We Are the Answer to Ending the Addiction Crisis | November 2, 2021

February 08, 2022

Information

An alumnus of the Clinton White House, Ryan Hampton has worked with multiple non-profits and national recovery advocacy campaigns on issues surrounding addiction, and served as part of the core team that released the first-ever U.S. Surgeon General's report on addiction in 2016. In recovery from a decade-long opioid addiction, he is now a prominent, leading face and voice of recovery advocacy and is working to changing the national conversation about addiction. In 2019, Hampton was named by Facebook as an inaugural leadership fellow and created the national advocacy initiative, Mobilize Recovery. Since its inception, Mobilize Recovery has recruited and trained over 2,000 new advocates from all 50 states focused on community-based solutions to end the addiction crisis.

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00:00Afternoon I'm David Fiellin and I'm director
00:02of the Yale Program and Addiction medicine,
00:05and I want to welcome you to the today's
00:08talk in our finding solutions to the opioid
00:10crisis speaker series in collaboration
00:12with the Sandgaard Foundation.
00:14We're joined today by Ryan Hampton,
00:17who will speak on the topic.
00:18We are the answer to ending
00:21America's addiction crisis.
00:22Before we get started,
00:24just want to review a few housekeeping
00:26items on the following slides.
00:30First, we encourage you to stay
00:32up to date with the latest in the
00:34finding solution series and the
00:35Yale Program and Addiction Medicine.
00:37By visiting our website.
00:39Following us on Twitter and
00:41joining our program listserv.
00:44If you're tweeting about today's talk.
00:48Please use the hashtags
00:49on the previous slide.
00:53Second, as a reminder,
00:54coming up in this series,
00:56we'll be welcoming Dr.
00:57Travis Rieder.
00:58Dr. Travis Rieder is a
01:01bioethicist at Johns Hopkins
01:03University whose book is in Pain,
01:05a bioethicist personal struggle with opioids.
01:10And he'll talk about what becoming
01:12a patient taught him about
01:14America's problem with opioids,
01:15and that is on November
01:1630th at 12:00 o'clock.
01:21So how to participate in today's session?
01:23You use the chat box to share comments and
01:26observations with your fellow attendees,
01:28and if you have questions,
01:29please put those in the question and
01:31answer box and then Ryan and I will
01:33attempt to answer them later in the talk.
01:39Finally, we have continuing
01:42medical education.
01:44And to receive credit,
01:45please text the code
01:553077422034429435.
01:57So now I'd like to introduce an invite.
02:00Kyle Henderson, who's the executive
02:02director of the Sandgaard Foundation,
02:04to say a few words and share about the
02:06mission and the work of the foundation, Kyle.
02:09Thank you so much David.
02:11So Kyle Henderson here,
02:13executive director of the
02:15Sandgaard Foundation,
02:16was founded about three years
02:18ago by Thomas Sandgaard.
02:19So Thomas founded the publicly
02:22traded company Zynex Medical,
02:24which makes medical devices that
02:26help with pain management and helps
02:28to get people off of addictive
02:30painkilling drugs like Oxycontin
02:32so they stand guard foundations.
02:35Exclusive focus is the opioid epidemic,
02:38and we're.
02:39We're thrilled and honored to be working
02:41with the Yale Program in Addiction
02:43Medicine on the speaker series.
02:45We've had some unbelievable
02:47speakers this year,
02:48and today is certainly no exception.
02:50So we're welcoming Ryan Hampton,
02:52who is a dear friend and also a
02:54strategic partner of the Sandgaard
02:56foundation we've been working
02:58with Ryan closely for a number
03:00of years now and have worked
03:03together this year specifically to
03:05distribute over 500,000 units.
03:06So naloxone around the country
03:09to recovery homes in partnership
03:11with Ryan's organization,
03:13The Voices Project and Direct relief.
03:15We also just.
03:16He had a big mobilize recovery event and
03:20recover out loud concert sober concert.
03:22There are one of our
03:23largest grant recipients,
03:25and it's because we've got such
03:28massive passion for Ryan and his work.
03:30He's also doing credible author,
03:32which we'll hear more about today.
03:33But Ryan,
03:34we sincerely appreciate you taking the
03:36time to share your wisdom with us and Yale.
03:39Thank you so much for hosting this wonderful
03:41event and letting us be a part of it.
03:43Thank you Carolyn.
03:44Thank you for the opportunity.
03:46So I'm going to introduce Ryan.
03:49Ryan Hampton is a prominent advocate,
03:51speaker,
03:52author and media commentator
03:53on the issue of addiction.
03:56He is the founder of the Voices Project,
03:58a grassroots recovery advocacy organization,
04:01and several other initiatives.
04:02He's an alumnus of the Clinton White
04:05House and he's worked with multiple
04:07nonprofits and national recovery
04:09recovery advocacy campaigns in recovery
04:12from a decade long opioid addiction.
04:14He's a prominent leading face
04:16and voice of recovery advocacy.
04:18And is changing the national
04:20conversation about addiction.
04:23Ryan was part of the core team that
04:25released the first ever US Surgeon
04:27General's Report on Addiction in 2016,
04:29and he's been identified by Forbes
04:32as a top social entrepreneur
04:34in the recovery movement.
04:36He worked closely with the White House,
04:38Senate Democrats, Republicans and you.
04:40How's U.S.
04:41House leadership helping craft
04:43portions of the historic HR6 support
04:46for patients and Communities Act that
04:49was signed into law in October 2018?
04:52And as you heard earlier,
04:54Ryan is the author of two books.
04:56The first is American fix inside the
04:59opioid addiction crisis and how to end it.
05:02And the most recent one is unsettled.
05:05We look forward to and welcome you to Yale.
05:08Thank you,
05:08Ryan.
05:11Thank you, David. Thank you, Kyle.
05:13Thank you everybody for joining today.
05:16Just bear with me for just one moment 'cause
05:18I have some slides that I do want to use.
05:21OK, can everybody see that great?
05:24OK, it's on the screen.
05:25So thanks for welcoming me today.
05:28I'm really glad to be here.
05:30I just want to say at the
05:31top of of this call. Well,
05:33first and foremost my name is Ryan Hampton.
05:35I'm an author.
05:37I'm an advocate.
05:38I'm a dog lover.
05:40Most important to me,
05:42I'm a person in long term
05:44recovery from addiction,
05:45also known as substance use disorder,
05:47which means I haven't felt it necessary to
05:49have a drink or a drug since February 2nd,
05:522015. I'm coming up on seven
05:54years in my own recovery.
05:56I'm also the founder of a nonprofit
05:59organization as Kyle mentioned,
06:01called The Voices Project and the
06:04organizing director for another
06:06nonprofit organization called
06:08the Recovery Advocacy Project,
06:10of which I'll talk about.
06:11A little bit at the end of this screen,
06:13but I I just want to mention
06:15at the top of this call.
06:17Just the deep gratitude and respect
06:20that this Community people in recovery,
06:22the recovery movement,
06:23the work we do with the voices
06:26project has for Thomas Scanguard
06:28and the Scanguard Foundation.
06:30You know,
06:31without the support of organizations
06:33such as the Sand Guard Foundation
06:36and and and the partnership
06:39that we have been grateful to
06:40have the last couple of years.
06:42A lot of this work would not be possible.
06:46And and I'm.
06:47Which is profoundly grateful.
06:49You know that the the the foundation
06:51is stepping in and really helping to
06:54fill a philanthropic gap that has long
06:56existed when it comes to addressing
06:58the overdose crisis in this country.
06:59So thank you to Thomas.
07:01Thank you to Kyle.
07:02Thank you to the Yale program in
07:04addiction medicine for hosting
07:06this series and allowing me to
07:08share some with you this morning.
07:10So to help lay the groundwork for some
07:14of the stuff I'm going to talk about,
07:16I think it's important that
07:17we just have a snapshot.
07:19Of where we are right now and what
07:23the sum of the impact was of the
07:27COVID-19 pandemic for this Community.
07:30For people who are searching for
07:32help for people in recovery for folks
07:35who are looking for harm reduction
07:37people in addiction treatment.
07:39In September of 2020,
07:42national polling firm morning console.
07:45In partnership with the National Council
07:47for Mental well being a large national.
07:49Nonprofit that's focused
07:51on behavioral health.
07:52Did a survey across the country
07:54on what is the impact of COVID-19
07:57on behavioral health care issues
07:59on mental health on substance
08:02use disorder issues,
08:03and that survey was striking and stunning.
08:08The numbers that came out of it,
08:10it showed that the demand for this
08:12was during the COVID-19 pandemic.
08:15The demand for behavioral health
08:17services had never been higher 52%.
08:20A behavioral Health Organization saw an
08:22increase in the demand for their services.
08:25At the same time, capacity was diminishing
08:29as a result of the COVID pandemic and 54%
08:33of organizations had to close their programs
08:37while 65% had to cancel, reschedule,
08:42or turn away patients completely.
08:46Organizational viability and access
08:48to care for millions was at the risk
08:51of disappearing before the American
08:54rescue plan came into effect.
08:56Organizations lost, on average,
08:58nearly 23% of their annual
09:00revenue as a result of COVID-19,
09:03and 39% of them as of September of last year,
09:07didn't see the runway ahead of
09:10them for six months or longer.
09:12Now, this number.
09:14This last stat.
09:16We're still recovering from a lot of
09:19these folks are still closed over 1000.
09:22Addiction treatment providers in
09:24the United States had to close
09:27their doors during the pandemic,
09:30many of them mom and pop shops.
09:32Many of them had to close them permanently.
09:35We're still recovering from the
09:37impact of a lot of the the shutdown
09:40orders and the social isolation
09:41that came with the COVID pandemic.
09:44You know,
09:44COVID brought a lot of destruction
09:46onto our communities.
09:48But it also just put a huge spotlight
09:52on all of the social determinants
09:54of health that lead people to mental
09:57health issues to substance use.
09:59Issues to overdose,
10:00to use of alcohol and drugs.
10:03So I think it goes without saying
10:05that the work we do here on my end
10:07my my side of the dirt in terms
10:10of activists and advocacy,
10:11the work that public health professionals do,
10:13such as the good folks at Yale
10:16Addiction Studies program, and.
10:18The work that private philanthropy does,
10:21such as the Scanguard Foundation,
10:23that work has never been more important.
10:26We have a lot of things we have
10:27to deal with coming out of COVID.
10:29But as we flatten that curve,
10:31right and people are getting the
10:32vaccine and we're starting to
10:34recover from that pandemic,
10:35we have a whole other pandemic that
10:39twin pandemic in addressing overdose,
10:41and we have to start putting our money
10:44and our efforts where our mouth is.
10:47Now the 2020 to 2021 preliminary
10:50data was just released.
10:52It's been updated continuously
10:54because it's preliminary data,
10:56but that data coming out of the CDC
10:59covering the period of March 2020.
11:01To adjust this path past March,
11:032021 shows that ninety
11:086779 people lost their lives to
11:12overdoses during that period.
