-- host: we wanted to get your take on the opioid crisis. call this number of ura republican. >> among the economically stressed white americans, taking a toll along whites, hispanics and blacks. since the beginning of the decade -- whites, 12%. native americans and 18%. the overall death rate for americans and needs prime years rose 8% between 2018 and -- what it reflects is an out-of-control epidemic. -- a lengthy piece in the washington post. >> he files a lawsuit against five pharmaceutical manufacturers. they helped cause ohio's current opioid epidemic. here's a little bit from the attorney general from mike dewine hearing on capitol hill late last week. >> the pharmaceutical companies beginning in the late 1990's tried to change the cultures. that purpose was for pain that goes on day after day. but is not terminal. they were very successful in doing that. in response to your question, one of the things i like to see these companies do, they can do it tomorrow and start, lawsuit or no lawsuit, is to spend some money to change the culture back to where it should be. host: you can watch that entire hearing at c-span.org. we'll show you other pieces from it as we go on. far more powerful and deadly. we're talking about the role of government here. chris is on the line fierce from the republican line from texas. good morning chris. caller: good morning sir. we really need the pain killers. i had several operations myself. couldn't have made it without them. they have a wonderful purpose. we're so lucky to have the medical that we have. i'm recovered addict from local. -- alcohol. lot of rehabs closed up under obama. i hope those rehabs can start opening up again. they were pretty much free. it's nice to get in some place if you're hurting and ready to get in to recover. there's no place to get into, our problem is sold. to me that's the most important thing. they got the dogs out. the drugs are on the streets. some of that stuff is really bad news. some of that stuff -- you can take one pill and die from it. that's how strong it is. host: chris were you concerned you were addicted to alcohol. were you concerned you'll get addicted to pain killers? caller: absolutely. i would take anything that makes me feel good. i'm going to over do it. i'm sorry about that. it's not a moral issue. i have a disease. i'm not bad person. i'm a sick person trying to get well. it's an illness. for those that think it's a moral issue, they need to bag that. host: chris, thank you. let's hear from iris. iris calling from michigan now on the independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i believe when the government finally addresses what's out there as drugs and narcotics instead of softening it up by calling it opioids, they'll have to do something. the proper departments to deal with drugs and narcotics can get boo it. i really believe that if people can find a places where this stuff is available so can the government. just call it by what it is so the right people can get into action and do something about it. it is killing too many people. it's taking lives. caller: i believe the government should do more about the opioid crisis. do understand what i am saying? host: thank you for calling eugene. we're talking about your calls on the government role regarding the opioid epidemic. plenty being written just in the last several days including this story in the "washington post" in says the drug crisis is pushing up death rates for almost all groups of americans. very details piece here. new mortality spike is occurring in almost every state. breath of the nation's health has not been widely appreciated. academic researchers have focused on the most intensely affected regions like appalachia and rural new england. a trend in began around 1999 and continues unabated. caller: china cut medicaid. it would do a lot of good. i would say the lieutenant governor he had up there, he's not a republican. he's a democrat. you guys can change that. host: okay, thank you very much for calling. we have robert on the line. robert from charlestown, rhode island. caller: what's your first name, john? host: i'm paul. caller: opioid is a different story. i've been prescribed oxycodone because i have arthritis. i've taken one pill. i'm 76 years old. i have bad arthritis. i only taken one pill. i watched the program cops and other programs where you see these people, they're almost comatose on the streets and everything. it's a waste of money. you can't save them. this younger generation is brought up by tv programs they see on cell phones. it's almost like most of them don't have no purpose in life. they turn to drugs like this. they have nothing that interest them. me, i get high when sun is shining and i'm working. there's so many people on these -- host: that earlier caller said he has a disease. what do you think of that? caller: i don't believe it's a disease. i have pain all the time. i don't even take it. i live off tylenol. i got a prescription of 60 pills and i've taken one. i i said give mely byes you gave me in 2010 to hell me. wow, that's opioid. i said there, you gave me a prescription of 15 pills last me 10 years. it's weakness. you watch these cop programs and you see people on drugs. they're walking zombies. host: i want to get other voices in here. based on everything you just said, does government have a role here? if so, what is it? caller: it may have a on everything you just role. lot of people are medicaid that get these drugs and shouldn't be. i can go on forever. host: one of the earlier callers