American Addiction Our World

Time now for macro are world. -- Our World.

Powerless. Powerless. This is an epidemic and that's the right word,

that's precisely what this is, an epidemic.

A darkness has descended across America. A plague of addiction and

death and there's ever been. -- greater than there's ever been.

And the legacy of this story's playing out every day and night

across the country. Washington city, western Pennsylvania. Police and

emergency services are called to aces Bective heroin overdose. Oh my

god, what's wrong? Get out of the way. Drugs are killing almost 50,000

every year, most are dying from opioids like heroin and morphine

pain pills. If the paramedics hadn't arrived what would have happened?

Bad things were going to happen, she was pretty close to not breathing.

How common is this? Everyday, keeping our finger in the dyke so

the dam doesn't break is all we can do. It doesn't matter of your

economic status, race, religion, it affects everybody.

The recovery village in Orlando, Florida. There are almost 1 million

heroin addicts in America. And this is where the new breed comes for

help. Increasingly their young white kids from the suburbs and

countryside, areas that had been immune to the scourge of heroin.

Started when I was 17 years old. When I was 13 I started using pain

pills. I'm here because I'm a heroin addict. I didn't know what I was

getting into, at the time I just enjoyed the high, you know? It will

take everything you have, all the money you have, everything you work

for, you love. Your whole life revolves around it. In the blink of

an blink of an eye your whole life turns around and I'm about to be 25

and I have nothing. This centre is run by advanced recovery systems. It

has clinics across America, but the demand is so great now they're

almost always full. And in a nation of private healthcare, only the

lucky few with the right insurance end up here getting top-class care.

And that's the problem, John, your brain can't forget, it remembers

everything. Needle tells a whole, the old familiar sting, tried to

kill it on the way, but I remember everything because I can't break

those connections. Their there. Hardwired for a long, long, long

time. Why did your recovery failed? It failed because you're trying to

do this by yourself. No one can do it alone. I'm addicted to heroin. I

want to stop but I can't. I've about died six times. I remember the first

time I overdosed and my boyfriend was actually filming me. He brought

me back and right after that he went and did a shot and it was kind of,

like, Wiles, I just almost died and I was done at that point -- wow.

Gokhan is a cure for someone overdosing it. Without it people

die. When am I going to get some more, that's all I can think about

to feel better. But I never feel better. I'm sorry.

What is this? A spoon. Doctor Huckabee is the medical director

here. He's an expert on pain medication and what it does. He's

also a recovering addict who became hooked on oxycodone, a prescription

painkiller. My fear is we're going to have this whole generation that

basically, you know, is going to continue to struggle and the death

rate is going to continue to get higher and higher. I had an injury

where I broke my foot climbing on the roof of my house and I have to

have surgery on my foot and I got prescribed oxycodone for

post-operative pain, it took over my brain in such profound ways that it

totally blindsided me to the point I was injecting my own fentanyl in the

operating room and I was fortunate enough to have partners helping me.

You were injecting yourself? Yes. Powerless. Powerless over it.

Promised myself all the time, not going to do this again. Not going to

do this again today. And by the end of the day, you know, just couldn't

control it. The kind of pain pills Doctor Huckabee took were opioids,

powerful morphine like pills. But in the wrong hands they can be highly

addictive. Even so, they were increasingly prescribed for common

problems like backpain. But some of the drug companies not only oversold

the benefits, they undersold the risks and sometimes they even

encouraged doctors to over prescribed. Government tried a

crackdown. Drug companies tried to make the pills harder to abuse but

it was too late. A nation of Addicks had been born and people just

switched to an alternative and it's never been so cheap, pure or

available. Heroine. Americans constitute 5% of the world

population but yet we consume 90% of the world's hydrocodone, which is an

opioid painkiller. We know that four out of five new heroin users start

on prescription pills, they are addictive, people get addicted to

them all the time and that's a large part of the problem. This is an

epidemic and that's the right word, this is precisely what this is, an

epidemic. Jody Russo runs one of these rehab centres in Florida,

she's an expert on addiction and she also grew up with it in her own

home. My mother was a heroin addict growing up so at a very young age I

understood what heroin was. I was probably about eight years old when

I understood how to cook heroin and what you did and so the secret...

