it had anything to do with benzoes. Can you draw a picture for grandpa. Im going to draw a picture of you. You want me to smile . My dad, doug ling, is 82 years old. Hes a pretty great grandpa, if a bit rough around the edges. A scrawny beard. He forgets things from time to time, but considering his age, hes in pretty decent shape. Here it is. Whoa. That must be grandpa. Back in late 2016, his health took a sudden turn for the worse. So during this period, we collected a number of videos of my dad. When he was awake, he was just crying all the time. He refused to go outside. And he would just be hallucinating. When he would try to sleep, his body just couldnt stop jerking, so he wouldnt be able to sleep. And this just would go on for days and days. So when i hear all these people talk about what they were experiencing when they were going through withdrawals, it just sounds so similar to what my dad went through. To satisfy my own curiosity, i decided to see if i could find any reference to benzoes in my dads medical records. I see on august 23, he was admitted to the e. R. After a couple of days they but then after five days, his doctor reduced it to 1 2 of one tablet, so 0. 5 milligrams of it. And then in february, it says the reason hes there is for delirium. I wonder if this delirium could have had something to do with a Senior Citizen being on klonopin. Dr. Greg sikone from the Kaiser Permanente Hospital System was the one who helped my father get back on his feet. What did you think what going on with him . Do you think that what he was experiencing was a result of the benzodiazepine . You know, the first visit when you brought him in was really a mystery. He had been on benzodiazepines. It wasnt clear exactly how many he had been taking, but if you think of a persons equilibrium as a pond and you drop a medication into that pond, there is a ripple effect. Those ripples can be happening long after a medicine is introduced or removed, so it may not always be obvious to the patient, to the physician, so it is a risk. Studies have shown there is an adverse risk of prescribing benzos for the elderly. Do you think he is just sensitive to that classification. There are patients who have a paradoxical response. Even though the medicines are supposed to be calming, there are some people who get very agitated on them. The fact that your dad was older, was on different medications, any small thing can have an impact on the overall whole. So is it possible . Sure, its possible that there was some impact that the benzodiazepines had on him, but i honestly think well never know the answer to the question, but i think its a very important question to bring up, because as with the opioid crisis, benzodiazepines may be the next thing that we deal with. You can come to school with jett and me. Yeah . And then were going to go this is my father now. Hes clearly in a much better place and thankfully doesnt recall much of what happened. So, daddy, do you remember when the paramedics came . I think they came, like, three or four times i remember riding in the ambulance, and i thought it was they were taking me to the morgue. And thats about all i remember. Honestly, dad, we really thought that you i mean, we planned funerals for you a couple of times. Yeah. Because your body was just so out of control and no one could explain what was going on with you. Maybe its good that i dont remember any of that. I know. You know, bad times. Yeah. Ooh, you look good, dad. I always look good, my dear. So i guess well just never know whether benzos were behind what my dad experienced, but even his doctor says that we cant completely rule out that they may have played a role in it. Im just grateful that hes doing well now because so many people are not so lucky. Im your cat. Ever since you brought me home, that day. Ive been plotting to destroy you. Sizing you up. Calculating your every move. You think this is love . This is a billion years of tiger dna just ready to pounce. And if you have the wrong Home Insurance coverage, you could be coughing up the cash for this. So get allstate and be better protected from mayhem, like meow. So get allstate and be better hyalits in here hem, Revitalift Derm intensives hyaluronic acid serum. With our highest concentration of hyaluronic acid. Visibly plumps skin and reduces wrinkles. Bounce back revitalift hyaluronic acid serum. From loreal. Tthe bad news . 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Healthy, beautiful smiles for life. Here, hello starts with hi mple. How can i help . A data plan for everyone. Everyone . Everyone. Lets send to everyone [ camera clicking ] wifi up there . Ahhh. Sure, why not . Howd he get out . a camera might figure it out. That was easy glad i could help. At xfinity, were here to make life simple. Easy. Awesome. So come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today. The stories ive heard from people whose lives were devastated by benzos are heartbreaking. And im left thinking, theres so much we still dont know. But there does seem to be one strong takeaway. There are a lot of people who are watching this right now who have been on benzos for years mmmhmm. What do you tell them . The first thing i would say is, do not stop your benzodiazepines abruptly. That would be a very serious mistake. You would put yourself at risk for lifethreatening withdrawal. Also be aware that you are going to be in the role much of the time of educating your prescriber because most doctors dont recognize how hard they can be to get off. And thats the thing. Why isnt there more of an outcry . I mean, it is enraging and its terrible, and we do need to change our practice. Its bad doctoring, but i dont think its bad doctors. We receive hardly any education in medical school about them. Theres no education at all about how to get patients off of benzodiazepines once theyve already been started on them. This is a swedish study just came out. I found it very alarming. It shows the increase in benzodiazepines prescribing in young adults. And yet. Now focused on raising awareness and teaching the next generation of doctors about the unintended consequences of benzo use. Why do they want to get off . Well, often they want to get off because it the not working anymore. So what happens is this problem of tolerance that develops over time, needing more and more to get the same every infect. Effect. Should general practitioners be able to prescribe benzodiazepines . Yes. I mean, we dont want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Its not that we want to eliminate benzodiazepines altogether. Its an important tool. But there needs to be much more awarran awareness on the part of prescribers and consumers about the risk. In our research we contacted the companies who make the drugs mentioned in our program. They say the benefits of benzos outweigh the risks, but stress that doctors should keep patients informed and follow the prescribing guidelines. A sentiment echoed by the american medical association. Doctors, you need to know how to help thee patiense patients of these drugs if they want to or need to. And consumers or patients, we need to read the warnings that come along with the drugs that are prescribed to us. I have never done so before. But if ive learned anything from this experience, it is that i need to be more diligent and vigilant about reading those warnings because the consequences can be dire. May not have known who their neighbors were, but they knew something wasnt right. Something illegal going on doesnt surprise me. When you mention the word terrorism, im going, lord, have mercy. Hezbollah prior to 9 11 killed more americans than any terrorist organization. As soon as i saw that house, i knew something had to be going on. Theyre a strange lot. Shouting death to america. Their mission was to become a sleeper cell, to be activated if ordered to c