mentioned medicaid there. the new hampshire center at that joint economic committee hearing talked about the opioid impact and brought up medicaid. here's what she had to say. >> as i travel across my home state of new hampshire, i hear from countless families and those on the front lines about how the heroin, fentanyl and opioid crisis devastated communities across our state. i know that many of our colleague have heard of the impacts in their state as well. i'm proud that during my time as governor, republicans and democrats in new hampshire put our differences aside and came together to pass and we authorized our state's bipartisan medicaid expansion plan. medicaid expansion is providing quality, affordable health coverage to northern 50,000 granite staters including coverage for behavorial health and substance disorder treatment. experts have said it is the number one tool we have to fight this crisis. we should be coming together here just as we did in my home state. to support those on the front lines and help those who are struggling with addiction. while members of both parties and the administration have discussed this crises, we need these words to be matched by action. host: the "washington journal" touches on this. opioid crisis poses challenges for bill. they talking about legislation. opioid crisis has become sticking point in the republican plan to dismantle portion of the affordable care act with key gop senators hesitating. several provision of the aca known as obamacare millions of americans seeking substance abuse treatment to gain coverage including through an expansion of the medicaid health program for the poor. the house repealing repealing the aca would roll back that medicaid expansion beginning in 2020 and allow insurance companies charge higher premium or deny them substance abuse coverage. that's in the "wall street journal" this morning. adam from baltimore, good morning. what would you like to say? caller: i believe that this opioid crisis is sort of an -- sorry, trying to gather my words -- it's a symptom from the failed war on drugs and so called madness culture. host: what is a compassionate approach? caller: making more expensive option treatment readily available for people with lower income. lay heard, i don't have the proof on me i remember reading that people that needed to get treatment for their addiction had extremely limited options and there were various programs some with higher treatment. they'll take you to a nice country club resort and give you all the various options that you need. that sort of treatment is very expensive and very exclusive. host: thank you for calling adam. john is in texas. john a republican. good morning. caller: good morning paul. i have a history with taking opioid pain medication. i have a chronic back problem. i'm not going to talk it now because my problem with it. my concern is, is that in the past, they made to so difficult. d.e.a. made it difficult for doctors that was -- lot of the pharmacies didn't stock the medication because they were scared of being broken into burglaries. doctors didn't want to prescribe medications. my concern is, i understand it's a problem with abuse of the medication. there are a lot of people in united states that have chronic problems. part of reason that medical marijuana has come about. doctors aren't able to prescribe medication that legitimate patients need. host: john thanks for calling. social media carol write nas we're in society that becomes more satiated so called pleasures. we're asking you about the role of government. jackie writes these people saying to stop letting it cross the border are serious. holy crap, do you know that opioids are the painkillers you get from your doctor? to answer the question, government roles is to stop answering to big pharma lobbiest and provide more funding for mental health and substance abuse programs. rob rites the government should be trying to keep the legalization and misuse over previbing drugs. there needs to be a database of prescription so that flag can be raised to get prescribed the narcotics. we go back to the phone now charles, birmingham, alabama democrat line. what is the role of government if any on the opioid crisis? caller: i think you should not states that discriminate states that have constitutions like alabama, we have a constitution that says backs and whites should not marry. if you feel that way about blacks you should recuse yourself from making laws period if you're attorney general. he wants to make laws, be against black people. how can black people get healthcare and they talking about states rights and you live in a state where they are racist believe that blacks are different from whites shouldn't get married. probably black people took care of them when they were babies. they wouldn't be in congress trying to pass these racist laws. host: charles, let's hear from stacy now. back to the opioid issue here. from mcclain virginia. independent caller. caller: good morning paul. thanks for taking my call. good morning america. what role does government play in the opioid crisis? they created the opioid crises. if you go to any city -- you can tell if you're legislator or congressman is a drug dealer. prescription drug dealer. based on all the dead citizens and orphan children that are left in the state. these people on capitol hill take campaign money from these drug companies. doctors push these poison prescriptions out on the american people every time they write a prescription, speak at an engagement or write an article. they