idea this was gonna be his last night on earth. >> from misusing perfectly legal prescription drugs. taking a deadly dose. >> pointen center, this is debra. >> i'm a little concern had that may have taken something that wasn't good for me on accident. [ phone ringing ] >> i took a few methadone from my grandpa. they were 10 milligrams. >> what you are listening to are actual calls. >> how is he acting? >> at the washington poison center in seattle. >> just drowse? i okay. >> and lately, more and more of them sound something like this. >> and today, i took about 90 milligrams of percoset. >> oh you did? >> 6:00, i wasn't really thinking and i did a bar of xanax and i'm reading all this stuff online how that is a very lethal combination. i have a lot of friends who died in their sleep and i just wasn't really thinking. now i'm wondering if i should stay up tonight. >> that kind of call to me is really scary. >> oh, it is scary. >> what goes through your mind? >> so, i would be very frightened about that young man not making through the night. >> dr. bill hurley is the medical director of the poison center. he is also a trauma doctor. >> possibly too many of his meds. they are not sure what-all they've got. >> we are here in seattle, in part, because the problem is bad. >> this bottle still has quite a bit in it. >> but also because, as you will see, there are real solutions. >> no other meds? >> for hurley you it started five years ago. >> he's got pinpoint pupils. >> he started noticing overdoses, a lot of them, coming through his er doors. >> we thought, well, these are the guys who are on the street, maybe using heroin. >> but looking deeper, he realized they weren't junkies, not at all. it usually began with a back sprain. >> they were taking these medications no to the get high but try to control pain in most cases, back pain and then they were mixing them with other medication and having fatal reactions to that. >> a lot of people have back pain. a lot of people take pain medications for that pain. and what you're saying a lot of those people are then dying? >> yeah. a lot of them are dying and a lot of people in our culture right now are at risk of dying from the exact same thing. >> i wanted to know more. so they allowed me to listen in. >> poison center. may i help you? >> yeah, my wife took hydro met and when we checked it later, she had taken 30 millimeters instead of five. >> to see the problem firsthand, i rode along with lieutenant craig amman. he has been on the job for 30 years. he will tell you, when he takes an overdose call you the usual suspect is a painkiller. >> what sort of impact have you seen here in seattle? >> well, i think if you pull a group of people together from this community, someone in that group is going to have had a friend, a loved one that has either had difficulty with a prescription drug or potentially died from that. >> amman's unit responds to 45 calls a month about overdoses involving these types of medications. and this is important, it can be difficult to tell whether it's a painkiller or heroin, because they come from the same ingredient and do the same sort of thing to your body. >> aside from needle tracks in the arms, someone who has had an overdose of pain medication like that or heroin, they could look very much the same? >> absolutely. they could be unconscious from a medication that they think is relatively safe for them because instead of getting it on the street, they get it from a pharmacist. >> okay. 36, code green. >> possible drug overdose. [ sirens ] these people are suffering from chronic pain. they know that a little bit of pain medication helps, so maybe a lot would help a lot more. >> when we arrive, another medic is on the scene. >> somewhere in that parking garage, there's a call about someone having a parking garage. >> the overdose victim came to and walked away, but while we're there, another call. and it's been just a few minutes. >> we've got a 52-year-old. he took approximately three dill lauded plus methadone. >> i decided to ride along with lieutenant john fisk, who is headed to the scene. >> he has respiratory compromise. sounds like a far this koinarco. >> car crashes are no longer the number one reason people die accidentally in the united states. now aday it is actually prescription drugs. that's because on any given day people take more than the recommended dose, mix and match or take medications not predescription to them, maybe take pills with alcohol. and all of it can make for a deadly dose. in fact, the most recent data shows 37,000 drug overdose deaths in one year, mostly accidental. 21,000 involved prescription drugs. of though 75% were pain killers. by the end of this hour, i promise you your idea of a potential overdose victim will change. to this. this could be you. it could be me. >> and that's the point. it could be anyone.>this could . it could be me. >> and that's the point. it could be anyone.>this could . it could be me. >> and that's the point. it could be anyone. this could . it could be me. >> and that's the point. it could be anyone. >> he was big, strong, handsome, smart. wanted to make something of his life. he had no idea that he was turning out the lights. none. and if it's true of him you it's got to be true of a lot of other people. 