11:13Now, to give you a snapshot,
11:15when I got into recovery.
11:17In 2015, that number was hovering
11:22around 4445 thousand Americans and
11:25back then we were talking about,
11:28Oh my gosh, these are historic
11:30numbers as countries never seen
11:31this where we're entering into this
11:33phase of this huge overdose crisis,
11:35that number has doubled.
11:37Since I found recovery almost
11:39seven years ago, it has doubled.
11:41This is this is this is a number
11:44that that we couldn't even
11:46have thought up two years ago.
11:49Things are actually getting worse.
11:50They're getting significantly
11:52worse in this country,
11:54so it means that we have to rise to
11:57the challenge to combat what I believe
12:00is this rising curb of overdoses.
12:03As we're flattening this curve in on COVID.
12:07Now notably also Samsa the substance abuse
12:09and Mental Health Services Administration.
12:12The branch of the federal government
12:14that deals with substance use and mental
12:17health release the the the findings
12:19from their their their national study.
12:21Gnaizda known as Gnaizda just last
12:25week and in this study it showed
12:28that throughout 2020 forty million
12:31Americans had a substance use disorder.
12:3540 million.
12:39Americans.
12:41Was taken aback when I saw
12:44that number come out.
12:46We have a lot of work ahead of us.
12:48The topic for this short time we have
12:51together in this presentation is that
12:53I believe in the work that that we
12:56do at the voices project and the work
12:58we do with the recovery community
13:00that we and when I say we I don't
13:02just mean the recovery community.
13:03I mean all of us together are the
13:06answer to the addiction crisis.
13:08It's great that we hear a lot of
13:10talk from policymakers and, you know,
13:13we see some bills once in awhile,
13:14make their way through Congress.
13:16But with numbers like this,
13:1840 million Americans with substance
13:21use disorder close to 100,000
13:23lives lost to overdoses last year,
13:26people have to start listening to us.
13:29They have to,
13:30and I believe that the way to get
13:32them to listen to us is to begin
13:34to organize like many other social
13:37justice movements,
13:38like many other health care
13:40movements in this country,
13:41which means getting people
13:43with lived experience,
13:44people in recovery.
13:45People who use drugs,
13:47people in harm reduction family members,
13:50family members have lost
13:52family members in recovery,
13:53public health experts to really
13:55organize this as we have other
13:58successful movements in this country.
14:00And that's going to be mostly what
14:02I'm going to talk about throughout
14:04the context of my talk today,
14:06I'm going to give a few tactics
14:09a few real world examples and
14:11then hopefully give you some
14:13information about what we're doing
14:15and how you can get involved.
14:16If you feel so inspired.
14:19To to to do this work as an
14:23organizing Ave in your communities so.
14:27I want to talk a little bit
14:29about where my values come from,
14:31because when we talk about.
14:34You know community organizing,
14:35which is really what we're doing.
14:37It's important to understand
14:38where my values come from.
14:40Why I do this work?
14:41Why I've been LED into this work and
14:44there is a model of organizing that
14:49comes out of the Harvard Kennedy School.
14:52It's been used for decades
14:55through a professor called
14:56Professor Professor Marshall Ganz,
14:58that I subscribe to,
15:00and I've gone through a lot
15:02of Professor Gansus classes.
15:04There are three key questions
15:06that you have to ask yourself when
15:08you're really organizing for change,
15:11which is what we're doing in
15:13the addiction recovery movement.
15:14Those three main questions that you
15:16must ask yourself are who are my people?
15:18What is the change they need?
15:20What is the problem or goal that
15:22they are trying to achieve,
15:24and how can we turn our resources
15:27that we have?
15:28Into the power that we need to
15:31achieve what we want or the end
15:34result that we're looking for.
15:36Folks oftentimes will hear that word
15:38resources, and they'll think about money.
15:40Big money.
15:40We need lots of money.
15:41Well, yes, we need money.
15:43But I believe equally,
15:44if not more important than money,
15:46we need people power, right?
15:48And sometimes those resources
15:50are things other than money.
15:53It could be collective action.
15:55It can be a protest.
15:56It can be organized efforts
15:59towards legislators to you know,
16:01work on on issues such as treatment
16:04prevention, harm reduction,
16:05recovery, support services.
16:07We've seen this model be successful
16:09just in the last year in terms
16:11of pushing for more funding
16:13for recovery support services.
16:14Such as housing peer supports
16:16long term care for people who are
16:20getting out of addiction treatment.
16:22We just saw just this past week.
16:26Health and Human Services announce
16:28their new overdose prevention strategy,
16:30which,
16:31for the first time you know includes
16:33harm reduction as one of its main principles.
16:36That was the result of a lot of
16:38community organizing that's taken
16:39place over the last couple of years
16:41of people with lived experience.
16:43But in order to to to do this work right,
16:47we have to tell something called a
16:50shared story or a public narrative.
16:52You know, I learned early in recovery,
16:55you know,
16:56within my first couple of months
16:58that people in recovery,
16:59the recovery community,
17:00people who are impacted with
17:02lived experience,
17:02we're we're actually really
17:04good at sharing our stories,
17:06telling our stories to audiences,
17:09you know,
17:10and especially audiences that are impacted,
17:12people who really understand and can.
17:14Can connect with our narratives,
17:17but what we're not that great at
17:20what we haven't been that great
17:22at in the past has been crafting
17:25our stories into this effective
17:28public narrative that would move
17:31people's feet to action right in
17:33the public forum that would connect.
17:36As you could see down here on my
17:37chart where this this shared story.
17:39The story of self, the story of us,
17:42the story of now,
17:43right for anybody who's on this.
17:45Paul, who's in recovery and and you know,
17:48subscribes to a fellowship such as mine.
17:51You know, we're really good at telling
17:53this story of what it was like,
17:54what happened, what it's like now, right?
17:56Which is really about self.
17:59We haven't been that great nor trained
18:02and how we tell that story of self.
18:05But how we connect it to the
18:06story of our community, right?
18:08Which is the story of us?
18:09Why our Community should care and then
18:11how we connect it to the story of now.
18:14Which is why does our community.
18:16Need to take action right now on this issue.
18:18Why should this be a priority to them?
18:21And really link it through emotion right?
18:24And let our community know,
18:25kind of where our agency comes from,
18:27how it's impacted us,
18:29but also how it's impacting them.
18:32Once we're able to kind of
18:34nail that shared story piece,
18:37then we can move into,
18:38you know,
18:39commitment as a movement which
18:40is building relationships that
18:42are grounded in similar values.
18:43I believe if you're showing up
18:45today right to this to this zoom,
18:48there's a great chance that we
18:50have some sort of common bond
18:52shared value in in this issue,
18:55and then we move into structure which
18:58is really recruiting and launching
19:00effective teams right to a strategy.
19:03To action and then hopefully starting
19:07to achieve some of our goals.
19:10Now I think one of the.
19:12Most important things for me when getting
19:15into this work right around advocacy,
19:17around activism around you,
19:19know the belief that we are
19:21all of us collectively.
19:23The answer to solving this overdose crisis.
19:28I had just subscribed to A to a
19:30definition of leadership, right?
19:32And I always long believed as
19:34someone who came out of you know,
19:36as as as David had mentioned worked,
19:38you know,
19:39in the White House for some
19:41time way back pre addiction.
19:42Days had worked for labor unions and
19:45different types of organizing campaigns,
19:48and nonpartisan.
19:49You know,
19:50political and community
19:52organizing initiatives.
19:54I'd always believe that like a leader
19:55with someone at the top who led the way
19:57you know who developed the strategy,
19:59the action,
20:00the structure you know,
20:01got everybody committed and then just,
20:03you know, charted the course and
20:05stayed ahead of everyone else.
20:06And really,
20:07to be an effective organizer
20:09on this particular issue,
20:11I have taken on this new definition
20:13of leadership that I actually have
20:15pasted and you can't see because you're
20:17you're turned around in my zoom,
20:18but right above my computer and I
20:20look at it every single morning.
20:22You know leadership to me and
20:24leadership in this movement is really
20:27that we are accepting responsibility.
20:29All of us.
20:30To enable others to achieve shared purpose,
20:35common purpose under conditions
20:37of uncertainty.
20:37Now this is a definition that's
20:40used by many community community
20:43organizers and many different
20:44issues across this nation.
20:46But I can't think of a more pressing
20:51issue such as combating the overdose
20:53right now where we are operating
20:57under such conditions of uncertainty.
21:00It is constantly shifting.
21:01The drugs are shifting.
21:03Fentanyl analogs are shifting.
21:05Services are shifting, funding is shifting.
21:08Stigma is shifting both
21:10in good and in bad ways.
21:12The players are shifting right?
21:15The targets are shifting constantly.
21:17We're we. We do this work every single day
21:21under some of the most uncertain terms I
21:24could ever think of in my entire life.
21:26So this hopefully is a is a is a
21:29definition of leadership that maybe.
21:30You can take home with me
21:32or back into your work.
21:34You know to to help you know,
21:36put into motion in your efforts when
21:39thinking about how do I build teams?
21:41How do I inspire others to
21:44get involved in this work?
21:47So if it's OK with you, I am.
21:49I I am gonna share,
21:52you know take the next 15
21:54minutes and share what what?
21:55My public narrative is and again
21:57the definition of public narrative.
21:58It is a leadership practice of
22:02translating ones values into action.
22:04It's based on this idea that values
22:08are really experienced emotionally
22:10and is as such their their sources
22:15of ends worthy of action.
22:17And really the capacity.
22:19For taking action,
22:21this is the public narrative that I
22:24first learned how to craft when I got
22:27involved in this work several years ago.
22:29It shares a little bit about who I am,
22:32where my values in my agency comes from,
22:34and why I do this work.
22:36This is step one really for our
22:38community and learning and translating
22:41these values in order to work
22:43towards our more overall goals.
22:45So I'm going to stop sharing my screen.
22:49For just a moment.
22:51And dumb.
22:53I'm going to share my
22:54public narrative with you,
22:54which I'm I'm really excited
22:55to do 'cause I haven't.
22:56I haven't done this in a while,
22:58especially given COVID.
23:00So I'll I'll never.
23:02Forget sitting in that old beat up
23:04Green chair on the deck where we used
23:06to have our Saturday morning meetings.
23:08It was an early day early and cold day.
23:11Actually, in November, about five years ago,
23:15five and five years ago in Pasadena, CA.
23:17We were confused.
23:18We sat in this round circle like we always
23:22did for our weekend check in meetings,
23:24but this meeting at my recovery
23:27house felt different.
23:29Something was wrong and you
23:30could see it in everyone.
23:32Faces that morning.
23:34It was completely and eerily silent.
23:37You see, at this point in my life I was
23:40still holding on for complete dear life.
23:43You know,
23:43I walked into that recovery house less
23:46than a year earlier with nothing,
23:48nothing but the clothes on my back.
23:50I was on public assistance on Medicaid.