get paid for packing these poison prescriptions on to the american people. the government's greed created this opioid crisis. the government needs to be responsible for the actions that they've taken that has killed their citizens. if you want to point a ping finger at anybody, turn around and point to that dome on capitol hill. they created this opioid out of greed. the need for prescription drug money, they have poisoned an entire country from greed. host: stacy thank you for calling. u.s. and state and local government lawsuits over opioids face uphill battle. this is a headline from reuters. growing number of states and counties filing suit including drug companies deceptively marketing opioid painkillers. some are saying the nature can pose a hurdle to their success. they talk here about ohio which we talked about earlier. mississippi and counties in new york and california, city of chicago, have all filed similar lawsuits against these opioid makers and plaintiffs lawyers said more are on the way. some of the lawyers think that the number of lawsuits could eventually snow ball. resulting in outcome similar to the $206 billion settlement tobacco companies reached in 1988. opioids unlike cigarettes at the time, are regulated by the u.s. food and drug administration. little bit what's going on. there's also a big economic impact the joint economic committee holding that hearing last week on what an opioid epidemic and crisis means to the economies of various counties and states. here's a little bit more from the ohio attorney general. mike dewine. mr. dewine in a moment. while we get that clip ready. we'll hear from sandra from alabama. republican caller. caller: i think the government need to stay out of the lives of people. there's two different sides to this drug thing. there are those who are young and have not been taught morals over a generation that haven't been taught about the lord. they take it and they go with it. there's some of us who are older, in chronic pain, we're getting medication. we're getting up in the nursing home. i'm raising four children that my daughter she passed away due to medicine. she was younger. without the medication i get, i'm able to move, i wouldn't be able to raise those children. i hope the government officials take their time and don't just broad base everything like they always do. there's two sides to everything. host: sandra thank you for calling. we have a clip now from the ohio attorney general mike dewine the economic impact of the opioid crisis. >> it's much more difficult to determine. but it's huge. absolutely huge. is the number of people who are in ohio who cannot pass a drug test and cannot have number of drugs. you can never hire someone who can't pass drug test to be around machinery. you can't hire someone to be in charge of mcdonald's or burger king. the missed opportunities. these people are not living up to their god given potential with tremendous impact it has on their own family but impact it has on the state of ohio. it's just absolutely huge. i do kind of quiz when you talk to employers i say do you drug test? yes i drug test. what percentage of people who come in here and you tell them have to take a drug test leave. add to that percentage of people who come in here and so arrogant and stupid they take the test and fail it. average comes back when you put those two numbers together is 40%. it's not scientific. it's anecdotal. it tell us some of the great loss we have. host: -- we go to myra now in massachusetts. what's the role of government with the opioid epidemic? caller: well, i don't think they're doing anything. it's more talk. my daughter passed away a year and a half ago. as the previous caller said if a kid can find someone who has fentanyl why can't the government find somebody who is selling fentanyl? she thought she was taking oxycodone and it was laced to fentanyl. host: where did the fentanyl come from? caller: a friend gave it to her. she thought it was oxycodone. all these people are drug dealers they're addicts. she wasn't an addict. all you have to do is take fentanyl once and you're dead. i don't think the government is doing anything except doing people and trying -- she went through the d.a.r.e. program that was a huge failure. host: what would be the number one thing that the state or federal government could do to help solve this problem? you think of one big thing. caller: they know they're coming from china. they know the drugs are coming from mexico and china. if they know that, i guess that would be the biggest thing they could do is keep it out the country. host: myra thank you for calling from norton, massachusetts. best to you. we have tony from greenwood colorado independent line. caller: good morning paul. i'm looking at this from a different direction. maybe a question you can raised with somebody you get on your panel one day. i'm wondering how much what the death rate can be attributessed to suicide as opposed to accidental overdose. the reason i raised that, it's timed because this is so much timed to the failing economy. i'm wondering -- these drugs you take enough of them, go to sleep you don't wake up. if you lost everything and people lost a lot they can't find employment, have they turned to those drugs. decided this is it. what you be looking for, what would the government's role be is so study. has there been an inverse relationship with the death rate from these drugs and tapering of people who shot themselves. another form of suicide. i think there's a large percentage of this that's suicide