Support. Thousands are gathering in trance to stand up against terrorism and honor 12 victims that died in the massacre. Those in the paris rally in this deadliest attack in 50 years. Moving on, well come back home San Jose Police department is disbanding a specialized unit in efforts to get more officers on the streets. 27 members will be assigned to patrol duty. It is expected they will be assigned with new officers. San joses new mayor applauds this decision. The chief is doing what a chief should be doing, neighborhood patrols. That is where offices are going its another example of policies that is causing these cuts to our department and officers to continue to flee to agencies around the area. The department is 50 short of the staffing goal the mayor says negotiation was Police Officials could begin in the next few weeks focusing on waist and benefits issues. Prosecutors charged a man with hate crime charges and she needed ten stitches to close the wounds. Her partner says it was frightening to see the attacker again. He had the same look on the bus which is scary to see. So im glad bail is set. Just as bill cosby gets set to hit the stage three women have come forward to say cosby drugged and Sexual Assaulted him the women say it happened in las vegas and los angeles. He drug and raped me, he took advantage of me. Im coming forward today to have a voice to stand arm and arm in support of other women speaking out he has three performances over the next few days in ontario. In all 50 women have now come forward with claims of being assaulted. An audit found millions of dollars in questionable spending by the agency that manages california courts the audit documents salaries by directors. Eight of the nine made more than the governor. The report questioned 40 million in expenses over four years. This while courts faced closures and layoffs. New details on a story we brought you on abc7 news at 11 00 last night. Executives with the as say the team will stop sales of tee shirts featuring the same logo created by a teenager. Here it is. And on the right created by ryan. The as say the manufacturer had been abandoned but the team says it will stop selling them. For many children the joy of toys will carry on into the new year one little girl found out she wasnt going to get her wish. Her family called Michael Finney to help out. Its about wishes. And for retailers about fulfilling orders. This little girl wanted just one thing but the store didnt come through. Shes zooming on a pink power wheel. Shes been driving the power wheel since age three. When it broke down down so did kate lynn. I dont think we realized how much until it didnt work anymore. Her uncle said he would buy her a new one. It was important to get that for her. Family members and and they said it was there workers kept saying it was wasnt there. Its not there. Before something he told her he had no way to get another until january. They said i wont get it for christmas i make a promise to my niece. It needs to be kept. They had to tell her she wouldnt get the wish. However, luanne contacted me. We contacted walmart. Com. Managers sprang into action and luanne got a call. The manager delivered a truck to the home. It was kind of unbelievable. It wasnt exact, but still, close. The manager called her again. He says i found the truck she wants. The manager returned with the truck and left the other one there as a free gift. And she took her little brother out for a spin too. Miracles happen, im a believer. Once we called the team had one focus find that truck. What a great guy. And that is what christmas is all about. Yes. Great. Thank you michael. Coming up therapies to keep your muscles in sync. How boxing can help in bulldog well pup, its out with the old and in with the new during mattress discounters year end Clearance Sale. Pup look i found a red tag bulldog that means folks can save up to 40 on clearance mattresses. Pup oh heres another bulldog that means up to 48 months interestfree financing on tempurpedic. Pup i found another red tag bulldog what . Where . Pup right here, silly [laughter] bulldog that tickles mattress discounters year end Clearance Sale ends soon. Mattress discounters a new exercise program aimed at people with parkinsons disease is having a positive impact. Its easing symptoms with a work out. A few are training to fight an opponent in their own bodies. Here, she leads a boxing class. Its a forced exercise they find it helps manage the symptoms of parkinsons. And helps with balance. The symptoms can vary. Veronica says she experiences tremors in one arm when using another. She believes exchanges help her limbs better stay in sync. I think it forces you to use your hands and body. And as you work that, it gets easier over time. The jim is the first here in the bay area. There is no data on the program founders say studies have validated the benefits. Theyve noticed improvement with their symptoms. For some its a pop of leather on ledger. You know, if i were healthier and maybe younger i think id try it. It is. Coming up, what