You think you're keeping it from your children, it's... Your cooking

heroin for your mum? Sorry. So this is... Can we stop for a moment? This

is where Jodi's from. The Mont Valley, Western Pennsylvania.

Rustbelt America. Built on steel and coal but long in decline as

factories closed and jobs were lost. America's addiction to opioids has

swept across the country. Although with respect no one, not race,

religion or class, its head white communities in smalltown America the

hardest in places like the modern Valley. All the communities in the

valley were on a downward spiral economically. The epidemic of

heroin, it's like it has put the nail in the coffin. If there was any

glimmer of hope for rising above, it has quickly, quickly putting that

light out. -- it is. This is a prime example of a community in fast

destruction in a heroin epidemic that is completely taking over.

Jodie introduced us to family and friends along the valley whose lives

had been devastated by this. Heroin's the devil, that's the worst

of the worst. Why did my son try it? I really think he was trying to find

a cheap way to live. All I know is I lost my son. I didn't think it was

going to happen and I don't think anyone else thinks it's going to

happen to them. Since Melinda's son died she's been looking after a good

friend of his, Stephen Ashbourne. Steve is also a heroin addict. By

heart breaks, it aches. When I was in high school, that's when I first

started using. Then it was just pills. Pills. I was 20 when I first

tried heroin. I don't want to glorify it but it was great. Never

had anything like it since. The first one was the best one. Then

it's like constantly trying to get that back. I look at you and it's,

like, you don't want to do this. I'm at the point where I don't want to

get high any more and on dealing with it but it's constantly on my

mind. Are used to have so many friends. We would all get together,

it would be, like, 20 people hanging out -- are used to. Out of those 20

guys are used to be friends with, three of them are dead because of

drugs -- are used to. I would say ten of them are still using -- I

used to. The rest of them are in recovery. Tomorrow I'm going to be

sick. I'm going to have to find money somehow to get my vote and if

not I'm going to be miserable, I'm going to hate life. -- stop. Yet I'm

going to do it anyway. -- stop. You're going to be OK.

That boys stole my heart. My heart is... Steve also started on pain

pills at school, before moving to heroin. It has destroyed the

business of the once owned, and though he is desperate to get clean,

it is hard to shake without serious, long-term help. Steve has been

trying to get clean, but the withdrawal pains have started. It

has been about an hour since I got home. The only thing I can do to get

better, I can't feel like there's no more. I'm sweating, I've got... I

don't know if you can see at what I've got goosebumps really bad. I

can't quit sweating, freezing cold, sweating at the same time. It is 80

degrees in my room, after the air-conditioner on, but I'm still

freezing. Heroin grips people like no other

drug. Addiction is almost guaranteed. And for many it usually

ends one of two places. Rehab or death. Two days later, Steve is back

in the grip of his addiction. How are you feeling right now? Right now

I'm all right. I got a few bags earlier, so I'm feeling level, in

order mean? But it is never, never good enough. Never have enough, in

order mean? It is always... It seems like whenever I am using it is

just... Just constantly want more and more and more. The Mexican

cartels are flooding the country with heroin and in parts of the

valley you can get it as quickly as ordering a pizza. Steve's contact

has come through. And once that bag is in his pocket, there is nothing

else he can think of. Every injection is the role of the dice.