and not the accidental overdose. only way the government can help solve it so to understand the problem. what are the reasons that people are taking these drugs. if that's true, if it's true, the people are turning to opioids and ending their life that way, it's become more of a death with dignity issue. that's something that we're going to have to explore because we kind of finding social safety net is being taken out and as that's being taken out maybe people are saying, this is it. i'm either poor i'm sick or i'm mold or i'm a combination of all three. i don't want to deal with this anymore. i want out. maybe there's a big piece of that. host: tony thank you for calling. ll writes, opioid crisis is due to prescription of a certain drug. it is incumbent on the on the fda to remove it. fda shocks lawmakers by pulling opioid off the market. the stories said that the fda shocked lawmaker advocates and the pharmaceutical industry when it asked drug maker to pull opioid from store shelves. the agency decision last thursday asking the pharmaceuticals to remove the painkiller opana. it came after years of lawmakers saying the fda approved too many opioids and contributed to a growing epidemic. i have advocated for years for the fda to seek the advice of its expert advisory panel and seriously follow recommendations on the approval of regulations of dangerously addictive drugs. this is from senator joe manchin democrat from west virginia. the agency's decision came after a group of experts voted 18-8 back in march that long acting painkiller was doing more harm than good. let's get a call from gary now. gary is in everest kentucky, democrat. caller: how are you? we're all blessed by the good lord. thank you for taking my call. i live here in in here in in kentucky. 15 miles from virginia. in my state and virginia, the main crisis now is methamphetamine garbage. years ago opioids i had spine fusion. years ago, i was prescribes oxycontin. i didn't sign contract with the doctor or anything. that it could become addictive. years ago i lost everything i own. my home and everything due to the addiction to that. it's so dangerous people don't understand if you took that medicine one or four gay days, you'd be addicted to it. they make a billion dollars a year off oxycontin only. that's what they ought to go after. only be able to prescribe it in hospital setting. what lot of the problem is, you have poor economy and people don't have jobs and they get a bottle of pills and they can sell them there $3000 on the streets and children are hungry, they put them in that position. it's a revolving door with the court system. i really appreciate you taking my call. host: thank you. we'll hear from more you by phone and by social media. we're half way through this first hour of the monday edition of "washington journal." plenty more to talk about today. including attorney general jeff sessions who announced over the weekend we would like to testify before the senate intel committee. here's the "wall street journal" piece. testimony will keep russia in focus. mr. sessions canceled previously planned public testimony before house and senate appropriations panels. he said that the testimony by mr. comey, james comey former fbi director made it quote important that i have an opportunity to address these matters in the appropriate form which he said was the senate intelligence committee. they point out as we have, it's unclear whether the intelligence committee hearing will be held in public. we do know that it's tomorrow. if it does in public, rest assured we will be there and we'll have it live on c-span 3 if it's in open session. over the weekend, couple members of the senate talked about what they like to hear from the attorney general. we'll hear from senator james lang ford in a moment. here's senator chuck schumer. >> he should be sworn under oath. it should be open. there's very little classified. there's some questions about sessions that have to be asked. first, did he interfere with the russian investigation before he recused himself? second, what safeguards are there now so that he doesn't interfear? third, he said he was involved in the firing of comey and the president said comey was fired because of russia. how does that fit in his recusal. fourth, he's been involved in the selection of the new fbi director. did to talk about the russian investigation with them? all those important questions. >> we have not disclosed and finalized public. i psalm this will be public. we assume that final time with jeff sessions. we got to get his side of the story related to james comey. some of the conversations james comey had with the president. where jeff sessions participant there to get the rest of the story. comey statement -- that interaction as well as these accusations that are flying out there about conversations that he might have or might not have had with russians prior to the election. weapon want to get his -- we want to get his side of it. we have a lot of unnamed sources in the media make statement about jeff sessions. host: more of the headlines all his side of it. we have time. democrats say sessions must testify in public. he is slated to follow up on comey and in the "new york times," senator ron widen democrat from oregon do sits on the intelligence panel said the american people had the right to hear the attorney general's answers in a letter to the top republican, democrat on the committee, senators burrr burr warner. i believe we owe the american people transparency. that will be a big theme continuing through today. whether this hearing this testimony about mr. sessions will be public. we'll follow the story and the action to the extent we can. nancy from bass michigan. back to the opioid story. independent caller. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i like to comment about the opioid crisis. a lot of young as well as old people in are in pain have had sort of like predatory prescriptions that they've been taking by the doctors in if the pharmaceutical companies. many of the drugs are banned in europe and we are very uneducated as far as our prescriptions are concerned. once we take one or two pills and we have to continue on them. if we do, we have to be supervised to get off them because your body goes into a crisis mode and handle being off them. you have to have supervised by your doctor to graduate -- gradually get off them. i seen young people in hollywood as well as poor people in texas, all having the same problem. once you get on these, you have to get off of them gradually and you have to be -- you have to have a very well educated there about opioids host: what else can government do? caller: i do think they need to study what they did in europe and be more educating themselves about some of the prescription medicines. i think for doctors have a moral duty to be more educated easy well. thank you. host: thank you for calling nancy. let's hear from keith now in palm bay florida. caller: good morning. i'm a recovered alcoholic drug addict of ten years in september. the government being involved has become the oxymoron actually. on the federal level we're indirectly guarding the popping pills in afghanistan. which had record crops in the last 15 and 16 years. people say that opioid don't come to america. it's a world market. it brings down the price here to where it's so cheap for people to get addicted. opioids take your minds off pain and you end up hurting yourself worse. as far as the rehab is concerned, and insurance and stuff, i work in the front lines of this, you go to unions, you go to other places and people have been there four or five times, it's enabling people until i wanted to recover, you could have paid all the money in the world the government had. you cannot get me to recover. i had to hit my bottom and want it. by doing this insurance and filling these rehabs with people enabling them to have a way out people that really want to get in rehab and don't have the money, cannot get in. because they're full of people that are just avoiding the problem by going to rehab. you can check this out. they'll send people four and five times. people across the nations are getting in rehab. drug courts are sending people to aa that don't want to be there. it's causing recovery and aa groups and other groups that do the 12 step program to diminish because of these people that don't want to be there to interrupt it. the government is actually causing the problem to get worse. until i got thrown in jail on my third dui and woke up and somebody held me accountable and didn't give me a way out. i did not want to change my life. i kept lying and cheating and stealing to get my drug of choice. which was anything free until i was held accountable. the government should start holding people acontinue -- accountable. families need to hold their loved one accountable this would help a lot. the person has to find the bottom. hopefully it's not death. there's only three ways out, locked up institutionally crazy locked up in jail or death. i feel like 5.5 feet down in my grave and wanted to change my life, that'sth best thing that happens to an addicts. host: thank you for sharing your thoughts. congratulations on your recovery. ten years said the last call per? ego -- caller. let's try colorado. democratic caller. go ahead terry. caller: i've been a nurse for over 31 years now. a lot of my work has been geriatrics. we pushed pain management in the nurse for geriatrics population. you see a lot of behaviors from that and the geriatric population that's related to pain. i currently unemployed due to back injury. three years ago, i had a back fusion. fusion in my back. with this, during the past three years, going through physical therapy, i'm now on a pain management program. take very little narcotics tramadol which is not a he narcotics. i had stimulatetor impacted. new my doctors pulled me off my pain medication. three weeks after the stimulate stimulatetor was implanted. it's calling it to fail. you got to work into this. i'm on medicaid so the government paid probably $61,000 for this stimulatetor to fail. that's what i have to say. host: thank you for sharing your situation with us. lots more writing on all of this. just today, "new york times," they have this headline. opioid crisis and lobbying are giving a drug boost that tests don't. they write here that the ads have been popping up on billboards subways and magazines. portraits of attractive men and women with sold oh bold -- bold letters what is vivitrol. it was a treatment. it's arriving fast. thanks to connections and scant science to prove the drugs efficacy. hhs, tom price praised it as the future of opioid addiction treatment. it was the kind of plug that vivitrol spent years coaxing. it troubled lawmakers and law enforcement officials. they write here with the trump administration spending a billion in new addiction treatment funds to states over the next two years through the 21st century cures act strategy highlights the profit opportunities that drug companies and investors see in opioid epidemic that killed 91 americans everyday in 2015 and is growing worse. some of its practices marketing tactics and mr. price's comments ignore widely reduced accepted science. 