23:53I had no job.
23:54I had no transportation.
23:55I suffered from severe depression,
23:58a lot of unresolved trauma.
24:01I was confused and more than anything,
24:03I was really, really tired.
24:06I knew how hard it was.
24:08To hold on and some days I
24:10just wanted to to throw in the
24:12towel completely and give up.
24:13I wanted to go back to where
24:15I felt the most comfortable,
24:17which was in isolation.
24:18It was on the streets.
24:20It was wandering in this never ending spiral
24:24of drug use and as dark as that sounds.
24:27That's actually where I felt
24:29most welcomed at the time.
24:32That's the place where I didn't feel judged.
24:33That's the place where I wouldn't
24:36worry about being told that I was
24:38different than and that I didn't belong.
24:40And on those dark days when I felt like
24:43there was absolutely no end insight for me,
24:46I'd oftentimes pick up the phone and
24:48call the only person who would talk
24:49to me and that was that was my mom.
24:52My mom was getting close to
24:54her 70s at this point,
24:55and she always had something to tell me.
24:57She always had some sort of a a wise word,
25:00you know, she, she talks.
25:01She would be very calm.
25:03Her tone would be soft and it would be slow,
25:06and she'd remind me that when I was
25:0914 or 15 years old and in my dad had
25:11had gone to prison and our family
25:14had pretty much lost everything.
25:16But I'd stay up late at night with
25:18my little sister to do homework
25:20while she was out working her
25:22second or third job just to keep our
25:24family going to keep clothes on her
25:26back to keep food on our table.
25:28I can remember so many times
25:29when things were extra tight.
25:30My mom would actually make a weekly
25:33stop at McDonald's on 29 Cent Hamburger
25:35Day and she buy enough burgers for
25:37my sister and I because she'd be
25:38out at night school till 9:00 or
25:4110:00 o'clock some nights teaching
25:43since up at 7:30 that morning.
25:45She'd remind me that as long as we
25:48stuck together everything would be OK.
25:50Now my mom,
25:51my mom was not someone who ever gave up,
25:54but even when we had each other,
25:56loneliness seemed to be this defining.
25:59Theme for us because for the better
26:01part of my my teenage years,
26:03it felt to me like we were seemingly
26:07UN welcomed.
26:07We were unwelcomed at the church
26:09that I grew up in.
26:11Our family story of my dad's
26:13incarceration was actually really big
26:15news in our small little village in in
26:17South Florida that we lived out at the time.
26:20People we'd spend holidays and
26:22birthdays with when I was younger
26:24they would look the other way when
26:26we walk into Sunday worship services,
26:29it felt as though we were no longer
26:32welcome because we were different and it
26:34felt as if we were pretty much on our own.
26:38When we'd be shunned or we'd be forced out,
26:40whether it was from the church,
26:43I received my first Communion at,
26:45or even the house that I grew up in,
26:48when we felt like the family.
26:50Our small family unit was on the
26:53brink of total and utter collapse.
26:57My mom would always come through,
26:58and she'd be our backbone.
27:01And she tells us that things are gonna be OK.
27:04Because she tells us that we
27:06could build a better home and a
27:09place where we do belong together.
27:11Mom would oftentimes remind me
27:13that when everything in the world
27:15feels like it's lost and it's dire,
27:18and it's bleak that there is always
27:20some sort of agency of hope that
27:23hope was something that could
27:25carry us to a place where maybe one
27:27day we would be welcomed.
27:29So I completely understood.
27:32To my core,
27:33when my roommate Nick had come home
27:35to me the night before and he he
27:37told me that he had lost all hope,
27:40I knew how he felt when he told me he was
27:42using again that he couldn't stop on his own.
27:45Now Nick wasn't just any roommate he was.
27:47He was my roommate.
27:49He was 24 years old and he seemed like
27:52he had the whole world in front of him.
27:55But Nick didn't think so.
27:57He was afraid he was begging.
27:59He was begging for a way out.
28:01Nick felt he couldn't tell his job,
28:04couldn't tell his family.
28:05He had no insurance.
28:07He had no money.
28:09He had no absolution insight.
28:12And to top it off,
28:13he was going to be UN welcomed at
28:14our recovery house sometime around
28:16the stroke of midnight that night.
28:18The rules of this recovery house
28:20were the rules and they were
28:21completely out of my control.
28:23And Simply put that night in Pasadena,
28:26I I felt.
28:28This sense of complete powerlessness.
28:31I can remember looking at
28:32the clock that night,
28:33feeling anxious when I realized
28:35it was already sometime around
28:3711:45 and we still didn't have
28:39a plan for where Nick would go,
28:41and I I thought to myself, wait a second.
28:43Doesn't the doesn't?
28:44The hospital.
28:45Doesn't the Pasadena hospital
28:47right down the block have some
28:48sort of mental health unit?
28:49Shouldn't they be able to accept Nick and
28:51just just hold him there for a day or two?
28:53Get him medically cleared,
28:55get him some medication you know,
28:57get him stabilized,
28:58and then he can come back to the recovery
29:00home and we can do what we do and.
29:02Help him get back on his feet and
29:04he'll be safe and you know we can.
29:05We can move on here and and that
29:07thought like you know sounded like a
29:09pretty good plan at the time and I thought,
29:11well, well,
29:11let's do that.
29:12At least he'll have a safe place to
29:15stay tonight and you'll have medical
29:17professionals that are looking after him.
29:19And that was it.
29:22That night,
29:23when Nick left for the hospital that was.
29:25That was the last time that I ever saw him.
29:28He went to that hospital and he waited.
29:31When he got there that night he was.
29:34Not treated,
29:35but he was treated as if he was some
29:38kind of second or third class citizen.
29:42He wasn't even seen by a doctor.
29:44He showed up.
29:44He he told the nurses that he
29:46couldn't stop using heroin,
29:48that he was fearful about
29:49what would happen to him now.
29:51Now imagine this with me for
29:53just just a brief moment.
29:55This wasn't just any hospital,
29:58this was one of the best and most renowned
30:02hospitals in Southern California.
30:04They told my friend that night
30:06that they they couldn't help him.
30:08And instead they sent him on his way
30:10with nothing more than a piece of
30:12paper with a dozen or so potlines
30:13on it that he could call in the
30:15morning if he was quote UN quote.
30:18Willing to do so himself.
30:21I, I think a lot of us know.
30:24Who are on this call today?
30:25We all know far too well what
30:27it feels like to be turned away,
30:30what it feels like to be UN welcomed
30:32and what it feels like to be told
30:34to try the next house on the block.
30:36It's probably one of the most defeating
30:40feelings that any human ever has to face.
30:45The next morning.
30:47I was sitting in that that Green chair.
30:50And I knew what was coming.
30:52I knew where he was going to tell us.
30:53The owner of this house
30:55didn't have us circled up.
30:56You know, three and a half,
30:57four hours early for our house meeting
31:00to break the best of news to us.
31:02And then he started to tell us
31:04he started kind of mumble it.
31:06He said, you know,
31:07there's something like this.
31:08This is this is what happens guys.
31:09He said people people die,
31:12you know.
31:13Last night Nick overdosed and he
31:14died just a few blocks from from
31:17the house and he continued to say I
31:18just don't know what else to tell
31:20you except what I've been telling
31:21you since day one when you got here.
31:23Which is.
31:24Sometimes people have to die so
31:27that others can recover.
31:32I still say that I repeat that phrase
31:35today and it it gives me nothing but rage.
31:38That statement gives me nothing but
31:40rage because I can tell you I Nick
31:43didn't have to die so that I could
31:46sit here and share this story with
31:48you and do the work that I'm doing.
31:52It took me months to really understand
31:55what what really happened that day.
31:57Nick was always top of my mind
32:00everywhere I went everywhere I speak,
32:02and as you can tell,
32:03he's still top of my mind today.
32:06I didn't know it then,
32:07but but his death sent me down this journey.
32:09This journey to ask this question, why,
32:12why is this happening to my community,
32:15to our community?
32:16Now, five years ago,
32:18that journey led me to a Union hall right
32:21down the street from my sober living.
32:23I showed up there with over 100
32:25friends of mine friends of Nicks
32:27and other friends of friends who
32:29we had lost to overdoses that year.
32:31To stick that question to our community, why?
32:34It was in the middle of a heated
32:37election season in 2016 and these
32:39caucuses were happening all over
32:41our state to elect delegates to
32:44the National Party conventions.
32:46By this point in my early recovery we had
32:49already buried nearly a half a dozen people.
32:52We loved friends we loved
32:54and cared deeply about.
32:55We were desperate for for some sort
32:57of a solution, and more importantly,
33:00equally as importantly,
33:02we were desperate to to just be
33:04heard to just be listened to.
33:06And it remained it it.
33:07It reminded me of those days,
33:10those early days, when my mom.
33:12Would be out working late.
33:14She used to have to.
33:16She used to have me and my sister walk
33:19to my grandmother's house where we
33:21would stay until she could pick us up.
33:23Some nights my grandmother would
33:25oftentimes be looking for something
33:27for us to do so she take us to a
33:29community town hall or a local City
33:31Council meeting to occupy the time.
33:34She teach my sister and I how laws
33:37were made and through these meetings
33:40she teach us the value of civic
33:43participation and that year in 6th grade.
33:45When I arrived at a new school
33:47as a complete outsider,
33:49I actually ran for class president to
33:51try and find some sort of belonging.
33:54I put up posters, I called my classmates.
33:56I visited them at addresses I found in
33:58the yearbook and I I took this possibility.
34:00Believe it or not,
34:02of making 6th grade policy change seriously.
34:05Well,
34:05I won that election and I finally
34:07felt like I was a part of something.
34:09So in a sense I was really hard
34:12wired for this solution.
34:14When my friends and I showed up
34:16to that Union Hall in 2016,
34:18it was now the second time with
34:20my name on a ballot.
34:22And although this felt like a very
34:25far departure from 6th grade,
34:27I knew that for us to be
34:30heard that we had to step
34:32up and become a part of.
34:35We had decided as a community a few
34:37weeks earlier that our organizing
34:38strategy would be to register me
34:40as a candidate to that convention,
34:42which would at the very least give me the
34:45opportunity to speak to our Community.
34:47I get 30 seconds to tell them our story and
34:49ask them to help us do something about it.
34:52We had no intention that day to win.
34:55We only wanted to be heard,
34:57and this was our mechanism for
34:59forcing them to listen to us.
35:02But the result was something that's guided me
35:04in my advocacy for the past several years.
35:07We showed up as these complete
35:10outcasts but we left feeling really
35:12and being a part of we work this
35:15line of hundreds of people waiting
35:17outside to cast their ballots.
35:19We fanned out in groups of two
35:21or three we shared our stories.
35:23We shared the stories of the friends we lost.
35:25We shared the the story of Nick.
35:28We couldn't get a full sentence
35:30out with someone on the other
35:32end telling us their story.
