And very effectively on that and so we appreciate that very much. Thank you. Thank you, jeff. Thank you. To think of nothing more important. The third part of the initiative is to get lifesaving help to those who need it. Were going to make sure our First Responders have access to lifesaving overdose reversing drugs. Which, by the way, are amazing. Here with us today is mike kelly, the president of adapt pharma. Adapt pharma makes an overdose reversing drug for opioids which ive watched and seen work. It is called narcan. It is actually incredible. Today we applaud adapt pharmas decision to provide free free narcan to all high schools, colleges, and universities in america. Id like you to come up, mike. Come up. Where is mike . Come up. Thats really an amazing and generous offer. Thank you. Tell us about that, mike. Sure. So adapt is a Small Company that has a big job. Which is to reverse overdoses. And weve provided free of charge four boxes to all colleges and universities in the United States, two boxes for every high school in the United States, as well as educational awareness for the nursing departments as well as the faculty to train and teach everybody about the dangers of opioids and the risks and also the benefits of having narcan nasal spray near near where opioids are. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, mike. That is amazing and generous. And ive watched the police and the fire, they come around and they become so good at it. But ive seen people that are just about dead wake up. Now the problem is they then go back in many cases to the drugs and do it again and again and again. But we have to work on that. We have to work on that very, very strongly. I also want to recommend and commend a richmondbased company kaleo for donating more than 300,000 doses of their overdose reversing drug to First Responders, which is already saved more than 5,000 lives in a very short period of time. My administration has made clear that medical providers can share crucial information with family members about an overdose so that their loved ones can help them get into treatment. We need treatment. Were making medically assisted treatment for available and affordable and we continue to increase competition and drive down drug prices. And were driving them down and well have a major News Conference probably at the white house in about a month. Because all of you people and im talking about prescription drugs, not necessarily the drugs that were talking about here, but we pay as a country so much more for drugs because of the drug lobbies and other reasons. And the complexity of distribution which is basically another term for saying, how do we get more money. And if you medicare our drug prices to other countries in the world, in some cases it is many, many times higher for the exact same pill or whatever it is in the exact same package, made in the exact same plant. And were going to change that and i would like to ask secretary azar to come up and mention opioid. But also talk about how were getting your drug prices down and weve already saved billions of dollars for our country and it is reflected in much lower drug prices. Watch what is going to happen over a short period of time. This man is one of the great professionals, ran an incredibly successful drug company. Who knows better than the guy running the drug company, eli lilly. That is your company, right . Or was. Was. Now youre on the other side. So nobody knows better. And the most respected man in that industry and we got him to work. Because he loves our country. Would you tell them a little bit about what you have planned for drug prices and also opioids in terms of stoppage, please. Well, thank you, mr. President. And youve done a lot already to tackle this issue of drug pricing. So last year the fda approved more generic drugs than it ever has in its history. And that brings prices down for patients, for the system, for everybody. You also changed the rules so our Senior Citizens pay less out of pocket for the drugs. That is 3. 2 billion that theyre paying less out of pocket for their drugs when they go to the when they go to the pharmacy. And then were going to be rolling out, as you mentioned, in about a month a whole slate of other proposals around how we decrease the price of drugs and how we bring discounts at the middle men right now are getting, how those will go to our patients and to individuals. Now were attacking this with the same level of action, determination and resolve that you are bringing to the opioid crisis. And that is where were focused on prevention and getting that onethird fewer legal opioid prescriptions to our people. The the second the stopping of the illicit flow of opioids into our country and the thid sh the third is compassional treatment to help people recover and stay away from relapse. So thank you mr. President for your leadership. Thank you. Youll be seeing drug prices fall substantially in the not too distant future. And it is beautiful. And i want to thank scott gottlieb. Scott is working on different things. But one of them is called right to try. Do you what right to try is . These are the people that are terminally ill and there are very, very good looking combinations of things or pills, medicines, potential cures, and theyre terminal. And theyre not going to be living much longer. And we dont have the right to give them these experimental drugs or these earlystage drugs that really show promise for whatever reason. But they say because they dont want to harm somebody. If you can believe. It they dont want to harm. So the people will often go to foreign lands, Foreign Countries and do anything they want hope. They want hope. Right to try. So were working with congressman greg walden and numerous other senators and congressman and i think were going to have good luck. The democrats have been pushing back on it, but i think many of them are also coming along. It is called right to try. A patient is terminal, there is Good Progress made with a certain drug, were going to make it possible