we ve got some breaking news on that story we started with, new and potentially damaging allegations against ronny jackson, the president s pick for va secretary have just been released by democrats on the senate veterans affairs committee and first reported by the new york times. let me read these to you from the piece. dr. ronny jackson, the white house physician nominate today lead the department of veterans affairs provided a large supply of percocet, a prescription opioid to a white house military office staff member, throwing his own medical staff, quote, into a panic when the medical unit could not account for the missing drugs. according to a summary of questionable deeds compiled by the democratic staff of the senate veterans affairs committee. a nurse on his staff said dr. jackson had written himself prescriptions and when caught he asked a physician assistant to provide the medication. and at a secret service going
we have changed the way we practice emergency medicine and change the way we approach pain. going back to the old ways of prescribing opiates is not an option. julie, listen to this. according to the national institute of drug abuse, nearly 80% of heroin users started with a prescription opioid. doctors in this program see hope in the epidemic. julie? thanks, alecia. eric: former u.n. ambassador bill richardson will be here. he has a long history of negotiating with north korea. he will be on outnumbered straight ahead. tries to get in my way? watch me. ( ) mike: i ve tried lots of things for my joint pain. now? watch me. ( )
know, ruined my chances of finishing school and could have been certainly fatal for me as well. well, and it s interesting because yours, like so many others, started innocently, a prescription that just sort of led down, that spiraled out of control, and that s what seems to happen to so many young kids these days, as it happens with a sports injury or something like that, and then suddenly, your life is completely opposite of what it used to be. of course. i mean, four to five heroin users started on prescription opioid pain medication, you know. so when we talk about the failed policy with the war on drugs, i mean, the fact of the matter is the war is with the pharmaceutical companies in a lot of ways because this easy access to these prescription drugs with little to no education on addiction has created this crisis to begin with. you have, you know, so many individuals who started with an accident, having their wisdom teeth pulled, and they were given a solution that was origi
opioid overdoses alone which is, you know, that s more than three times as many people who died in the vietnam war. the entire vietnam war. and so i think doctors now are prescribing more carefully. hospitals, et cetera. it s much harder to get these prescriptions. now what you re seeing is with the scarcity of these pills on the street, a lot of people are turning to heroin and fentanyl. they can get it cheaper, more readily, and they re overdosing left and right. you have a growing heroin problem now. scott, thanks for your great reporting and the work the washington post put into this. thank you very much. we re going to take a break. we ll be right back. ine sales ss seems a little. strange? na. ever since we switched to fedex ground business has been great. they re affordable and fast. maybe too affordable and fast. what if. people aren t buying these books online, but they are buying them to protect their secrets?!?!
institute of drug abuse, 80% of heroin users started with prescription opioid. the first point of con tack someone has is when they go to the er. this pilot program by the colorado hospital association involves eight hospitals and three free standing er s. one doctor part of this pilot told us about the moment the crisis hit home when heroin overdose patient explained how she became addicted. what she said, i got my first prescription for an opioid from an emergency physician for an ankle sprain. i got a prescription for percocet. why that impacted me so greatly is earlier that day i saw someone with what i thought to be a bad ankle sprain and i sent him home with a narcotic, vicodin. guidelines encouraging doctors to write fewer opioid prescriptions and getting addicted patients on therapy. sandra, they re not doing this on a government dime. six months is the pilot program. sandra: thank you.