35:34They would tell us about how they've
35:36lost a loved one to an overdose,
35:38how they grew up in a alcoholic household,
35:42how their brother or their sister
35:44had just entered treatment.
35:46It felt as if our community was waiting,
35:50was waiting for our permission
35:52to come out of the shadows.
35:55Now we were community organizers.
35:57That day we just didn't know that
35:58that's what you called it at the time.
36:00I want to be clear about something.
36:03It's through my recovery,
36:04my personal recovery that I have
36:07found resiliency that I have found
36:10community but it is through this
36:12work it is through organizing that
36:14I have found purpose and that I
36:16have found a passion for change and
36:19what is possible for this community.
36:21Many of those community members from
36:24that day went on to be some of our
36:27biggest allies over the last several years.
36:29They championed lifesaving legislation
36:31such as mental health parity in our state.
36:34To the first ever sober home
36:36standards published by the federal
36:38government back in 2018.
36:40Today, right now here in the United States,
36:42there are 4040 million
36:45Americans just like Nick,
36:47who are being told that they are
36:50unwelcome people who are struggling
36:51with a substance use disorder,
36:53disorder and the vast majority
36:55of them are being told that they
36:58are unwelcome to treatment.
36:59They're unwelcome to housing they're
37:01unwelcome to the critical long
37:03term supports that would prevent.
37:05Another overdose death. Our community.
37:09All of us here today.
37:10All of us who are on this call today.
37:12You have the power to change that
37:15inside and outside the system.
37:19So let's get to work.
37:22So that's.
37:24The public narrative I'm going to
37:26share my my screen again.
37:31That's the public narrative that I
37:34use most times, or a version of it
37:36when I'm showing up at a City Council
37:38meeting or when I'm in front of a
37:40group of people in my community,
37:41and I'm asking them to get involved.
37:44I want to connect with them emotionally.
37:46I want to let them know that
37:48they too are impacted.
37:49That it's OK to share their story
37:51that it's OK to get involved
37:53in this work and in a sense,
37:55in a subtle sense to kind of warn them
37:58and let them know what the consequences.
38:00Of inaction on this issue is so next
38:06I'm going to share just briefly
38:092 real world examples of why we
38:12need to advocate for the need for
38:14a strong political constituency
38:16to address addiction recovery.
38:18Now when I say political,
38:19I don't mean political party.
38:22I mean within the body politic,
38:24right within policy within state
38:27policy within federal policy,
38:29making sure that we are.
38:30Organized that people with lived experience,
38:33people in public health are helping
38:35to guide and advise on the strategies
38:38and the need more for more funding
38:41towards common sense solutions.
38:43So two real world examples.
38:45I'm going to give you is 1 based on HR
38:494684 which was also known as Tyler's Law,
38:51which was passed by Congress in
38:532018 and another around the the
38:56current day Purdue Pharma bankruptcy.
38:58I'd like to just make a quick plug.
39:01You know it was mentioned at
39:02the beginning of this call.
39:03My new book unsettled how the Purdue
39:06Pharma bankruptcy failed the victims
39:08of the American overdose crisis was
39:10just released earlier in October.
39:13It's available anywhere.
39:15Books are sold and online,
39:16but it really goes into detail on
39:19this second case example that I'm
39:21going to give you in case you'd like
39:23to read a little bit more about it.
39:25So the first example was HR 4684.
39:30Shortly after getting sober in
39:31recovery in 2017 and working my own
39:34personal recovery program before,
39:36I really dove in and got involved
39:38in advocacy and started the Voices
39:40Project and Recovery advocacy project.
39:42My first on scene. Who was a young man?
39:46I was working with and helping mentor
39:48and recovery. His name was Tyler.
39:50This picture here of this young
39:52man is is Tyler.
39:53He had gone to the same
39:55treatment facility as I had.
39:56He was living in a recovery house
39:58that was just a couple blocks away
40:00from from where I was living,
40:02not just any recovery house,
40:03but one of a sober home in Southern
40:05California that was marketed as one
40:07of the best that dealt, you know,
40:09had great outcomes for people who
40:11were in early recovery from opioid
40:13use disorder specifically and.
40:17We were working together for about
40:20six months and.
40:22In fall of 2017 I got a phone call
40:25from Tyler one evening that said,
40:27hey Ryan, I'm struggling I'm I'm,
40:30you know, I'm using again.
40:32I had a recurrent a relapse,
40:33he said,
40:34which we also call a recurrence of use
40:36and but I want help you know I want help
40:40and I want to I want to go to treatment
40:43and he had the ability to go to treatment.
40:44The only thing is he couldn't
40:46go till the next morning.
40:47Now Tyler also knew Nick and was
40:50a friend of Nixon and he said,
40:51listen, I spoke to a new Nick story.
40:54He said I spoke to the folks
40:55at the the sober home.
40:57They're going to let me stay here tonight,
40:59so I'll have a place to stay because they
41:02can't get me into treatment until tomorrow.
41:03Can you come and pick me up in the
41:05morning and take me to treatment?
41:06I said, sure, I'll be there,
41:07you know, seven 7:30 in the morning
41:08will go to treatment.
41:10Well, you know,
41:10grab coffee and and and get you in there.
41:13Glad you're doing the right thing right.
41:15Glad you're getting help.
41:18Uhm? My story is still hard for me to tell.
41:25Tyler and Tyler didn't make it
41:27to treatment the next morning.
41:30I I woke up the next morning and I
41:33learned on Facebook and other mediums
41:36that he had died. And his death.
41:40Had a tremendous impact on me and so.
41:44I wanted to know what happened.
41:47And I I went over. I still went over
41:50to the recovery house that morning.
41:52And I talked to the manager and
41:53the owner of the House and I said,
41:54hey, what happened?
41:56You know what happened with
41:58Tyler and they said, well,
41:59he overdosed and the short story is that
42:02he came home that night and the the
42:05owner of the house told him to sleep,
42:08sleep it off,
42:09quote UN quote to sleep off the,
42:11you know,
42:12the the intoxication essentially and to
42:15stay on the couch in the living room.
42:18And that's what he did.
42:19He took instruction.
42:20And they came down to check on him at
42:226:00 AM that morning the next morning,
42:24'cause he had to be up to meet
42:26me at 7:00 and he was blue.
42:28And anybody who's experienced
42:30overdose in person and watched it,
42:32it's a terrifying experience
42:34and a very vivid experience.
42:37He had this thing called a death gargle.
42:40He was still alive,
42:42but he was short of breath.
42:44Nobody knew what to do.
42:45The owner didn't know what to do.
42:47The manager of the house
42:48didn't know what to do.
42:49There was no no locks and
42:50there was no Narcan on hand.
42:52They called 911.
42:53He Tyler was alive when they called 911,
42:56but four minutes later
42:57when the EMT showed up,
42:58he was dead on arrival and and he he died.
43:02And so I was.
43:03As this story is being told to me,
43:06the first question,
43:07of course to me was.
43:10Why didn't anybody know how to
43:11respond to an overdose in this House?
43:14His family was paying upwards of
43:16$2000 a month for him to stay and
43:17what was supposed to be a safe,
43:18stable environment for people?
43:21Specifically with opioid use disorder.
43:23The second question was,
43:25where was the Narcan,
43:26where was the null oxone?
43:28Would you have people who
43:30have who have diabetes?
43:31You know severe cases of diabetes
43:34and you know medically assisted
43:36facilities and they don't
43:37carry insulin like does that.
43:39Make any sense to to anybody and the owner
43:43of the house looked at me as I was getting.
43:45Angry and heated and she put her
43:47hand on my shoulder and she said,
43:50you know,
43:50rhyme.
43:51Don't be mad at us.
43:53You know the real sad story here
43:54is that your friend Tyler just
43:56didn't want to get sober enough
43:58and he just didn't want it enough.
44:00And once again, it was this,
44:04you know, version of quote,
44:06UN quote victim shaming right.
44:10Wasn't our fault or we had
44:11no part to play in it.
44:12We because, you know,
44:14we're just we're just a safe,
44:16stable housing operator
44:17that markets ourselves.
44:18As you know,
44:18one of the best sober home facilities
44:20in Southern California,
44:21but not our responsibility to know
44:23how to respond to an overdose,
44:25not our responsibility to
44:27carry Narcan or have Narcan.
44:29And I realized at that moment that.
44:33The power dynamic of this situation.
44:36There was nothing I could do or
44:38nothing I could say to this housing
44:40provider that was going to make them
44:42change their mind that carrying
44:43the locks own could be seen as a
44:45crutch or could give off the wrong
44:47example to other residents because
44:49that's what she thought and that's
44:52what she had explained to me.
44:53So I had a friend of mine come from
44:55Missouri who was a harm reductionist,
44:57brought in several 100 units
44:59of the locks own.
45:00We thought, hey,
45:01the best way to deal with this
45:03is through community education.
45:05Maybe we just need to educate.
45:06Our Community of Path,
45:09Pasadena sober homeowners that they
45:11should be carrying no oxone So he came in,
45:15brought all these 100 units of new
45:16locks own and we made you know 10
45:18visits to different recovery houses
45:20over 2 days to distribute free
45:22null oxone in 2017 and to train the
45:25residents who are the real first
45:27responders when it comes to an overdose.
45:30How to respond to an overdose.
45:32You know I I want to repeat that
45:34like the first response.
45:35The real first responders in dealing
45:37with an overdose are people in recovery.
45:40People who use drugs and their
45:43family members.
45:44Those are the most important people
45:46that should be carrying the loxone right?
45:49And we went.
45:50We tried to train these homes,
45:53but none of the homes would let
45:54us talk to the residents.
45:56They all subscribe to this same
45:59concept that carrying the loxone
46:02would give off the wrong message.
46:05I'd never been more angry in my life,
46:08but instead of taking my anger out
46:10and our anger out because there were
46:12a few of us doing these trainings,
46:14we weren't an organization.
46:15We were just a few people in recovery,
46:17sick and tired of watching
46:19our friends die too.
46:20Preventable drug overdoses.
46:23We took the car after the 10th
46:26house said no and we drove to
46:29our member of Congress office.
46:31Representative Judy Chu of
46:32California's 27th district and we
46:34sat in her office for like 2 Hours.
46:38Until she would meet with us,
46:39find Congresswoman Chu finally
46:41took the meeting.
46:42She wasn't in DC,
46:43she was home for a district work period.
46:45And said, well, what did you know?
46:46I hear you know,
46:47I hear your I remember,
46:48she said I hear you're opioid addicts
46:50that's what she said and and you want
46:53to talk about this issue and it was
46:55a little language training there with
46:56my member of Congress, not an opioid addict.
46:59I'm a person in recovery.
47:00Here's who I am.
47:01This is what I do.
47:02Here are my friends.
47:03This is,
47:03you know,
47:04we live in this thing called sober home.
47:06You have about 70 of them in your district
47:09and the representative Chu said,
47:12what's a sober home?
47:13And it dawned on me.
