A Family's Fight to Reverse America's Opioid Crisis

Intelligence Matters

CBS News

Politics, News, Government

4.7 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 January 2018

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this special episode of Intelligence Matters, Michael Morell speaks with retired U.S. Navy Admiral James "Sandy" Winnefeld about a non-traditional national security threat that has affected him personally: America's opioid crisis. Winnefeld recently lost his own son Jonathan to opioid addiction, and he is dedicating his life to reversing a crisis he calls a national emergency. The statistics are staggering: the CDC reports that more than 64,000 Americans died in 2016 from a drug overdose more than 20 times the number of Americans killed on 9/11. Winnefeld, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says if America is going to reverse this epidemic, "We need a call to arms" to remove the long-standing stigmas around drug use. He has founded SAFEproject.us (Stop the Addiction Fatality Epidemic) to support action that will prevent fatal opioid overdoses, and counter opioid addiction's impact on our society.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Intelligence Matters ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:05.6	Download the app today.
0:07.0	I'm Candace DeLong, and on my new podcast, Killer Psychie Daily, I share a quick 10-minute
0:12.8	rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the cold-blooded killers you
0:18.1	read about in the news.
0:19.8	Listen to the Amazon Music Exclusive Podcast Killer Psychie Daily in the Amazon Music
0:25.5	app.
0:26.5	Download the app today.
0:31.0	The number one objective is to reduce the stigma of addiction.
0:36.5	Because addiction is a disease, it's not a moral failing.
0:42.2	So Sandy, in the aftermath of Jonathan's overdose, I've seen you dig into this issue the
0:48.4	way you dug into complex issues when you were vice-chairing.
0:54.4	It's a national security issue.
0:55.8	It's not just a health crisis.
0:58.8	It's not only law enforcement, it's a national security issue.
1:01.6	And when you start talking about overseas, we need to put pressure more pressure than
1:05.2	we actually are.
1:07.3	We made the decision that we weren't going to curl up in a little ball and admire this
1:11.1	problem that we had the ability to get things done, that we could make a difference here.
1:17.4	I wouldn't be able to live with myself unless we did everything we could to make a difference.
1:25.6	This is Intelligence Matters with Michael Morrell, a joint production of the cipherbrief.com
1:30.6	and CBS News.
	...

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