Warning: This Drug May Kill You

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Man:

Lyle! Get up, Lyle!

Get up.

Man:
Facebook Live,

he found her passed out, man.

He found her passed out

on her face...

I don't know. But he might be dead, bro.

Hold on, bro.

Yeah, hold on, fool.

He might...

might be dead, jack.

Alan Spanos:

We doctors were wrong in thinking

that opioids can't be used

long-term.

They can be and they should be.

We used to think

they'd stop working

or that patients

would become addicts

or that they'd be sedated

into inactivity.

Spanos:
We now find that these

medicines are much safer,

much more powerful,

much more versatile than we used to think,

and we feel that they should

be used much more liberally

for people with all sorts

of chronic pain.

Man:

Some patients may be afraid of taking opioids

because they're perceived

as too strong, or addictive...

but that is far

from actual fact.

Less than one percent

of patients taking opioids

actually become addicted.

Man:

She's making noises.

She's making noises. Yo!

Woman:
She's breathing.

She's... Come on, baby.

Man:
Breathing?

Woman:
Yeah. She's...

She's trying to...

Come on, girl.

Come on,

Jerry, wake up.

Jerry, wake up!

Look at me.

Look at me, Jerry.

Officer:
Jerry, look at me!

Come on!

Man:
Wake up, girl!

There you are! Man 2: Woo-hoo!

Stay with us.

Hang on. Stay with us.

High five, you're alive.

You're fine. You're okay.

Man:
You all right?

You with us?

You doing okay?

Hey, stay with me, man.

Stay with me.

Man:
Can you wake up?

Woman:
Are you gonna be okay?

Is she okay?

Man:
Yo, she's overdosing.

Like, what the f***, man?

Man:
Wake up!

Man 2:
Hey!

Man:

Wake up, wake up!

Wake up, boy!

Get water,

get water, get water!

Man 2:

Pour water on her first.

Man:
Want him too?

Man 2:
F*** it, man, 'cause...

Man:
I know.

Man 2:
Anything could've happened.

Mommy... Mommy!

Man:
Oh my God.

Mommy!

Newsman:
Law enforcement says

they have never seen abuse

of a prescription drug mushroom

out of control so fast.

Newsman 2:
These drugs all belong to

a family of drugs called opioids.

Woman:

And prescription painkillers lead to heroin.

Newswoman:
It is a narcotic,

closely related to heroin and morphine

with the same potential

for addiction.

Stephany Gay:

If somebody'd told me six years ago

that I was going

to be a heroin addict,

I would have thought

that they were crazy.

Never in a million years.

I didn't hang out

with bad kids.

I didn't get in trouble.

I-I just would have never ever

thought that it could happen to me.

When I was about 16,

I started getting

kidney stones,

and they would give me

pain medication for it,

because that's pretty much

all that they could do.

Kathy Kelly:

The X-rays would show the kidney stones.

There was no faking it, nothing.

I mean,

here is a child, 15, 16...

that was about the age

she started getting 'em,

um, and she's getting 'em

every... few times a year.

Stephany:

They gave me a shot of Dilaudid,

which is a very

strong painkiller.

And then I remember

them sending me home,

with a prescription

of Oxycontin

and a prescription

of Vicodin.

Kelly:

And I remember thinking at that time,

"Wow, those are kind of high-powered

medications for such a young person,"

but I trusted the doctors.

Stephany:
In the beginning,

I would just take my Vicodin

as prescribed

when I was in pain,

but it, like, gradually

got worse over time.

It numbed my feelings

and made me feel like...

okay about everything.

You know, "I'm fine.

I'm... I'm good."

You know, I would take

an extra one here or there,

and then, if I ran out,

I would just pretend

like I didn't know what was wrong with me,

so that I could get more.

You know, faking pain to go to

the hospital to get painkillers.

I mean, it would be

anything from Oxycontin,

to Vicodin to Norcos.

Then it went from taking

the prescribed dose

of like one every six hours

to taking, like,

20 Norcos a day.

I'm going through a month

prescription in two days.

And I called my mom crying, and I was like,

"I don't know what's wrong with me."

"Mom... I can't

stop taking these,

'cause when I stop taking them,

I don't feel good."

I said, "Well, we need

to talk to your doctor."

And he wrote me another

prescription for Percocets,

which was stronger than the

Norcos that I had been taking.

My sister, Ashley...

she was the closest person

to me in this whole world.

We did everything together.

I would get painkillers,

and I'd, like, you know,

when I started

getting bad with them

she was curious,

because what I did, she did.

So, to go to sleep, she'd be like,

"Let me get one of your pills.

Let me get one of your painkillers to

go to sleep. Let me get a Vicodin."

And I'd give her one,

you know,

and she'd be like,

"Oh my gosh, I love this."

Kelly:

They would share 'em with each other.

"Oh, I have a headache." "Oh, well,

here, you can take one of my pills."

Um... menstrual cramps.

One sister sharing medication

with another sister.

Stephany:

We'd never been exposed to drugs like that.

We didn't know what

could happen, you know?

We just thought, like,

"Well, our doctor started

giving us the, you know,

these painkillers,

so it can't be that bad."

Well, then he cut

her off on 'em,

and then she didn't feel good.

Her friends say, "Oh, well, here,

I'll give you... Take mine."

But they became expensive

to buy privately from friends,

and the doctors would not

give 'em to her anymore.

So, this friend

gave her a little bag,

and said, "Just sniff this.

"It'll do the same

thing as the pills do,

"only thing, you don't

need to take five pills.

"Just take this

little bag, sniff it,

and you'll feel better."

And it worked!

She took it and it worked.

I remember thinking, like, "Wow.

This is the best feeling in the world."

It was really, like...

I had, like,

not a care in the world.

It made me feel like

I could do anything.

I felt like Super Woman.

It's a lot cheaper than...

buying 15 Norcos a day

at five dollars apiece.

You know,

"Here's a ten-dollar bag of heroin,

and it'll last you

three days."

I didn't have anxiety

or I didn't feel depressed.

I felt happy, I felt warm.

I felt like it loved me,

and I loved it back.

It felt like I was in, like,

a relationship with it,

like, I felt like I had

a relationship with heroin.

It was just the best

feeling in the world.

I snorted heroin

for about a year.

Me and Ashley both did.

Kelly:

They did not know

the scope of the addiction

that they were up against,

like a tidal wave.

You know, you're standing on a beach,

and you've got this...

50-foot wave coming at you.

And I remember

Ashley saying,

"It's not like we're sticking

needles in our arms, Mom."

Stephany:

"That's for real junkies.

"You know,

I'll never do that.

"I'll never touch a needle.

That's disgusting,

that's gross."

And somewhere...

along that time,

somebody introduced

the needle to them.

Stephany:

You only have to do a little tiny bit,

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