47:15You know, and going back to my
47:18community organizing days pre addiction
47:19that no one ever really sat and
47:21took the time to educate our member
47:23of Congress on what a sober home
47:25is and the people that live in it,
47:27why it's important and why
47:28it's important to have a safe,
47:29sober home and why it's important that
47:31the locks own be carried in sober homes.
47:33And you know what wasn't being done
47:36on this issue and how some of these,
47:39how some of this.
47:40You know, overlooking these
47:41issues in federal policy.
47:43Has led to the death deaths of her
47:47constituents and really related
47:49it down to her constituents.
47:52The Congresswoman Chu,
47:53you know 70 some odd homes in your district.
47:57These are your constituents.
47:58These are the sons and daughters
48:00and brothers and sisters and
48:01mothers and fathers of your voters.
48:03Many of them are voters themselves,
48:05and they're dying and they're dying.
48:06These silent deaths that are
48:08being shoved under the rug.
48:09And here's this solution to Laaksonen
48:11these homes, and we're being told.
48:13That we can't give it in these houses,
48:16and there's no federal regulation.
48:18There's not even any federal
48:19guidance on what a safe, stable,
48:21effective recovery House should look like,
48:24and the recovery movement had,
48:26you know, through the National
48:27Alliance of Recovery Residences,
48:28had published standards on this,
48:30through NGOs that had been out
48:32for several years,
48:33but States and the federal government
48:35weren't subscribing to them.
48:37And representative she said, OK, I get it.
48:39I get it.
48:40I finally get what you're trying
48:41to tell me and I'm outraged too.
48:43No one really worked with me on this.
48:45I want to write a bill. What should it be?
48:49What should we focus on?
48:50And it was HR 4684 title of that
48:53legislation was ensuring access
48:56the ensuring access to quality
48:59soberliving Act of 2017.
49:01She said don't get excited though.
49:03You know Congress is super divided
49:05and who knows where it's going to go?
49:07Well, for the six months that followed,
49:11writing that act with Representative
49:13Chu after Tyler passed away.
49:15My friends and I, you know,
49:16we weren't under an organization at the time.
49:19We went to members of Congress office.
49:21We banged down the doors and and capital
49:23and Capitol Hill in Washington DC.
49:25We made phone calls.
49:26We wrote letters.
49:27I showed up and testified before the
49:29House Energy and Commerce Committee.
49:31You know,
49:32telling that public narrative
49:33of Tyler telling that public
49:35narrative of what happened to him,
49:37what happened to us,
49:38why we needed to act on this now?
49:41And much to our surprise,
49:43HR 4684 passed 2 committees.
49:48Voted on and passed by the
49:50United States House.
49:50Voted on and passed by
49:51the United States Senate.
49:52Was signed into law by the President,
49:54United States in October of 2018.
49:56And it was the first time that
49:58the federal government published
49:59standards for what a safe,
50:01stable recovery house should look like,
50:03which most notably included.
50:04They should carry no locks on.
50:06They should all carry null oxone,
50:08and they should all be trained on
50:10how to respond to an overdose.
50:12Now there have been and this
50:14is not a knock on on on NGOs.
50:16'cause NGOs do a great job but there have
50:18been NGOs around for quite some time.
50:20You know trying to beat down the doors
50:22to do this work and it really took.
50:24An effective public narrative from
50:26people who were impacted people
50:27with lived experience to really
50:29carry the banner to their member
50:30of Congress in their own community
50:32where their most impacted, right?
50:34All politics, all policy is local.
50:36Uhm? And it was shortly after that
50:40that we founded the Voices project,
50:42and we have seen this scenario
50:45this same type story.
50:47Play out with many different names,
50:50many different faces to it, many different.
50:52You know issues,
50:53whether it be harm reduction,
50:54treatment prevention, recovery,
50:56support, housing and expand.
51:00And and it's something that I'm
51:01super grateful for and I'll talk
51:03about that work in a moment.
51:05That was a positive example.
51:07Of public narrative.
51:10Negative example was on the
51:11Purdue Pharma bankruptcy.
51:12Again, I don't have much time today.
51:15I could spend probably 6 hours talking
51:17to you about the disaster known
51:20as the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy,
51:22but check out unsettled.
51:23A lot of this is documented in that book.
51:28I was appointed in September of 2019
51:30by the United States Department of
51:32Justice as the Victims Representative
51:34on the unsecured creditors committee,
51:37representing all creditors in
51:38the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy.
51:40It was the Co chair of the committee
51:42representing over 600,000 creditors.
51:45I was really.
51:48Forward thinking,
51:48I guess you could say when I was
51:50appointed in September of 2019
51:52because I thought as you could
51:53see from this clipping down here,
51:55the bankruptcy money from the makers of
51:58Oxycontin might actually save some lives.
52:00That was from a vice article that was
52:02published shortly after we proposed
52:04something called the Emergency Relief Fund.
52:06One of the first tasks that
52:09I took up as the Co.
52:11Chair of this committee was,
52:13I thought it was a crime in itself.
52:15That's so much money was being
52:18distributed to lawyers and consultants
52:20and professional fees early on.
52:24In the case nearly actually over.
52:26At this point, 1 billion dollars,
52:28$1 billion to a handful of
52:31lawyers and consultants.
52:32Under 1000 of them,
52:34before a single penny actually
52:36makes its way to communities who
52:38have been harmed the most right
52:40to services that we needed in
52:43the midst of a global pandemic
52:45where we know that 1000 treatment
52:47providers are closing their doors,
52:49overdose numbers are skyrocketing
52:51and the only people receiving any
52:53money out of the Oxycontin makers
52:56bankruptcy produced bankruptcy.
52:57We're lawyers and consultants.
52:59So I proposed this thing called
53:01the Emergency Relief Fund.
53:03Now I thought it was a no brainer.
53:05It would have been a $200 million fund
53:08that that would have come
53:09out of produce a state.
53:10It would have been available within six
53:13months of them filing for bankruptcy,
53:15so the money would have been available
53:17by last spring in a nonprofit 501C3
53:21non governmental organization that
53:24would distribute grants up to $500,000
53:26per anywhere from $50,000 to $500,000
53:30depending on scale for services such as.
53:34Harm reduction recovery support
53:36services and grief support services.
53:39As the ERF the Emergency Relief
53:41Fund was built,
53:42it would have been the largest investment
53:44in harm reduction community based
53:45seabios community based organizations
53:47in the history of the United States.
53:49At the time,
53:50it would have been the largest investment
53:52in infrastructure for recovery,
53:54support and recovery community organizations
53:55in the history of the United States.
53:58It would have been the most significant
54:00funding stream ever dedicated to families
54:03of loss of overdoses in the history of
54:07the United States with $200 million.
54:09That goes to show you how little
54:11money has actually been spent
54:12on these services in the past,
54:13so we were all excited about it.
54:15I was excited about it.
54:17I thought it was a no brainer.
54:18The problem with the scenario was.
54:21It was a goat alone strategy.
54:23I didn't have the ability to
54:25organize with my community.
54:27I was a single voice,
54:28although a very loud and powerful
54:30voice on this specific committee.
54:31I was a single voice.
54:33I was bound by terms of confidentiality and.
54:37A lot of orders that didn't
54:39allow much transparency,
54:40So what was going on behind the scenes?
54:42I wasn't able to communicate with
54:44our organizers around the country.
54:46A lot of people, a lot of government folks,
54:49corporate folks.
54:49You know,
54:50state folks were getting out in front
54:53of microphones and talking about how
54:55the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy was
54:57for the victims of Purdue's crimes
54:59was for the victims of what happened
55:02to their families with Oxycontin,
55:04and they were standing up and
55:06fighting for dollars.
55:07To help support curbing the overdose
55:10crisis yet behind closed doors,
55:13it was those many of those same
55:15institutions that killed this
55:17emergency Relief Fund.
55:18They killed this $200 million fund
55:20because they saw it as a plug in the dam.
55:23The money wasn't if $200 million was
55:25coming out of the settlement off the top.
55:28That was less money that state agencies
55:30and local agencies were going to be getting.
55:32And being able to control it was our goal.
55:35Through this emergency Relief Fund
55:36to help fill some of those gaps
55:39that would not be receiving money
55:41from those state,
55:42federal or local agencies with the
55:44which the vast majority of what
55:46I like to call miracle workers
55:48working in the overdose crisis
55:50don't receive government funding.
55:52Ultra narrow government funding restrictions.
55:56So this was killed.
55:57It was the most heartbreaking thing to
56:00happen to me during the Purdue bankruptcy.
56:04I really chalk it up to the fact that
56:08I didn't have the power of community
56:11with me on this because the bankruptcy
56:15by design was to really silo folks and
56:18pit different groups against each other.
56:21But we also weren't able
56:23to community communicate,
56:24so this is what happens when we don't
56:26have a strong political constituency
56:28behind us and it's happening every single
56:31day in policy venues in this country.
56:34There are decisions about addiction recovery,
56:37overdose, mental health that don't move
56:40forward or are killed in silence because
56:43there's no organizing behind them.
56:45This is why I believe that if
56:48we organize this movement right.
56:50From the ground up will be more
56:53successful at preventing more deaths.
56:56Now you may ask,
56:58you know why am I telling you this?
57:00What do we do now?
57:02Well, I'm going to get into that
57:04in just a second,
57:06so coming out of those experiences.
57:11You know in in 2019.
57:14We, in collaboration with several
57:17nonprofit NGO organizations and
57:20really housed the initiative,
57:22being housed at the Voices Project.
57:25We launched something called
57:27mobilize recovery,
57:28which is really an initiative to
57:31build capacity so we could organize
57:35this constituency of consequence.
57:38There's several convenings that
57:39happen around the country that bring
57:42public health experts that bring,
57:44you know, policymakers together,
57:45you know, see a lot with the DEA and
57:48oh and P and you know university professors,
57:51professors, and public health experts.
57:53And I've been to most,
57:54if not all of them.
57:55And I have.
57:55I always ask myself,
57:56but where are the you know
57:58where the troops where?
57:59Are the people where the organizers?
58:01Where are the folks down on
58:03the ground who are impacted?
58:04Those are the ones that are going to
58:05help push a lot of these policies
58:07that we're talking about forward,
58:08right?
58:08And hold folks accountable to
58:10make sure that they're done.
58:11So in 2019 we launched this non profit
58:15profit initiative called Mobilize recovery.
58:17Its mission is to expand policy
58:20that supports recovery,
58:21creating these community connections
58:23to supportive services that.
58:25Are our life saving for many folks,
58:27but it's to engage affected
58:30individuals in meaningful civic action.
58:33It brings together people from across
58:36the spectrum across the board in terms
58:40of geography and background from all
58:4250 states in 2019 when we launched,
58:44we brought 150 people to Las Vegas.
58:46We had no idea really where
58:48it was going to go.
