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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 0.04. that's relatively low, less than half the legal limit. here's 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. >> it's almost what makes it even more frightening, that he went to sleep and he had no idea this was going to be his last night on earth. i mean, he had no idea that this was going to be it. >> it just seems so preventable 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.
>> 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 morphine, the main ingredient in most popular painkillers, 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 19 minutes we see the consequence. and that 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, not breathing, no pulse. >> his name is ben. he didn't want to give his last name.
>> yes. >> do 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 going to die. >> i don't think that he knew that this could kill him. >> vinod finds some solace from his son's death by funding programs that educate people about the dangers of misusing prescription drugs. and recently he made a $1 million pledge to the clinton global initiative to support the former president's newfound passion about this issue. >> he said, i have been very fortunate, and my son is 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 so i went walking on the gw campus looking for him. >> looking for him. >> yes.
>> 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'd only had a few beers, and i'd 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 ben had tried it. do you remember the point when you started using prescription drugs? >> well, originally, i had been prescribed them for an injury. i was on painkillers and muscle relaxers, and definitely even within that time there were probably a couple days when i took more than i was prescribed. >> did you think about the safety at all? >> it's a classic statement,
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this isn't going to happen to me. well, of course, everyone who it happens to said that at one point. >> and that's where the story of ben from virginia intersects 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? >> i think it was maybe four or five beers and two or three shots, and that was it. >> 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'd be dead. for sure. >> definitely. i was dead when she found me. >> for ben, the story is going to 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 small, like, you know, vicodin and percocet, but then, of course, those don't work as well. you eventually some day try oxycontin. >> at your peak, how much were you taking? >> eight to ten 80s in a day. and still functioning. >> eight to ten 80s? >> yeah. >> they're 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.
i think physicians around the year 2000 started to get pushed to better manage pain. and the physicians in our culture, that means give out more medication. >> so pain becomes a vital sign. laws are passed liberalizing the use of opioids for more than just cancer. doctors prescribe the drugs for legitimate reasons but also for conditions that could be treated with much milder medications or therapy. the result? we proscribe enough pain pills to give every man, woman and child a dose every four hours for three weeks. remember, 80% of the world's opioids are used by americans. 80%. does that surprise you? >> i didn't know that. no. >> is that a cultural problem? >> yes, it is cultural. people think, oh, i have got a headache, my elbow is or sore whatever.