happens when Harlem Globetrotters leave First Impressions are important. Youve got to make every second count. Banking designed for the way you live your life. So you can welcome your family home. For the first time. Chase. So you can. Female announcer its time to make room for the new mattress models during sleep trains huge year end Clearance Sale, get beautyrest, posturepedic even tempurpedic mattress sets at low clearance prices. Save even more on floor samples, demonstrators, and closeout inventory. Plus, free sameday delivery, setup and removal of your old set. Why wait for the new models . Sleep trains year end Clearance Sale is on now . Guaranteed your ticket to a better nights sleep i hope you have a chance to see them, theyre the Harlem Globetrotters but two were playing wheelchair basketball with young people with disabilities. The Harlem Globetrotters combined their skills ands comedy, but today all about xhags and stepping into another mans well wheelchair. You know its difficult. Seeing it from a different view. He got strapped to play against adults with disabilities and students with, and without them. Idea is that were going to come to you and bring the globetrotters and this is your chance to give it a try. There is no risk. Helping is trooper johnson. That should be what you do with your life. Talk about the shot of water, making it look well challenging . The goal is to show anyone can play wheelchair basketball or any sport. We love opportunities like this. In oakland abc7 news. Quite warm. Clear skies as you can see with minus four in minneapolis. And check out wind chills right now. Minus six in nashville. All right. Back to california tomorrow well see sunny skies with clouds moving up through the bay area, still hazy sunshine. High temperatures low to mid60s here is the accuweather forecast. Tomorrow our seventh day doesnt look like any significant improvement in our air quality for the weekend. And temperatures will continue to drop into the weekend and hold steady into next week. Yes. Thank you. Thanks. Up next is sports. Just tell us your budget and the name your price tool helps you find a whole range of coverages. No one else gives you options like that. [voice echoing] no one at all no one at all no one. Wake up [gasp] oh you okay, buddy . I just had a dream that progressive had this thing called. The name your price tool. It isnt a dream is it . Nope. Sorry you know that thing freaks me out. He can hear you. He didnt mean that, kevin. Kevin yes, he did keeping our competitors up at night. Now, thats good evening, Florida State quarterback james wilson decided to leave college early. And winston spent two years in Florida State winning a heisman trophy. Hes big and mobile. Only concerns are his off the field issues that are considerable because theyve been numerous including a Sexual Assault w lapses in judgment he may well end up being the number one pick in the draft. Ducks will meet ohio state monday january 12th on espn and available on watch espns app. The shocker is andrew bogat. Welcome news for steve kerr and Coaching Staff that includes two first time assistants. Steve kerrs Coaching Staff has a pack 12 flavor. Both have ten year careers in the nba had privilege to call games and now, getting into it on the coaching side of it. This gives me a different perspective. Luke started thinking about coaching after a back injury. Its probably a nice segway to stay around the game. Yes. It been a great opportunity and experience. Being here with this organization. So there is a all of us trying to get our guys from a coaching standpoint ready to play the game. So does this help getting guys to listen . Yes. I think so. And respect im playing with these guys over the years. Steve kerr is a rookie head coach. How do you think hes done so far . Fantastic. A great mind in keeping everybody engaged. Hes done an incredible job. All three hope to keep it rolling into finals. In oakland abc7 sports. Green bay packers only concern heading into the playoff game is the strain strained calf of aaron rogers the high in green bay will be 23 degrees. Traffic and weather together on the 7. After sustaining the injury in a late december game. They insist hes going to play on sunday while continuing to get treatment. We do it in a training room and theyre making me feel better. And see how it feels. Turning a game in oak harbor washington i saw this i thought youve got to be kidding me. What is this . Ive got to go. Ill get the lottery later turns out the ref is calling a supervisor report. Another referee was needed where 44 kids were waiting to tip off the guy was multitasking and doing a great job. Its welcome. Yes. Yes. As long as he wasnt tweeting during the game. Yes. Join us tonight at 9 00. And on abc7 news at 11 00 details on the paris terrorist attacks also an update from the face of yosemites el captain. Two climbers about to attempt a section. Tonight a local animal activist study. That is it for this edition of abc7 news. From all of us here, we appreciate your time well see you again at 9 00 