58:49And in 2021, you know,
58:52with the help of the Scanguard
58:54Foundation and our partner,
58:55our other partners,
58:57we were able to safely bring 300 people
59:01to Las Vegas and trained over them
59:04in person and trained over 1500 new
59:07advocates virtually in prevention,
59:10treatment, harm reduction,
59:12recovery,
59:12support services.
59:14All people with lived experience
59:15who are now ready to go back out
59:18into their communities to be
59:20those changemakers that we need.
59:21A lot of the work is done around
59:24public narrative in the first
59:26day of mobilized recovery,
59:27we teach people right how
59:29to use that narrative to
59:31push for meaningful change,
59:33how to craft that story of self
59:35story of us story of now there's a
59:38lot of peer learning that goes on.
59:40You know what's working?
59:42What's not working?
59:43What are some of the
59:44tactics available to you?
59:45What are some of the resources
59:46that are available to you?
59:47What are some of the agenda items
59:49that we need to be taking on together?
59:51And then when folks leave mobilize recovery,
59:54they're plugged into something called
59:56the recovery Advocacy project,
59:58which is a another nonprofit.
59:59It's the sister organization
01:00:01of the Voices Project.
01:00:02It really provides the backbone
01:00:05for these organizers.
01:00:06These people with lived experience.
01:00:08These folks who are impacted to take action,
01:00:12right?
01:00:12We we we,
01:00:13we encourage people to really go home
01:00:17and put the tools in into action that
01:00:20that we have given them at mobilize.
01:00:23And to survey their community and
01:00:25to build a constituency within their
01:00:27community and not have it not have
01:00:30this go it alone strategy at its core rap,
01:00:33which is the acronym acronym for
01:00:35the Recovery Advocacy project.
01:00:36We're about advocacy.
01:00:37We're about networking and
01:00:39we're about taking action.
01:00:40It's a new organization.
01:00:41It's only been around now for two years.
01:00:44It was one of the main outcomes out
01:00:45of the first mobilized recovery.
01:00:47But I'm proud to really proud
01:00:50and excited to report that in 20.
01:00:5321 We've established 35 active
01:00:56state organizing teams.
01:00:58We had 1324 organizing meetings across
01:01:02the country in the midst of the pandemic.
01:01:06We hosted 108 community listening
01:01:08sessions to help for our organizers
01:01:12and this is all volunteer based for
01:01:13our organizers to go in and listen
01:01:15to their communities where the gaps.
01:01:17Where do we need to increase
01:01:19capacity for services?
01:01:20What are the actions that need to be taken?
01:01:22What should this community platform
01:01:24be when addressing the overdose crisis
01:01:27we hosted over 50 town hall events,
01:01:30we had an initiative called vote Recovery,
01:01:32which was all about during the 2020 election.
01:01:36Understanding where your policymakers
01:01:38stand on issues specific to overdose
01:01:42addiction recovery and making sure
01:01:44that we're holding them accountable
01:01:45for what they say they're going to do,
01:01:47and for some of them,
01:01:48hold them accountable for for for
01:01:51some adverse actions they may had taken,
01:01:54may have taken that negatively
01:01:56impacted our community.
01:01:58We organized 65 national trainings
01:02:00for new advocates and organizers
01:02:02across this country,
01:02:03and we had over 19,000 individual.
01:02:05Actions in 2020 on our platform.
01:02:09Issues from all 50 states people I,
01:02:13I believe people are waking up.
01:02:14I believe that the drug policy
01:02:18recovery communities are more woke
01:02:20than they have ever been on the
01:02:23need for urgency and I believe
01:02:25that folks are starting to respond
01:02:28to this type of organizing effort
01:02:31around the overdose issue.
01:02:34Now we have state organizing teams.
01:02:36This just gives you an example
01:02:38of what our organizers do.
01:02:40They participate.
01:02:41They have bi weekly zoom meetings.
01:02:43They receive consistent training
01:02:46through our Google Classroom.
01:02:48We encourage them to build capacity overtime.
01:02:52We don't want this to be a flash in the pan.
01:02:55These things take time to build.
01:02:57These things take money to
01:02:58build these things take.
01:03:01A lot of passion to build is well,
01:03:05coming out of mobilize recovery 2021.
01:03:07We've now grown to over that number
01:03:10earlier where we had 83 state teams.
01:03:13I think it's now I'm sorry 38 state
01:03:16teams got the numbers backwards.
01:03:18We now have something close I think
01:03:20to 42 or 43 state teams with other
01:03:23over 530 folks wanting to join his
01:03:26active organizers in their communities.
01:03:29To give you just a comparison.
01:03:32You know, during the AIDS crisis
01:03:34there was a movement called Act up.
01:03:37Some great books about it.
01:03:38I'm sure many people on this
01:03:40call know what act up it is.
01:03:42It was an advocacy activism.
01:03:46Organization for people impacted by
01:03:48AIDS that really is attributed to
01:03:51a lot of the federal policy that
01:03:53has helped to to to make AIDS the
01:03:56chronic health care issue manageable.
01:03:59Chronic health care issue that it is today.
01:04:02And I've spent a lot of time.
01:04:04We've spent a lot of time, you know,
01:04:06talking to to some of the original
01:04:08folks that came out of the act up
01:04:10movement when designing. Really,
01:04:12what what should this movement look like?
01:04:14How do we organize effectively?
01:04:16And one of the things that stuck
01:04:18with me overtime is one of the,
01:04:20you know, organizers.
01:04:21Original organizers said to me years ago,
01:04:23I said, you know, Ryan,
01:04:25everybody kind of looks at
01:04:26act up and the AIDS movement.
01:04:28We think that like every gay
01:04:29person in America you know got up
01:04:31and took to the streets and.
01:04:33Started banging down policymakers doors
01:04:35and demanding solutions and storming
01:04:37the FDA and all these other things.
01:04:39And he said that that wasn't the case.
01:04:40You don't?
01:04:41You don't need,
01:04:42you know we we set the #23 million
01:04:43people in long term recovery today
01:04:45so you don't need all 23 million
01:04:47people in long term recovery
01:04:48to stand up and do this work.
01:04:49What you need is 1000.
01:04:51You need 1000 people who will be vocal.
01:04:53You need 1000 people who will
01:04:55organize you need 1000 people who
01:04:56will be super passionate and and
01:04:58take to these issues and and and
01:05:01demand change and be super vocal
01:05:04and I think just looking at this
01:05:06530 number I couldn't have imagined
01:05:08that several years ago we would
01:05:09be where we're at today but we are
01:05:11and I we're getting close to it
01:05:13and I'm grateful and I'm excited
01:05:15about what's ahead because I said it
01:05:17as I said at the top of the call.
01:05:19The time has never been more
01:05:21urgent for this work, because if.
01:05:23You know,
01:05:24let's just be honest with ourselves
01:05:26for a second.
01:05:27If what we've been doing was working.
01:05:31If the tactics we have been using
01:05:34were working.
01:05:34We wouldn't be where we're at today.
01:05:37You can attribute that close to 100,000
01:05:41number and overdoses to COVID sure.
01:05:44But you can't attribute all of it to it.
01:05:46That number has been on the uptick.
01:05:48For years now it's been on the
01:05:50uptick since I got into recovery.
01:05:52It's it's significantly grown each year,
01:05:55and I'm convinced that with or without COVID,
01:05:57that number would still be
01:05:59reaching historic proportions.
01:06:00So whatever we've been doing
01:06:02hasn't been working.
01:06:03With specific to organizing with how
01:06:06we're dealing with this in policy.
01:06:09With where funding is going?
01:06:12The barriers that still exist to
01:06:14substance use disorder treatment.
01:06:16You know, not really.
01:06:17Taking into account the need for a
01:06:20robust harm reduction infrastructure
01:06:22in this country.
01:06:23We've got to start looking at
01:06:25things differently,
01:06:25or else these numbers are
01:06:27going to continue to grow.
01:06:30And skyrocket.
01:06:32So our organizers use this public narrative.
01:06:35It's one of the first things they do.
01:06:38In 2021, we hosted for our first
01:06:40time ever something called the
01:06:43Recovery Organizing Institute.
01:06:45We trained something close to 31
01:06:48coaches coming out of our mobilize
01:06:51recovery class on how to go out and
01:06:53train others in the recovery community.
01:06:56This craft of public narrative and
01:06:58these were some of the first, you know,
01:07:00we do a lot of surveys and and data
01:07:03collection because we want to see how our
01:07:05outcomes are are are looking these three.
01:07:08Protect these were just three pull outs from
01:07:11some folks who participated in the training.
01:07:14One of them was HP,
01:07:16a woman communicated to us that H House
01:07:19Bill 2257 was beaten in West Virginia.
01:07:23This was a bill that would have
01:07:25extended supervision for people
01:07:26convicted of certain drug crimes for
01:07:28up to an extra 10 years using public
01:07:32narrative skills and organizing training
01:07:35advocates testified against this bill.
01:07:38Successfully we had someone come out of
01:07:41the training who said they filed to run
01:07:43for Congress in Maryland and that the
01:07:46training gave them the missing peace
01:07:48and confidence they needed to move forward.
01:07:51We had several folks who would talk
01:07:53about how they spoke in front of their
01:07:55City Council or County Commission
01:07:57for the first time on this issue and
01:07:59used the public narrative to craft
01:08:01their scripts and how the work that
01:08:04we're doing together is making it
01:08:06easier for them to communicate.
01:08:08With their public figures
01:08:11and public public officials.
01:08:14Anyone who wants to check
01:08:15out any of these trainings?
01:08:16They're free.
01:08:17We have no fee based for them.
01:08:20Again, this is all nonprofit work you can go
01:08:24to recoveryvoices.com advocacy guides there.
01:08:26You know, we've got a voter hub there for for
01:08:30for folks to learn more about vote recovery.
01:08:32Model legislation guides for specific states.
01:08:35Our organizing tools.
01:08:36A lot of Google Classroom content,
01:08:38including the content for mobilize
01:08:40recovery 2020 and 2021 in our organizing.
01:08:45Trainings,
01:08:46so what's next in 2022 and beyond?
01:08:49What do we have on the plate ahead of us?
01:08:52Well,
01:08:52as you can see from this chart,
01:08:54you know we've now entered a
01:08:56new wave of the overdose crisis.
01:08:58It's now largely driven by synthetic opioids.
01:09:02Predominantly illicitly manufactured
01:09:05fentanyl drug overdoses last
01:09:08year involving psychostimulants
01:09:09such as methamphetamine are also
01:09:12increasing both with and without
01:09:14synthetic opioid involvement.
01:09:16So if you look at this green,
01:09:18let me put my mouse here.
01:09:19This this green line right here.
01:09:21This is your synthetic opioids.
01:09:24This is your fentanyl right here.
01:09:286364% of opioid involved overdoses last year.
01:09:32Were fentanyl overdoses?
01:09:33We're in a whole new wave of how we need
01:09:36to address combating the overdose crisis.
01:09:40Luckily and gratefully, as a result of a
01:09:43lot of organizing work around this issue,
01:09:45a lot of people banging down the
01:09:47doors of the White House talking
01:09:49to their members of Congress.