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and she says, it's ben. he died. i just didn't have any of the information. >> i finally said, how did this happen? and she said he went to sleep the night before and he just never woke up. >> he was always smiling, every picture he was smiling. >> for day ben gupta's family was desperate for answers. what killed him? he was only 28 years old. he had recently been give an clean bill of health. how could he just not wake up? >> and then the thoughts went through my mind that maybe it was some sort of a brain aneurism or something must have happened. >> but his father was in for a shock after a conversation with the doctor who performed ben's autopsy. >> and he called me and said, yes, you know, they found oxycodone in his system. >> he tells you he believes that your son died of a -- an overdose of narcotics? >> yeah, right. >> what do you think at that point? >> i was just shocked at that time. >> did you think it was possible, what you knew of your son? >> no. no. >> he worked for the state department and he, you know, was gonna graduate in a year with a dual law and mba degrees, you know, the type of person where it just doesn't even run through your head that he is having a problem because he is doing so well. >> stuart bridge was a close friend of ben's. they met in grammar school. he recalled a conversation that would later prove to be very important. >> he had met somebody new and he really liked this new girl that he was dating you. >> and ben told stuart that he and his new girl friend tried oxycodone and they thought it was no big deal. >> you know, i'm not doing it regularly. it's not something i'm seeking out, but it's something they've tried. >> now, anyone else might just shrug off that conversation, but bridge wasn't just a friend. he was also a doctor. and he warned ben about taking oxycodone and about mixing it with alcohol. >> i had seen people on these medications or experimenting with these medications. >> just experimentsing, the reason why the line between experimenting and overdose is dangerous. cns, central nervous system depressant sants slow down the body's vital functions, breathing, heart rate you blood pressure that is not usually a problem when the pills are prescribed for you, but when you add them to other cns depressants, like alcohol or other prescription drugs, the effect is multiplied. the nervous system slows and slows until breathing, heart rate, brain function, all grind to a halt. ben's deadly dose, according to his girlfriend, was drinking beer and scotch throughout the day along with an unknown quantity of oxycodone. when his blood alcohol level was tested it registered .04 that's relatively low, less than half the legal limit. here is the implication, it may not take much alcohol to tip the balance toward death. ben fell asleep in front of the tv and by the next morning, he had stopped breathing. >> almost what makes it even more frightening, that he went to sleep and he had no idea this was gonna be his last night on earth. i mean, he had no idea that this was gonna be it. >> it just seems so preventible and so stupid. it just didn't have to happen like this. it didn't have to be, you know, like that. >> you explained what happened to my friend to me in two sentences. if people get something that simple, that direct, then it almost doesn't matter how boozed up they get before they pop the pill. they will remember that. >> how are you? >> i first learned about ben gupta's story when i got a phone call just after his death from former president bill clinton. ben's father is an old friend of the clintons. over the years, he has donated thousands of dollars to theirs and other democratic campaigns and over time, the families became close friends. >> ben, a beautiful man, with a beautiful life. some people live four times as long and don't do as much good or bring as much joy. >> why did you decide to call me? >> i called you in desperation. i wanted to know what to do i just knew that somebody needed to do something but that's why i called you. i thought you, a, i knew you had acare about it. b, i thought aid know something about it. >> could i tell in your voice that you were pretty broken up what kind of kid was he? >> a light shined out of him. all i can tell you. he grew up, he was big, strong, handsome, smart. and wanted to make something of his life. he was industrious, but normal and liked to have a good time. i promise that you night he had no idea he was turning out the lights. none. and if it's true of him, it's got to be true of a lot of other people. >> as soon as people hear that someone died of a drug overdose, they immediately have a perception of who that person was, what kind of life they led, their behaviors. it's not true in a lot of these people. >> no. >> including ben. >> we -- all of us, the whole culture, we need to start thinking about this. this is crazy. not a single solitary one of these people has to die. >> president clinton side me nobody thinks that taking an o y oxycotin and a few beer is good idea but you also don't think you're going to die. >> yes. >> you think that was ben's sort of state of mind? i know this is playing with fire a little bit but i'm not gonna die. >> i don't think that he knew that this could kill him. >> he finds some solace from his son's death by funding programs that educate people about the dangers of misusing prescription drugs and the recently, he made as 1 million pledge to the clinton global initiative to support the former president's new found passion about this issue. >> he said, i have been very fortunate. and my son was worth $1 million. >> it's still hard to talk about. >> it is. it is. >> do you think it ever won't be? >> no. i think about him all the time. like i'm in d.c. today, i've been walking on the gw campus looking for him u >> looking for him? >> yes. and i could feel him. i could feel him. every day, i just miss him. every day. [ sirens ] >> my girlfriend found me dead already. i had been not breathing, no pulse. and i was turning blue. [ dog 1 ] i am not a vegetarian! yeah, i might have ears like a rabbit... but i want to eat meat! [ male announcer ] iams knows dogs love meat. ...but most dry foods add plant protein, like gluten iams never adds gluten. iams adds 50% more animal protein, [ dog 2 ] look at me! i'm a lean, mean flying machine [ dog 1 ] i am too! woo hoo! [ male announcer ] iams. with 50% more animal protein. [ dog 2 ] i'm an iams dog for life. not a rabbit. woof! tie it so it looked like he downed the 200s. >> in cities across the country this scene plays out every day. i saw it myself on a ridealong with