and 11 00. Welcome to beyond the headlines. Question want to talk about the deadly rise in prescription use. You will hear from mothers, sisters, a doctor who treats addicts, a young person in treatment and the u. S. Attorney who brought Law Enforcement and medical world together to find was to treat this problem. You may be surprised to lrn many addicts are from wealthy communities. For example in contra costa coun more than 20 of the patients at one clinic come from walnut creek, lafayette pleasant hills, danville, alamo and san ramon. Lets get down to business. I want to introduce you to my guests today. Joining me is dr. Alex stallcup, t director of the new leaf reatment center in lafayette. Also tina coramatis, whose son is in treatment for addiction, and joe megly, a young person currently in treatment. Its coratis. Thats right. Doctor ive been folwing your work for years. We stayed in touch. You dont mince words, you say kids are abusing drugs so badly theyre having seizures at 15 years old. A lot of peop talk about Prescription Drugs, refring to the painkillers opiates, they are killing kids, thats a fact. The field changes. Were seeing a new explosion of the use of the drug called xanax, anld tranquilizer. It produces a form of physical dependence. If theres not careful attention to getting you off seizures develop. Kids as young as 15, 16 are presenting to Emergency Rooms with seizures. If we knew before they were trying to top, we could help them. Once theyet seizures its late in the game. Thats true for a lot of other drugs. We see kids coming in probably the most common painkiller now is vicodin. Vicodin contains tylenol. Tylenol kills livercells. People above eight tylenol a day you can get in trouble with the liver. Our typical patient coming in on 30, 40 day. These are kids. Children. These are our kids. Its not poor kids. These are all kids. About 50 of High School Students know someone who sells drugs in their class. Tina yo son did not want his name used. I respect that. Hes in tratment but he had a long road. He did. My son was the quintessential kid, you read about them every day. He went to high school. Fell in love with marijuana. Experimenting with drugs . Experimenting early on. By theime he was a senior he had progressed to oxycontin. He was shooting it. He then went on to heroin. Heroin is cheaper. By the time he finishedis first year of college he was really addicted. The pathetic and scary thing is that my husband and i were totally clueless. We had no idea. In high school we know kids did beer not your son, right . No. He was nice kid. Involved in boy scouts as an eagle scout. So, we just thought, you know a little pot, a little beer okay. You had a moment of trth. You found him. I did. The summer after he came back from school, he was in the bathroom. And taking a long time. I wentin there, he was on the floor. He was passed out. He had a syringe next to him and a bent spoon with a brown residue on it. I had no idea what i was looking at. I was completely clueless. We knew then wehad a problem. As a family we went through several yearof, you know it was devastating emotionally financially, our relationship really pretty much broke p. Buthank goodness we found the doctor hes doing better now. He recovered. He has spent two years clean. Life happens. And so whenevastating things happen, like my this past year my husband passed away and he then relapsed. But now hes back on the right road. Hes back at new leaf. Were very happy to see him moving forwd. Im glad that he surviv. Joe, you survived as well. You started experimenting with drugs when you were in high school, right . Right. Around 20 started to pick up prescription prescription, went and decided to ask my parents for help. It was probably the hardest thing ive done very humiliating. Humbling at the same time. And that was a year and a half ago. Its taken me so time to find the right treaent centers for me, so to speak. New leaf was the place. Right. It feels great to have my life back. You know, i have went through a rotten experience, but the lessens ive learned have been invaluable. Im fortunate. I wish more people could get treatment and spread out just because theres a lot of people out there that are sick. Thes a lot of help out there, too. Thisis a controversial medication i want to show folks. I want the doctor to talk about this. Joe is on this. This is a medication that is it should be available to everyone addicted to preription painkillers. This sis opiates break something in the brain. It takes longer to heal than we ever realized. This medication is like a cast on a broken leg. With the protection of the medication underneath the medication the brain heals. It takes much longer than we ever realized. Were now advising most of the kids we see to stay on this for about a year wow. Before they try to come off. During that time they get their life together, Mental Health back together. Reestablish relationships. Its not a free ride. Theres lot work to stay sober. This enables it to happen. This is somethingelse. This should