for that patient to get that drug. And maybe it is going to work. It is hope. Its incredible. Theyve been talking about this for years and years and years. Were going to get it approved. So important. Im also calling on congress to change the restrictive 1970s era law that prevents medicaid from paying for care at certain Treatment Facilities with more than 16 beds. Its such an important factor. In the meantime, my administration is granting waivers to states so they could help people who need treatment now, governor. Were also going to help inmalts leaving prison get treatment so they could have a Second Chance to become productive lawabiding citizens and what weve done for the inmates. It is hard for them to get out of jail and get a job. What weve really done for them, better than anything we can sign, any legislation that we can pass, demanding that you hire, were getting a great economy. It hasnt been this good in many, many years. Some people say its never been this good. And what has happened, as you see, unemployment is way down. And people are starting to hire inmates. And the results are incredible. Some of these employers are calling up saying, wow, what great people. Were giving them a Second Chance. It is very, very important. So the tremendous economy is helping us very much with that program. We want every american thank you. [ applause ] we want every american to be able to reach their full godgiven potential and we will succeed together as one people, one nation and one Great American family. Because americans never give in and we never, ever give up. This group never gives up. Right. Never give up. Your boy. The brave families here today remind us that the strength of america is found in the heart of our people. We see americas heart in the parents who wont accept addiction as the fate of their children. And if something horrible has befallen that family, they go around and they want to make sure it never happens to another family and that is why we thank you so much and we thank your boy. Did he not die in vain. We see it in the sons and daughters who cheer on moms and dads as they recover. We see it in the doctors and nurses who provide constant and loving care. We see it in the heroic Law Enforcement officers. Who race into unmanageable danger. We see it in emta and firefighters who act so quickly to save so many lives and we see this american heart in the men and women who fight every day to help rescue their fellow citizens from the grips of addiction. These are the courageous souls who remind us that for america, there is nothing beyond our reach. Nothing at all. [ applause ] nothing. We will defeat this crisis. We will protect our beautiful children. And we will ensure that tomorrow is better, brighter, stronger, and greater than ever before. Because as long as we have trust in our citizens, pride in our country and faith in our god, we will not fail. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Together we will end the scourge of drug addiction in america once and for all. We will win, we will beat it. Well be tough, well be smart, well be kind, well be loving, well do whatever we have to do. But were going to win. Thank you, god bless you and god bless america. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, folks, President TrumpJust Announced his long awaited plan to fight the opioid epidemic. Im ali velshi. And trump is in new hampshire. A state he previously referred to as a drug infested den. New hampshire is a state with the third highest number of Drug Overdose deaths according to the centers for Disease Control and prevention and nationally 115 people die every day in opioid ov overdoses. The president campaigned on this issue. And the plan is increasing funding for research and commercials and his proposal includes this controversial idea. But if we dont get tough on the drug dealers, were wasting our time. Just remember that. Were wasting our time. And that toughness included the Death Penalty. Okay, were going to have a chance to dig into these things and whether or not the president s proposals are likely to succeed. But i want to bring in Jacob Soberoff. Weve been covering this issue for a long time and jacob has been the tip of the spear for us. Hes traveled the country reporting on this epidemic and talked to people battling addiction and seeing firsthand how easy it can be to actually get hold of these deadly drugs. It is important for people to understand, this is not the illicit drug trade of years gone by. This is something very different. I just watching the president , i sense and i havent talked to him about this, a profound misunderstanding about what is killing people and how it is killing people in america today. He made a big focus on reducing and slashing the amount of pills that are going out in this country and of course that is indeed important. And that led to the use of fept fentanyl but it is killing more people than ever before. And it is killing more people than gun crashes or hiv. This is important to understand. And so he goes out there and he talks about the idea that a border wall is going to stop people from dying of fentanyl in the United States. That is not where people are getting the fentonal. Most of the drugs from the southern border, mexico, are coming through legal ports of the entry, where we might drive our cars. A according to his own dea. Not through the desert where the wall is. It is not coming through when it is not a Value Proposition for the cartel if they lose a load of it. That is hundreds of thousands of dollars. They bring it where the risk is lower. And the fentanyl is coming from china from his own postal service. I saw you do a story ordering it online and through the mail. So to hear the president today talk about the border wall and immigration as the solution or his one main solution, lets not mention this will kill low level drug dealers or execute low level drug dealers if you are going to kill that sounds like a new war on drugs. It doesnt sound like a solution for getting people into treatment