700 experts in the field wrote the health secretary in a letter. just a piece of what's going on there in the drug industry with lobbying and government officials. it's right on the front page today of the "new york times." ken is calling now from california. independent caller. caller: hi. good morning. i want to say that the government is part of the problem. the people that have legitimate use for these drugs are being cut back or taken off the drugs. because of that, it's putting them in a position either going to the prescription drug black market or heroin or they kill themselves. host: anything else ken? let's try jeff now if cliffton new jersey. just outside new york. republican caller. caller: i think the government fault should be we're in afghanistan, lot of it's grown there. we should introduce insects that might destroy the plant and funguses. unlike cannabis, poppies are -- you introduce pollen to marijuana, it goes to seated. the poppy must be destroyed with some kind of bacterial blight. we know where it's grown. we don't do anything about it. it won't put anybody in danger. fly overhead, supply it and walk away. it's all natural. that's what i have to say on that subject. host: another jeff is in -- where you calling from? tray this line. another jeff, auburn, new york. caller: i am in auburn, new york. host: glad to have you jeff. caller: long time watcher. i called in on several occasions. i would like to address the history of the drug war. it goes back far beyond richard nixon declaring war on drugs. it goes back to the treaty of versailles and how i know this, on pbs, it was documented in documentary part of the treaty of var -- versailles took away bear corporation on heroin. it's a fact. i have a personal anecdote on this subject. my nephew passed away due to heroin overdose. it was shocking. not surprising. he was on oxycodone for a hand and nerve injury that required four surgeries and several hundred stitches. he put his hand through a plate glass window. he was on oxycodone for years and they upped his dose. ten in years in total on oxcy. he turned to heroin when they cut him off. he went to jail because he stole the prescription pad because they wouldn't up his dose anymore. he was still in pain. the war on drugs, you can't incarcerate your way out of this problem. i worked at a county jail. it's impossible to incarcerate your way out of this problem. we don't have enough taxpayers in america and enough prisons in america to keep people locked up that have a mental disorder that causes an urge for any drug. i want to point towards amsterdam, legalized, regulate and relab. this is solution to the drug war. republicans for lowering taxes get these people out of prison. get them in rehab. job if it takes 10 times in rehab for six weeks each, it's a lot better than 10 years in prison. i live in a prison city. the prison cost $70,000 per inmate to keep and addict in auburn prison. that's what i got to say. host: thank you for calling this morning. we'll do this for about ten more minutes. other news comes from puerto rico. abc news and others reporting uphold statehood demand. they done this several times in recent years. but government there is vowing to make u.s. territory the 51st state after statehood won in a nonbinding referendum. hit by a boycott. the government told supporters wavering u.s. flags late sunday, create a mission point to senatorrings indemand statehood from the u.s. congress which has to approve any changes to the island political status. half a million people voted for statehood during the referendum. followed by nearly 7800 votes free association independence and 6800 votes for the current territorial status. voter turnout was 63%. that's sparking lot of headlines and criticism enough people took part. we'll see how this plays out over time. "washington post" amid backlash in britain. the president's trip there might be in doubt. this came from new jersey over the weekend from the white house team. the president's plan for statehood visit to britain later this year appear to be up in the air he faces backlash for criticizing the mayor of london if the aftermath of june 3rd terrorist attack. trump was already unpopular in britain. trump recently told british prime minster may he does want to go forward until british people support a visit. melissa calling now from ohio. go ahead please. caller: i'm sitting here watching this. i know that it is an epidemic. i had a daughter that was severe on heroin. she's been year and a half clean. she straightened out her life. she's almost died a couple times from it. i have a lot of medical problems. as a matter of fact, friday i went to the doctor, i found out i have a woman disease that women don't usually get until they're in their 50s to 70s. i'm 47. i wake up in constant pain. i can't do what i regularly did in my life. i feel from having a child, that was on heroin. that that she's straight, she's told me, they used to get this patch. i can't remember the name, fentanyl. they would put that in their heroin to make them higher. i considered her when did you take opioid. i said that's a low grade drug. i'm thinking what. i don't understand. when i went to pain management, he said melissa it's not giving you 15 milligrams, i'm giving 10, twice a day. he said you need help. we don't got -- this woman disease just came out. we don't have -- government gave them $2.6 