prevent this. This is part of an erdose prevention kit. We likefor all of our familie and all of our users to have this available. Within about 90 seconds this will bring them back from death, wake them up and save their lives. We provide this to patients. Yone who needs one, we make it avlable to them. We think this is end of the road. We would like someone to be on treatment so they dont need a overs dose prevention kit. If they do this is lifesaving. Thank you very much for all of you sharing your stories. I know its difficult. Thank you for the work youre doing. We have to take a break rht now. Still ahead, a mother whose collegeaged son died from an overdose, a sisterho lost her brother, and how they bh turned their pain into a call for action. Also the u. S. Atrney who is bringing law enforcemt and health as a business owner, you kind of are at work all the time. Im driving all over the place climbing up ladders. Accidents happen all the time. I need to take care of myself, as well as take care of my business. And now i can do both, with health coverage. Female announcer when you see this truck, it means another neighbor is going to sleep better tonight. Because they went to sleep trains ticket to tempurpedic event. Choose from a huge selection of tempurpedic models including the new tempurchoice, with headtotoe customization. Plus, get 36 months interestfree financing, two free pillows and free sameday delivery. Are you next . Make sleep train your ticket to tempurpedic. Your ticket to a better nights sleep having Health Insurance gives you freedom. Im protected and im covered, and i love that feeling. Im in, so i can grow my business. You too can enjoy Quality Health coverage. To enroll, or find free inperson help go to coveredca. Com welcome back. Im cheryl jennings. We are talking about Prescription Drug abuse a deadly epidemic. Plus a shocking increase in hein use and the fact that kids are dying from it. Joining me w is april rosaro, a mother who lost her collegeag son due to an overdose. She turned that private pain into a massive effort to help others. Im glad youre here. Im so sorry about the loss of your so thank you. We met at the drug summit. Im grateful for the grassroots work youre doing. Lets get started by talking about what happened to your son. Joey graduated from high school in 2006, went off to school in the fall to Arizona State university. On december 18 2009 we got call letting us know he had be found in his apartment off capus and he had passed away. Ultimately we learned that he had visited doctor just nine days before his pasing. He had been prescribed medications she have never had. That doctor has sinc been arrested and charged with his death so shes been charged Second Degree murdern his death as well as two other patients. The pharmacy that filled the prescriptions that was about 35 miles away from her office has been close down. So the pharmac owner operatoreor of it lost their license. This must have been a terrible loss to your family. This impacts not just the family but all my friends who knew my son andthe community at large. Its an interesting cascade of events packed in sorrow and grief and dealing and coping with this issue. Not just then. It lasts. It continues. You have taken that into a national movement. You found an organization and we are putting banners up on the screen as resources for people. We want them too to your website and see these resources and referrals for treatment. One of the things i saw on your weite is a lot of signs parents and friends can look for. Yes. I think its important that parents understand what those signs are. Typically it will be things like are they changing friends. You know, is there a diffent group of friends that theyre hanging out with. Is there a parentppearance changing . Eating habits changing . Noticeable changes, beyond typically what you would think is happeni in the teen world. Rents sometimes make the miake of i think, thinking that these symptoms that theyre seeing or the sis of abuse are attributed to teenage behavr, theyre not. Typically it would be taking it to the next level. Tell me about your coalition. Our coalition was found in june. Were four years old, june 2010, just shory after joey passed ay. It was our way of putting his life to good purpose. We are focused on educating communities locally on a countywide basis, statewide and nationally. Im pernally involved in coalitions, work groups and task forces at all those levels. Education and political advocacy. I want to remind people this is so important of some of the signs that u just talked about. Well put those on the screen as we continue to talk. Your organization, you accomplished a lot of things already. You have gotten a tional month decred. Its a state month. Through the state of california, march is escription drug abuse awareness month. And then also you got national rallies. Mmhmm. Wead a rally thats happenng in the fall. Th is our second year we plan to contue the rally. We will be in our next one this year andbeyond. So, can anybody join . Can anybodyo