or getting people help and stopping people from dying for the worst drug crisis in american history. And there is an economic component. Some is overprescribing and well talk about that, but some is that this is pervasive in areas where weve seen seen low unemployment. And since people have voted for trump, alienation and they dont feel like they have a job and hopeless are the reason that people turn to drugs like heroin and fentanyl and before that prescription pain medication. And there seems to be a profound disconnect between the way the president thinks about this and the reality on the ground. Thank you for your continued reporting. This is a crisis and we need to stay on top of us. Joining me now, gary mendll you of shatter proof an organization dedicated to reducing the devastation of addiction through prevention and treatment and recovery. He found the the nonprofit after he lost his son brian to addiction in 2011. And gary, it is always great to have you here because you suffered tragedy but you did as you told me a few moments ago, when you lose a child to Something Like this, you try and figure out the causes and you try and figure out the ways in which another family doesnt have to lose someone like you did. Absolutely. And what is so different about the tragedy that i suffered and so many others suffer versus other diseases or other causes of death, this one is preventible and treatable. We know enough today to cut this by twothirds as far as the new people becoming addicted. And in a matter of a month or two. And a lot of people become addicted through the use of pain killer drugs that are prescribed in a regimen in america where weve moved toward more aggressive battling of pain. Correct. We hear often the death related to heroin or the death related to fentanyl. But 80 eight of ten who use heroin today started with a legal prescription pain killer. Most often it is prescribed by a doctor or found in a medicine cabinet or given to someone by a friend. Almost all of it. And then they move to either a cheaper version or heroin. It is much less expensive and much more available. But literally, last year this country prescribed enough opioids legally in this country to give every man and women and child a bottle of pills to be fully medicated around the clock for three weeks. And that is four times the number of pills that we prescribed 15 years ago. So you feel that some of the problem could be dealt with if we immediately pulled back on the prescription of these pills and we get very aggressive with doctors and Drug Companies who are perpetuating this. We saw an incident in new york was it this week or last week where a number of doctors were arrested. But that is different because that is doktdors doing the wrong thing. And they are still prescribing 30 days for a pulled tooth or a back sprain when the cdc guideline said try Something Else first but if you need some, one or two days, not 30 days. This could happen within a month. But i want to switch to another topic which is stigma. Because that is missed in all of this. You told me this is something that y that your son suffered from. The idea you cant go and tell your family and friends that you have a problem. Let me rephrase. Yes, my son suffered with this but i will venture to say of the 2. 5 Million People addicted to opioids today or the 20 Million People adirected to drug or alcohol, every one of them, not just my son feels stag mattized. Last time my son came home for a visit four months before he died, last time he came home, the last night were sitting on the back porch talking and about his recovery, just chatting and then he looked at me and said, some day i wish that people would realize im not a bad im a good person and have a bad disease. And dad, im trying my absolute hardest. I mean, he was able to express it. How many people can express it. And that is what they feel. And if we could change the way that we think about this. You are right what you just said. About a quarter of the people in this country addicted will not seek treatment. It is studied about surveys. Because they dont want anybody to know about it. How many people will seek treatment or how many people will feel loved and connects like with diabetes or Heart Disease. And so many few tha few thaer will die. And your son struggled and tried to overcome it but it is tough to overcome. Thank you, gary. It is good to tuke aboalk to yof we could make end roads. The ceo of shatter proof dedicated to reducing deaftation of addiction through a number of methods. More reaction to join been invite republican congressman from georgia buddy carter. Representative carter is a present friend of mine on the subcommittee of health and the only pharmacist in congress and the cochair of the house caucus. Good to see you. Thank you for being with me. Talk about what i was just talking to gary about. The idea it does seem to be the overprescription of opioids is part of the problem here. Well it is a big part of the problem. And i think hes spot on. It is something weve got to get under control. And that is part of what the president has been proposing. It is more professional education for health care providers, doctors and pharmacists. How to properly use these medications. I thought his point was an excellent one. Ive seen it when i was still practicing pharmacy, doctors with all of the best of in tension who overprescribe because they were not as up to date with the impact that these drugs can have. So i think it is hes spot on in what hes saying. This is an interesting point. Because there are we had these arrested last week and we see these from time to time and investigations into the Drug Companies, but there are good doctors that think it is the right thing to do. We have sold doctors on the idea over the years that pain must be eliminated at all costs and they are trying to alleviate patients pain and created addicts in the process. Well they are. And with the best of intentions. And youre absolutely right, this is something that we in the federal government were a