This is a new supplier. Steve doesn't think it will be strong, so

he is taking three bags in one shot. But there is no way to know how

strong it is, what it is cut with, or whether it will kill you. It

takes just seconds to course through his veins. It has got hold on me. I

just... I'm obsessed with it. It runs my life. I don't need it, but I

feel like I do. It is so hard. It is like it

controls everything. I want to, they need to, control it. And cut it out

of my life. Because... Honestly, and deep down, I don't want to. I don't

want to keep using. Jodi believes Steve went he says he

really wants to be clean, and she has found a place for him and her

clinic in Florida. He is a big boy, he is an adult. And I can't be

giving him money, I can't be giving him everything he needs because you

couldn't get up for work, or you just want to get high. You have got

to do what you have got to do for yourself. And I think this is his

first step. I want to get clean, I don't want to live like this any

more. I do want to go. It is really hard to talk to my mum, and talk to

my family about it, because, like... I see how, like, it upsets them. I

love you. I'm sorry. You don't have to say you're sorry. You say I am

going to do it, ma'am. That is what you say. As he prepares to leave the

Mon Valley, the business of buying and selling heroin goes on. One

dealer agreed to speak to us but he didn't want to be identified. I

don't have to do it. I like the fast money. It is easy, fast money. I

mean, I take care of my family fine. It is young people, old people,

white people, black people, rich people. You know what they mean? The

drug doesn't have any colour to it, or any age. I have seen 13

-year-olds out here, sniffing heroin. It is absolutely everywhere.

Every town around here, at least, there is somebody that sells drugs.

It is predominantly heroin, because that is the big thing around here.

It is the night before Steve leaves for Florida, and it is not the

future he is desperate to arrange right now. It is where to get his

next fix. This is the power of heroin. I am going to work tomorrow,

dude. Before I leave, that's why in trying to get it on the night,

before I go. Steve hasn't quite got enough money for his drugs, so he

calls his mum. Do you think you can do me a favour and give me a 20

until I get off work tomorrow, because the kind of needed, before I

go. And I'm not going to be able to do anything tomorrow, after you pick

me up from work, I've got to go straight to the airport. Is it all

right? Like, I don't want you to be mad at me nothing. -- or nothing.

Thank you, goodbye. Does she know what it is for? Yeah. I kind of told

her, without actually saying it. And she knows, she is not stupid. She

has been dealing with it for how long? But I think in a normal, like,

circumstance, like any other day, she would just flat out tell me

know. Will this be his last night of addiction? 12 hours, I'll be flying

to Florida. It is going to be rough, I know. But I am ready for it. The

next morning, it is time to leave the Mon Valley, and perhaps his

addiction, kind. I am excited. I am pumped, I want to get this started,

I want to get off this (BLEEP). I want to get one more shot, I have to

get that last one in, I could have said that in my head, and that is

it. I am done with it. I am done. Hello, Jodi. Hi, Stephen. I'm good,

I'm so glad you made it. A month later, in Florida, and Steve is

clean, and in therapy. Finally opening up about the guilt that

fears his addiction. What is the motion you are feeling right now? My

grandfather being the father figure that he was, the last time I spoke

to him, I told him that he didn't have to worry about me any more,

that I would make him proud. That I would be all right, because he was

always so worried about... He was always really worried about me,

because he knew what I was doing. And I just told him I would be all

right. And... I wasn't. But I know it is not too late. I can still, I

can still make it right. But I told him... You know, I think he has made

tremendous progress, I really do. From the time he entered in, from

the time he left out of Pittsburgh, came and entered in, I see a great

deal of progress for him. He has had a lot of insight, he is able to see

things a little differently now than what he did during that conversation

that we had on the porch with him. So that's exciting. I think he was

in a hopeless and helpless situation, and having the

opportunity to get out of that is what he needed. Like so many, I

think people across the United States, they just need a place to

go, and some encouragement and some support. And every single day of his

life, he will have to work hard just to stay clean. But so far, our

success story. But for many, there are no happy endings. Just more

addiction, overdoses, and death. We met 24-year-old Anna at a food

handout run by Angels of Addiction, a group looking out for the

destitute. And is in the depths of addiction, struggling to survive in

the filth and squalor. -- Anna. A lot of people walking by. Emaciated,

dirty and cold, she is hooked on heroin. So how long have you been in

here? Like a month and a half. You cannot do that. What do you have to

do to get the money? Just go with people places, or some guys just

want to hang out and take you to dinner, pay you, or they want you to

get high with them, and they will pay you two. Some days it is like

you don't get upset about it, and other days it is misery. You OK?

Little bit of a rush. You need it, you don't feel good if you are not

on it. You don't feel like talking to people if you are on it. Another

Sol lost to an addiction that is devastating America. # and the home

of the brave? ??NEWELEMENT the weekends here and

it certainly getting off to a chilly start. There will be some ice