to the rally . If they want to get involved and have a chpter . Certainly the rally, we are hoping for 3,000 people. Wevery much would like to see californians attend this rall ill be there personally and a number of people i know here. So, its something that we encourage anyone who has an interest this topic to be a part of. We have about ten seconds left. Final thoughts for parents and friends . I think its so important for pafrn parents to educate themselves educate, teach kids what ty need to know to keep them safe and healthy. Thank you for what your doing. Appreciate it. Thank you. Well continue this fight. Okay. All right. We have to take a break. Coming up next, youll meet a young author who lost her brother to Prescription Drugs. And you will look at the actions she took to save others from the same fate. Well be bac with more bulldog the red tags mean save up to 40 on clearance mattresses. Get up to 48 months interestfree financing on tempurpedic. Pup i found a red tag [laughter] bulldog mattress discounters year end Clearance Sale ends soon welcome back to beyond the headlines. O show today is called prescripon drug abuse, a deadly epidemic. How do families move on after they lose somebody to a deadly a addiction addiction . Many of us including my own family have hato face this tragic situation. Joining us now to talk about this is aaron marie daley. Thank you very much for being here. She has developed a book called generation rx. Did i sa that right . Yes. This book literally just came out. Its a story of doe, death and americas opte crisis. You lost your youngest brother, pat, five years ago. Im soorry about that. Thank you. Inow it was a hard journey for your family. Telpat. Re. He was exactly the person tha you would not think that this would happen to. Which is why when he became addicted to painkillers in high school, l of us were completely taken aback. He was that kid just funloving. He was well loved. He was so funny. Full of joy light. He fell into painkiller addiction when he was in high school. That very quickly progressed into heroin abuse. Many users often go down that path as the pills become too expensive, and they make the switch to heroin which is cheaperut provides the same high. You say he was seekcretive about this . Very secretive out this. He was able to maintain his appearance for a lge time. Eventually we did findut about his addiction to pills, but it wasnt until aft he passed away tt we learned heroin was involved. How did you learn that . I began wring the book because i was a journalist it was my natural instinct to dig into his story andearn at happened to him and how head fallen so far so fast. Thugh the process of writing the book i ordered his autopsy. Thats how i learned it was heroin. My goodness. That must have been such ahock to your family. It was earth shattering. It was the kind of thing we thought wou never happen to us. A lot of filies feel that way. This is something tt just would never touch their family. Its very stigmatized and something so unimanable that could happen to somebody that you love its shocking when it happens. You wrote the book to help learn more about your brother but also deal with your grief. Y writing the book was very difficult because i started writing it very shortly after he passed away. So, i was very much in the throes of grief. Much of the book is very raw because of that. But i also as i started to write morebout my brother, i became interested in the fact ts is happening to so many other families. So i started talking to other peoe. Hearing their stories as well. It was very bizarre becaus every time i interviewed somebody i felt like i was hearing my broths story all over again. So hearing their stories, which ar also included in the book, was very difficult and depressing and sad. But it was alsocomforting in a weird way to know that this wasnt just something that happened to brother. It was something happeni to many people. But it just wasnt being talked about. You not only have written the book but also found you took a lotof action. You found oxi watchdog. Com. What doe that do . I found the blog when was writing the book. It was a way for me to figure out whatas going on. I was looking through the news every day, picking out the ories about Prescription Drug abuse and saw that many of those stories were ending in heroin addiction. Theres a resources section for families friends addicts who want to get help. What do people sayhen they read your blogs . Ive had a lot of people reach out to me and say thank you for doing this. They felt s alone. Thats been nice. Many of the people that write to me mtion the shame. They feel they cant really come forward and admit that this is happening to people thathey lolo love, which i understand. Hopefully people will come forward and get the help they need. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hank you for what youre trying to do. We have to take a break. Coming up next, youll meet the United States attorney, melinda hague, who led the drug abuse summit at the San Francisco welcome back to beyond the headlines. We are talking about the epidemic of preription drugs killing our kids. Joining me right now is the honorable melinda haag, u. S. Attorn for the Northern District of california and was nominated by president obama and confmed by the u. S. Senate in august of 2010. You and i had the pleasure of working together othe bullying campai in San Francisco. I have. You hadverybody at the drug summit from Law Enforcement to Public Health decisionmakers to survivors there. This is near and dear to your heart. It is. The cdc reports that Prescription Drug abuse is an epidemic in the country. That viewis supported by what we seend hear in the Northern District of california. Ive heard from parents educators medical professionals, pharmacists, and we wnted to find a way to bring them together to talk about best practicesalk about data, information that will he us combat this issue together. And combating this incredible epidemicrequires all of these people to come togeer. So we were happy we could invite everybody and that everybody came. It was a product tefive meeting. Your involvement was helpful. Thank you. Where do you go with all this informion . Something i saw, talking about pharmacies overprescribing doctors overprescribing thats a big thing to corral. It is a big thing to corral, but its receiving a lot of attention both here in nthern california and the state of california and nationally. Today the director of the White House Office of National Drug control policy is in roanoke virgia announcing the 201 National Drug control strategy. The very first thing on his st is the epidemic of Prescription Drug abuse the data is incredibly trubling, what the data weve been looking at recently. We have a 400 increasein Drug Overdose deaths. 400 increase . 400 increase. 60 Prescription Drug abuse deaths. 500 increase in treatment admissions in this country. We have reportedly more than 2 million Prescription Drug abuse addicts in this countr one piece of data thas troubling is that 1 out of 20 people in the country over the age of 12 report usg Prescription Drugs without medical need. So youre talking about a lot of kid were talking about kids as well. Easy access. Its true. Unfortunately because is a prescription, because doctors prescribe it and pharmacies dispense it people including kids have the sense its not dangerous. It is incrediblydangerous. We need people to understand that. That was one of the big reasons to hve the summit. Want to talk about we run out ofime about something that the doctor and our earlier sment talked about this o. D. Kit. The attorney general of the United States, eric holder and president obama a the administration is very supportive of naloxone and these kits bng in the hands of First Responders. So oftentim when people overdose on Prescription Drugs they stop breathing. Theres a great drug out there called naloxone if they stop breathing they get injected and hey start breathing again. Its quite remarkable. The attorney general said publicly he encourages First Responders to make sure everyone is equipd and trained to use nalaxone. Could this be like a federal mandate to get everybody on board . Certainly could. Its something that the administration is interestedin. Just a few more seconds. I want to ask you what can each of us do . We nee to educate ourselves. We need to eucate friends, children, parent everybody in our lives about this issu we need to secure our prescriion drugs. Lock em up. 70 of people who use Prescription Drugs without a medical reason report getting fr friends and families medicine cabinets. We need to lock it up, take advantage of drug takeback rograms. The dea and local governmen run drug take back programs. We need to support treatment refer friends and family who need it ttreatment. And we need to to reduce the stigma. Its a disease. We all need to understand that. There should be no stigma so people can come forward. Thank you very much. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you for bringing attention to this. Ll right. That is going to do it for us. We are out of time. But we have a lot of information about todays program for you on our website, abc7news. Com community. We are also on cebook at abccommunity and follow me on twitter cherylabc7. Im cheryl jennings. Female announcer its time to make room for the new mattress models during sleep trains huge year end Clearance Sale, get beautyrest, posturepedic even tempurpedic mattress sets at low clearance prices. Save even more on floor samples, demonstrators, and closeout inventory. Plus, free sameday delivery, setup and removal of your old set. Why wait for the new models . Sleep trains year end Clearance Sale is on now . Guaranteed your ticket to a better nights sleep you know, usually in the morning i work out and shower at the gym, but i think i burned twice as many calories today. Well, we did do a lot of work on chest and glutes. So i thought tonight wed work on i dont know how about chest and glutes . Ive got to get ready for work. Okay. door closes so what happened t