million to figure out treatment for it. i feel when people keep cutting opioids, there are older people that do need it. i lived in the towers where there was elderly people. there are people that do need it. but don't abuse it. that's what the doctors should look at. making counts on their pills. taking urine and blood test when they come in. if they fail them, then they're off. it's such a big thing. it's not over the opioid. it is over fentanyl. it is all over our streets. it's whoever is getting them fentanyls is what the government should start looking up. i know for a fact many children on my streets talk about fentanyl. that's killing the people. the fentanyl. when i'm sitting here and listening to thing, there are people that really do need it out there. they should not just cut completely. there are people that need it. i cannot walk up and down my stairs because of the disease i have. host: thank you for calling. photo dude at twitter writes that his brother is addicted not sure what the answer is. i know the government cannot enforce personal accountability. more news headlines this morning. tampa bay times all about cuba. what's at stake. they remind us that the president late this week is going to be in miami and he's not likely to reverse all of president obama's policies, the president might restrict travel. look for president trump trip to miami later this week and possibly some new news there. the president according to u.s.a. today, may visit the supreme court this week. he's called chief justice roberts absolute disaster, ruth bader ginsburg her mind is shot. trump has been tough on the judicial branch of the government. even the man he nominated to supreme court is called such a tax, disheartening on thursday all that may have to be put aside if trump pays supreme court for gorsuch called ceremony. it's a ritual in which the justices hold a special sitting of the court to welcome their newest member. u.s.a. today story there. "wall street journal" as -- illegal immigration is up again along the southwest border. they caught 14,500 plus people in may. 27% jump according to homeland security and breaks declines under president trump. suggesting that the slump in migrants has bottomed out. they said that seasonal uptick. sometimes during summer months the number of folks apprehended goes up. last couple of calls on this topic of opioids and what the government should do about the crisis. helen from yukon oklahoma. caller: this is such a multifaceted problem. the big part of is the pharmaceutical companies and doctors. i worked in hospitals for years. it seems like everybody gets opioids, oxycodone. it's getting out like candy. they are beginning to cut down on that in the hospital. they beginning to track these so that people go from hospital to hospital getting the drugs they'll get it easily. it's a huge problem already. the young people they get it out of the drug cabinet. they get it from friends. they get addicted and they get these records police records. then it's so hard for them to get a job. it's so hard for them to get treatment. many people don't have insurance. insurance won't pay for the kind of treatment they need. then of course, there's a whole thing once they become addicted to the prescription drugs that they get illegally then they go to the cheaper heroin. once they start shooting up the heroin, -- like one the earlier callers was talking about, using the fentanyl pamps, they try to use treatments that are addicted addicted. it's just overwhelming. i do believe pharmaceutical companies play a huge role in this. also criminal justice system that puts all these young in jail. i do believe they need to have some kind of -- the government does need to be involved helping rehab and have some kind of -- sorry, i can't think of the word now. not go to jail. not have that record. although they do need to be doing some kind of public service for being arrested and continuing to use these drugs. they get these records and they finally end up going to prison. you know, it's so hard for them to get out of the whole situation. host: helen thank you for calling. sharing your thoughts. one last call here. it's ted from warrenton, oregon democratic caller. caller: good morning. i'm a retired union journeyman plumber. i did a lot of hospital work back in my days. the basic premise for running piping in the hospital, i ran medical air, medical vacuum and socks -- oxygen. these are the type of jobs you're there for a year. what i found was, for instance purdue showed up at a private hospital. purdue the only maker of oxycontin. giving away trips and money and stuff and the cfo and the ceo of the hospital. i found that really shocking. of course, when you're on those type of jobs, you're kind of like the invisible person. you're not supposed to interrupt or disrupt. it's truly shocking. i kind of think that medcos need to be held responsible. they're the ones with the prescription padded. they're the ones that are causing all of this. i believe there should be capital punishment for medcos. thank you. host: thanks for calling. appreciate all your calls for this last hour on the opioid story. we'll continue to track it on capitol hill and see what else happens with this issue. you want to watch that joint economic hearing again with the attorney general of ohio has filed suit against the pharmaceutical companies who make these products. you can watch that at c-span.org. coming up shortly after a quick break, james gelfand of the erisa industry committee. we'll look at the senate as it