01:09:51You know, pushing Health and Human services,
01:09:53pushing sampsa,
01:09:54getting out in front of this issue,
01:09:56offering their public narratives right,
01:09:58getting louder, getting more involved.
01:10:01Health and Human Services issued their
01:10:04overdose prevention strategy just last week.
01:10:06It is significant now.
01:10:07It doesn't have any new funding
01:10:09attached to it, which is the next kind
01:10:12of hurdle that we have to overcome.
01:10:14But it has four categories,
01:10:16primary prevention, harm reduction,
01:10:18evidence based treatment and
01:10:21recovery support.
01:10:23I'll tell you why this is significant.
01:10:25Harm reduction has never ever,
01:10:28ever in the history of the
01:10:30United States had its own.
01:10:33Had its own circle here or its own vertical.
01:10:36When it comes to addressing from
01:10:38a federal government standpoint,
01:10:40how we combat overdoses.
01:10:43Recovery support has never had
01:10:46its own vertical.
01:10:48Harm reduction was never even there.
01:10:49The way this if you would have
01:10:52looked at this categorization.
01:10:54Two years ago or three years ago,
01:10:56it would have been interdiction.
01:11:00Prevention,
01:11:00treatment and recovery treatment
01:11:03and recovery together,
01:11:04which has been problematic
01:11:06in the past because it.
01:11:08Becomes a funding issue and
01:11:09how we get our dollars.
01:11:11So the strategy which is available
01:11:13on the HCH website is a step
01:11:15forward in the right direction.
01:11:17A very good step forward
01:11:19in the right direction.
01:11:20We'll states ultimately implement
01:11:23it because a lot of these decisions,
01:11:25even though we can,
01:11:26you know,
01:11:27call for these great strategic
01:11:29plans at the top.
01:11:31A lot of these decisions around how
01:11:33to spend these dollars and what
01:11:34strategies to actually take on happen at
01:11:36the state level and at the federal level.
01:11:39Which is one of the reasons I'm sorry at
01:11:40the state level and at the Community level,
01:11:43municipal level county level.
01:11:46Which is one of the reasons why we
01:11:48focus on organizing on state and local.
01:11:51Mostly because we are have a
01:11:54very underdeveloped capacity in
01:11:56terms of that advocacy.
01:11:58Now,
01:11:58in terms of dollars.
01:12:00The president's fiscal year 22 budget
01:12:03for HHS around drug related programs and
01:12:06initiatives totals about $11.2 billion.
01:12:09This is $3.9 billion more than FY20 21,
01:12:14and it includes funding to
01:12:16expand access to prevention,
01:12:18treatment,
01:12:19harm reduction and recovery support services.
01:12:21This budget has not been passed yet.
01:12:23Just want to be clear this is the
01:12:25President's FY22 budget proposal that's
01:12:26sitting in front of Congress right now.
01:12:30Samhsa's FY22 budget includes $3.5
01:12:33billion for the substance abuse
01:12:35prevention treatment Block Grant,
01:12:37which is mostly money distributed
01:12:39to states to combat overdoses and
01:12:42this next point is really important.
01:12:45The budget also includes,
01:12:47for the first time ever,
01:12:49a 10% set aside for recovery support
01:12:53services in the substance abuse
01:12:55prevention and treatment Block grant,
01:12:56which means approximately give or take 350.
01:12:59$1,000,000 for recovery support services
01:13:01which has never happened before.
01:13:04You know oftentimes,
01:13:05and this is something that advocates
01:13:07and I personally have been screaming
01:13:09from the rooftops since the day I've
01:13:11day I got involved in this work,
01:13:13just as a result of my own lived
01:13:14experience and seeing what has
01:13:16happened in my friends and folks
01:13:18like Tyler and folks like Nick,
01:13:19we have looked we have caught well for for
01:13:22some time called substance use disorder,
01:13:26a chronic health condition,
01:13:27but we've really only been funding it.
01:13:30We've really only been building
01:13:32infrastructure to deal with it
01:13:34as an acute health care crisis,
01:13:36and when I say it, you know,
01:13:38for the doctors and public health
01:13:39professionals here you you know
01:13:40what I'm saying.
01:13:41Like you know, we, we we,
01:13:43you know, treatment, treatment,
01:13:44treatment, treatment,
01:13:44treatment people need treatment.
01:13:46Yes, people need treatment treatment,
01:13:47save my life, but I'll tell you what all,
01:13:49what else saved my life.
01:13:51I've been to treatment six times.
01:13:54What was different this time I was
01:13:56able to leave treatment and get
01:13:58access to housing safe, stable.
01:14:00Recovery housing supportive
01:14:01housing is able to get job a job.
01:14:04You know,
01:14:04job training was able to get peer
01:14:06recovery support services right.
01:14:08I was able to to to to get
01:14:10support beyond that acute phase.
01:14:12the United States Surgeon
01:14:14General he was back under Obama.
01:14:17He's now our surgeon general again.
01:14:19Doctor Murty in that report that
01:14:21was mentioned that I worked on in
01:14:242016 stated the research states that
01:14:27if we can get people past Year 5.
01:14:31In recovery.
01:14:32That they have an 85% chance of
01:14:35maintaining that recovery for
01:14:36the rest of their life, right?
01:14:39But really,
01:14:39the majority of services that we offer
01:14:42people don't even get them past month 3.
01:14:46So we have to reimagine how we are
01:14:51treating substance use disorder.
01:14:53We have to reimagine.
01:14:55What it looks like I would go as
01:14:58far to say we have to reimagine how
01:15:00people make it and sustain their
01:15:03recovery right? Because we often talk.
01:15:06We say there are multiple pathways
01:15:07to recovery.
01:15:08Yet for the majority of treatment providers,
01:15:10you know inpatient treatment
01:15:11providers in this country.
01:15:13They still only subscribe to
01:15:161 pathway abstinence.
01:15:18We've got to start looking at
01:15:19this through a different scope,
01:15:20or else we're going to continue getting
01:15:22the same exact results we've been getting,
01:15:25and it's going to continue to get worse.
01:15:27I will end on this note.
01:15:30We are on a funding though.
01:15:33You know these numbers 'cause I
01:15:34like to end on a positive note.
01:15:36We are making progress.
01:15:37These numbers you're seeing in the
01:15:39president's budget are significant.
01:15:42The HHS strategy is significant.
01:15:45These are steps in the right direction.
01:15:47We have a lot of work to do.
01:15:49Advocates on the ground.
01:15:51This community we have been calling for
01:15:54a minimum 100 billion ten year strategy.
01:15:59To combat to start, to combat,
01:16:01to start to to curb these
01:16:04horrific numbers we're seeing.
01:16:06Minimum $10 billion per year annually so.
01:16:09This is good, but we need more and we need a
01:16:13lot more and we need it to be sustainable.
01:16:16So we have our work cut out for us.
01:16:19I want to thank you all
01:16:20for for joining today.
01:16:21I think we have a few minutes
01:16:23for questions I want to just
01:16:24share this last slide with you.
01:16:27You can reach me at any of these handles.
01:16:29It's me personally you can send me a
01:16:33text website tweet please check out.
01:16:35You know you could check out the
01:16:36recovery advocacy project and voices
01:16:40projectrecoveryvoices.com
01:16:41or voices riseup.com.
01:16:42I want to thank again Yale.
01:16:45I want to thank Thomas Vanguard,
01:16:47the Scanguard Foundation for
01:16:49believing in this community
01:16:50and believing in this work.
01:16:52And you know, please check out
01:16:54unsettled if you get a chance.
01:16:56All of the proceeds from it are
01:16:58going to a nonprofit organization
01:17:01in Massachusetts that's dedicated
01:17:03to working with family members who
01:17:05have lost a loved one to overdoses.
01:17:08It's unsettled how the Purdue Pharma
01:17:10bankruptcy failed the victims.
01:17:11The American overdose crisis.
01:17:13I talk about all of this in the
01:17:15book through the scope of the
01:17:17bankruptcy and my experience,
01:17:18and hopefully I look forward to meeting
01:17:20some of you and working with many of you.
01:17:22In the months and years to come,
01:17:24and I'm profoundly grateful for
01:17:25each and every person on this
01:17:27call today and the work that
01:17:29you're doing in your communities.
01:17:31Thank you.
01:17:33Well, thank
01:17:33you Ryan and thank you for you
01:17:35and the work that you're doing.
01:17:37I've been trying to check track some of the
01:17:40questions that I'll try to relate to you,
01:17:43but you certainly did a wonderful job
01:17:46giving voice to a lot of our experiences
01:17:48and and sharing your own story.
01:17:50So we appreciate that one question early on,
01:17:53related to the drop in annual revenue.
01:17:57And this is from Taylor Gunnison,
01:18:00one wondering if it results from.
01:18:03Drop of revenue as a result of public
01:18:06government funding sources being pulled
01:18:08back or from other revenue streams,
01:18:10drying up, or perhaps both.
01:18:14So we haven't. I mean,
01:18:16in terms of proposed revenue,
01:18:18we've actually seen increases
01:18:20the drop of revenue I,
01:18:23I think what you're you're referencing is
01:18:25the drop in revenue from the COVID slide.
01:18:27So the drop in the drop in revenue
01:18:29from COVID slide wasn't it.
01:18:31It was not the result of
01:18:33loss of government funds.
01:18:34It was the loss of consumers.
01:18:36People weren't able to access these services.
01:18:39You've got to remember,
01:18:40like there was a huge pivot to Tele health,
01:18:43but that came later on.
01:18:44You know the in it it went to
01:18:47show how poorly developed and
01:18:49underdeveloped the behavioral health
01:18:52care system infrastructure is in
01:18:55this country and the need for more.
01:18:57I mean, that was really where
01:18:58the drop in revenue came from.
01:19:00I mean we were, you know,
01:19:01dealing with you know,
01:19:03new issues we were dealing
01:19:05with COVID pandemic,
01:19:06essentially with a typewriter when we should
01:19:08have had access to like super computers,
01:19:10if that makes sense, right?
01:19:11Like we were way behind.
01:19:15Thank goodness for the American rescue plan.
01:19:17Thank goodness for a lot of the PPP loans
01:19:19that went into place and and you know
01:19:22SBA bridge loans and and and and COVID-19
01:19:25loans that have helped to, you know,
01:19:27soften that blow for many but consumers
01:19:31had had no way to to reach these providers.
01:19:35That's that's what it really came down to.
01:19:37And then we experienced that
01:19:39dramatically next question.
01:19:41This is from Robert Lagay.
01:19:43What should the role be, if any,
01:19:46of the criminal justice system
01:19:48regarding discouraging the
01:19:50use of addictive substances,
01:19:51including cigarettes and alcohol?
01:19:55I you know, may not be Mr Popular on
01:19:57this answer, but my answer is none.
01:20:00I am a firm believer that we have
01:20:02got to start getting these decisions
01:20:04out of attorneys generals offices.