lieutenant john fisk of the seattle fire department. >> had three dilaudid, two methadone. >> this patient's dose, an anti-seizure medication and a couple of pain killers. >> may have stockpiled some of his own and taken it afterwards. >> it's called stacking, prescription pills stacked on top of other pills, each one amplifying the previous one's effect. >> i'd say it probably began about ten years ago. >> dr. steven anderson, an er doctor in washington state, sees the end result of stacking virtually every time he goes to work. >> i've taken two vicodin before, no problem. i've taken a valium to sleep before. no problem. i've had a couple of drinks before. no problem. but all of a sudden, you add all of those into the same scenario and it adds up and causes the complications. >> you're talking about, when you say stacking, sounds like it making it exponentially worse. >> ex-act actly. >> pop a pain pill you get relief. the same time, your breathing slows down. even after the pain relief wears off that slowed breathing persists, sometimes for hours. now, if you pop another pain pill before it's time, you depress the breathing even more. some of the deadliest combination, high-dose painkillers stacked on other painkillers. painkillers stacked with anti-anxiety medications or painkillers mixed with alcohol. >> we have seen absolute skyrocketing of overdose deaths and correlates directly with the number of prescriptions that are written. >> the problem, in part, is that here in the united states, we are being flooded with painkillers. consider this, americans take 80% of the world's painkillers. 80%. distribution of more feerngs the main ingredient in most popular painkiller, increased by 600% between 1997 and 2007. pain couldn't have increased that much in ten years but painkillers did. it's become a lucrative business and with so many pills out there, there's no broad system in place for doctors and pharmacies to keep track of it all. and again, every 189 minutes, we see the consequence. and doesn't even account for people like this man who came close, too close to dying. thankfully, he survived. and so did this man from virginia. >> my girlfriend found me, dead and not breathing, no pulse. >> his name is ben. he didn't want to give his last name. >> i took some. >> now, listen closely. what he is describing is nearly dying after an overdose. >> i remember standing around feeling good, talking with someone and then thinking, i just need to sit down for a second. i was turning blue. i was gone in a minute. i had only had a few beers and i had also taken plenty of methadone at the same time. >> methadone, which you may recognize as a treatment for heroin addicts, is also a popular painkiller prescribed by doctors. when he overdosed about four years ago, it was the first time pen h ben had tried it. do you remember the first time you started using prescription drugs? >> well rkwell, originally, i h prescribed them for an injury. i was on painkillers and muscle relaxers and definitely you even within that time you there were probably couple days i took more than i was prescribed. >> did you think about the safety at all? >> it's classic statement, this isn't going to happen to me. well, of course, everyone who it happens to said that at one point. >> that's where the story of ben from virginia intercepts with ben gupta, the law student and thousands of other unwitting overdose victims, it won't happen to me. >> it's more realistic for someone like me who has a job to overdose because it's amazing how little you need of a mix of alcohol and narcotics to overdose when your body is not used to it. >> how little are we talking about? >> four or five beers and two or three shot, that was t. >> a few beers, a couple of shots and some methadone? >> exactly. >> he was at a party. he felt sleepy. and then he stopped breathing. your girlfriend just happened to find you? >> thankfully. yeah. >> if she hadn't found you? >> i wouldn't be here. >> you would be dead? for sure? >> definitely. i was dead when she found me. >> for ben park the story's gonna sound familiar. it started with a prescription for shoulder pain. in fact, he, in part, fits the profile of an overdose victim. typically, they are male. they are in their 40s and 50s. they started with a prescription. and three years later, they were dead. between the time he got his pain prescription and then had his overdose, ben started to become dependent. >> started out with small, like, you know, vicodin and percoset but then, of course, those don't work as well, you eventually someday try oxycontin. >> at your peak, how much were you taking? >> eight to ten in a day. and still function. >> eight to ten 80s? >> yeah. >> they are 10 to 15 times stronger than anything we used to have and i don't think that people fully appreciate how strong those medicines are. and they are longer and longer acting and that's part of the problem, too. another. >> another problem, these powerful painkillers were intended to treat end of life and you cancer pain, but see, those patients didn't live very long so there wasn't long-term data on what they would do to ben or to me or, frankly, to most people who now take them. they are being prescribed for all sorts of chronic pain problems with no data to suggest high doses of powerful painkillers are either safe or effective over the long term. >> when did you start taking opiates? >> dr. jane ballantine is an an these these yol gist at the university of washington. >> you had very good physical therapists. >> ten years ago, while treating patients on high defense painkillers, she found something surprising. not only with those patients not getting pain relief but the painkillers were, in fact, doing something that could best be described as the opposite, making patients more sensitive to pain. it's called hyperalgesia. so, more pain medications ultimately meant more pain. and that, of course, means, well, even more pain medications. it's easy to