01:20:06Especially, I write about it again and
01:20:08unsettled and I lay out a very clear
01:20:11hypothesis for why out of law enforcement
01:20:13offices and into public health venues.
01:20:16I am always astonished at some of the
01:20:20announcements and initiatives around,
01:20:22prevention, treatment and recovery that are
01:20:25housed in announced and announced from,
01:20:28you know, public.
01:20:29The public safety side.
01:20:30In law enforcement side, now,
01:20:32that's not to say that public safety and
01:20:34law enforcement don't have an important
01:20:36role to play because they very much do.
01:20:38But I'm not going to go out.
01:20:39I'm not going to ask, you know,
01:20:41the folks at Yale and Recovery
01:20:44advocates to go out and do their job,
01:20:46and we shouldn't be asking them
01:20:48to do our job.
01:20:49You know,
01:20:50there are two very clearly defined lanes,
01:20:53and I think that part of the reason
01:20:55we've ended up in this mess that
01:20:56we're in in the 1st place is because
01:20:58we have relied heavily on public
01:21:00safety and law enforcement too.
01:21:02Solve and deal with a public health issue.
01:21:07Thank you. This one hits home.
01:21:11It's from Sue Martin.
01:21:12How can we reach medical providers and get
01:21:15them to desire to treat a willing patient
01:21:17and withdrawals or surviving an overdose,
01:21:20admit and treat instead of stabilize and St?
01:21:24And there's a program built on physicians
01:21:28and nurses and clinicians who are
01:21:31frontline providers, not specialists.
01:21:33We have a no wrong door policy where if
01:21:37you come into our emergency department
01:21:38or you are on the halls of our hospital,
01:21:40we try to encourage.
01:21:41We're not perfect,
01:21:42but we're really trying to move
01:21:44push the envelope in that respect.
01:21:46So what are your thoughts there?
01:21:48Well, I mean a lot of thoughts.
01:21:50I would say one of the one of
01:21:52the more maddeningly statistics
01:21:54and realities that I learned.
01:21:56You know, early on in this work was how
01:22:00substance use disorder and addiction,
01:22:03how little of it is actually
01:22:05taught in medical school.
01:22:07I mean like I was like blown away.
01:22:09I think you know, last stats I checked.
01:22:12I mean, it might be like half a credit
01:22:15or a credit or in some schools it's
01:22:17like you know a few hours over four
01:22:20years of medical school that we teach
01:22:23people how to treat substance use disorder,
01:22:26how to deal with patients.
01:22:28With substance use disorder,
01:22:30so I think there's a tremendous
01:22:32amount of work that needs to be done
01:22:35to bring medical schools to scale.
01:22:38For folks who are going to be
01:22:41practicing physicians one day we got it,
01:22:43we have to start early.
01:22:44Right now.
01:22:45It's been a challenge, advocacy wise,
01:22:47because you go and you talk to some
01:22:49folks who have been, you know,
01:22:51doctors for quite some time and they
01:22:53don't want to go back to school.
01:22:54You know what I mean?
01:22:55Like they don't.
01:22:56They don't want to be trained
01:22:57on something new.
01:22:58You know,
01:22:58but I think that the time is to
01:23:00start now with the new generation
01:23:02of medical professionals.
01:23:03I think the work that that Yale is
01:23:05doing around this issue is phenomenal.
01:23:07We've seen other kind of schools
01:23:09within schools and programs
01:23:10that are doing the same thing,
01:23:12but we're talking about mass
01:23:14medical education here right now,
01:23:17and quite frankly,
01:23:18it should be more mandated.
01:23:21Trainings not just around you know,
01:23:23prescriber guidance,
01:23:24but really how to deal with addiction
01:23:26and mental health from the source,
01:23:29which for me would be medical schools.
01:23:32Thank you Ryan.
01:23:33The next one comes from Mary Kelly Ryan.
01:23:36I've read both of your books
01:23:38unsettled with such an important book,
01:23:40but I found it so discouraging.
01:23:41The systematic issues seem so overwhelming.
01:23:45Where do we possibly start breaking that
01:23:48up? Yeah, I'm I'm with you Mary.
01:23:52It was a very different experience
01:23:54than writing American fix,
01:23:56and it was incredibly discouraging
01:23:58to live it and and experiencing it.
01:24:01I think the first step for me.
01:24:05You know, and I'm still trying
01:24:06to figure out internally that
01:24:08the answer to that question,
01:24:09as I do this work with the first step for me,
01:24:11was really to spot to shine a
01:24:13spotlight on those systemic barriers,
01:24:15and on those systemic problems,
01:24:17I think we we don't know that we
01:24:20don't know how to take on a problem
01:24:22unless we know the problem exists and
01:24:24that we really call attention to it.
01:24:27So for me that was the first step.
01:24:30I think the second step is there has to be
01:24:34a level of accountability on those systems.
01:24:37When I say systems, I mean government,
01:24:40federal, state agencies,
01:24:42local right we we can't.
01:24:46I think the frustration for a
01:24:48lot of us in the movement is.
01:24:50Overdose crisis opioids litigation.
01:24:52All of these buzzwords, right that?
01:24:55Get that get a lot of airtime in the press,
01:24:58and we all assume that everybody
01:25:00is doing the right thing.
01:25:01That there's one big bad
01:25:02villain in pharma companies,
01:25:03and everybody else is a good guy.
01:25:06We need to call account,
01:25:08you know to what's really
01:25:10happening in some of these cases,
01:25:11which there's tremendous money grabs.
01:25:13And where is the money going?
01:25:15Is the money going to public health?
01:25:16You know, I've I've.
01:25:17I'm going to be talking
01:25:18about it later this week.
01:25:20I think it's ridiculous that at least
01:25:22out of the multidistrict litigation
01:25:24that we're accepting the fact that
01:25:2670% of it is going to be used to do
01:25:29the right thing and we're handing up
01:25:31the remaining dollars for the states
01:25:33to do whatever they want with it.
01:25:35You know,
01:25:35I think we need to remember that.
01:25:36Beyond that,
01:25:37beyond the opioid litigation that
01:25:39a lot of the things that we need
01:25:42were taxpayers like a lot of these
01:25:44services that are being treated as
01:25:45if like it should be a gift because
01:25:47we're getting extra dollars for
01:25:49like I pay taxes for these services,
01:25:51you pay taxes for these services like
01:25:53we should be getting these services tenfold,
01:25:56you know regardless.
01:25:57So I don't want you to walk out of
01:26:00unsettled completely discouraged
01:26:01because I actually believe that
01:26:03there's you know if you read in
01:26:06between the lines and the book.
01:26:07There's also an incredible amount of hope,
01:26:10you know of what we could be
01:26:12doing and and the hope for me is
01:26:14really getting back to basics,
01:26:16which is getting local.
01:26:17You know,
01:26:18making sure that we're vocal
01:26:20with these public officials.
01:26:21You know, really,
01:26:22focusing on the task at hand,
01:26:23which is organizing because we were
01:26:26trying to slay a giant with very little.
01:26:29You know, organizing at our back.
01:26:31We're in the infancy in infancy
01:26:34of this movement and there is
01:26:36there is a lot of hope.
01:26:38So dumb
01:26:39lukowski wants to know about the
01:26:43Johnson and Johnson involvement,
01:26:45and it seems like that's been kept so quiet.
01:26:49Right, so I can't speak to
01:26:51too much on the J&J case.
01:26:53What I can say is that yesterday in
01:26:56a California court in one of the one
01:26:59of the the state cases where J&J
01:27:01was a part of the the judge and I
01:27:04believe is an Orange County judge
01:27:06found that the drug manufacturers
01:27:09and distributors would not.
01:27:11Be held accountable essentially,
01:27:14and that their public nuisance test.
01:27:16Didn't really pass that.
01:27:20J&J is a huge.
01:27:20I mean they don't get any
01:27:22bigger than J&J right,
01:27:23but that case is actually wrapped
01:27:26up in Judge Polster's courtroom.
01:27:28In Ohio is a part of the
01:27:30Multi district litigation.
01:27:32There will be a significant settlement.
01:27:34I think they're talking somewhere
01:27:36somewhere between 24 and $27 billion.
01:27:41There's some good stuff to come out of it.
01:27:44I'll just tell you some of
01:27:45the problems with it though.
01:27:46Is the settlement I believe is
01:27:48spread out between 15 and 18 years.
01:27:51A good majority of that money is
01:27:52actually going to be in free treatment.
01:27:54Drugs, not necessarily dollars on the ground.
01:27:58And those companies will
01:27:59receive a release out of it.
01:28:01I do want to on a on a on a different note.
01:28:04Say though, I believe that there has been
01:28:07hyper focus and I am guilty of it too.
01:28:09And I write about it and unsettled
01:28:12hyperfocus on the litigation and
01:28:14holding these drug companies to account
01:28:16what's going to happen after it.
01:28:18I want to be clear about something.
01:28:19Nothing is happening in the
01:28:21litigation other than these companies
01:28:23writing very big checks, right?
01:28:24And there's a lot of questions on
01:28:26where that money is going to go.
01:28:27Nobody is going to jail.
01:28:29Like nobody losing their job,
01:28:31essentially like there's.
01:28:32There's gonna be releases broad
01:28:34releases for all these companies.
01:28:36They're writing very big checks.
01:28:39Our focus needs to look beyond this
01:28:41litigation because I think that in a sense,
01:28:44the focus on the litigation has
01:28:45taken some of the focus off of.
01:28:47We need to be holding the federal government.
01:28:50We need to be holding states accountable
01:28:51because they need to be putting more
01:28:54money down regardless of litigation.
01:28:55You know all the opioid litigation
01:28:57in the world will not get us to that
01:28:59$100 billion number that we need,
01:29:01and we pay taxes for these service anyway,
01:29:04so I think we're getting shortchanged
01:29:05no matter which way you look at it.
01:29:09And just for people to recognize,
01:29:12we covered some of these issues early on
01:29:15we had Josh Josh Sharfstein from Johns
01:29:17Hopkins and his group that have put
01:29:20together a set of guiding principles,
01:29:22working with shatterproof and others to
01:29:24work with the States and the municipalities.
01:29:26As as Ryan pointed out,
01:29:28Ryan before we leave one quick question,
01:29:30a number of folks have asked
01:29:32about access to your slides.
01:29:34Are you comfortable if we share
01:29:37those absolutely OK? Thank you.
01:29:40So thank you everybody,
01:29:42just a reminder that this is
01:29:45part of a series.
01:29:46The series was generously sponsored by the
01:29:50Sandgaard Foundation and we appreciate that.
01:29:53Please stay in touch with us either
01:29:56through our listserv or through Twitter.
01:29:59And I think that's it for today.
01:30:02Thank you everybody.
01:30:04Thank you so much.
01:30:05Thank you Ryan. This is Trent.
01:30:07Thank you Ryan. Appreciate it.
01:30:09Thanks everybody.