Record fentanyl deaths spark new debate over treatment, Biden's oil move: 5 Things podcast
On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Treatment or enforcement? Record fentanyl deaths spark new debate over War on Drugs
National correspondent Romina Ruiz-Goiriena reports. Plus, Russian shelling picks back up outside of Kyiv, national correspondent Elizabeth Weise reports on electric vehicles going mainstream, President Joe Biden is set to release a million daily barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve and Rep. Jeff Fortenberry resigns after an illegal campaign donation.
Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more Paste BN podcasts right here.
Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Thursday, the 31st of March 2022. Today, a look at the soaring death rates from fentanyl, plus Russian shelling picks back up after Russia said it would move its focus away from Central Ukraine, and more.
Here are some of the top headlines:
- A man who kidnapped a school bus full of children and buried them alive in 1976 has been approved for parole. 70-year-old Frederick Woods, along with accomplices, kidnapped 26 children and their bus driver in Northern California. The children aged five to 14 and their driver were able to dig their way out after 16 hours. Woods had previously been denied parole, 17 times.
- The Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said it asked Will Smith to leave the Oscars after slapping Chris Rock on stage and yelling expletives during the show. But the actor refused. The Academy said yesterday that its Board of Governors have begun the process of disciplining Smith for the incident.
- And the United States Men's Soccer Team has qualified for the World Cup. The US lost two nil in Costa Rica last night, but that was enough to clench a spot in this year's tournament in Qatar, after missing out on the 2018 Cup in Russia.
♦
Death rates are soaring across the US from fentanyl. The numbers are sparking a new debate around the war on drugs and what works, treatment or enforcement. National correspondent Romina Ruiz-Goiriena reports.
Romina Ruiz-Goiriena:
We've entered the deadliest wave of the opioid crisis yet. More than 100,000 people died from an overdose last year. That's the most ever recorded. Nearly two thirds are estimated to be fentanyl related. White House drugs czar, Dr. Rahul Gupta, told us he's worried.
Dr. Rahul Gupta:
This is a very historic time. We have never had the amount of death and destruction that we're seeing now from a drug overdose epidemic.
Romina Ruiz-Goiriena:
The problem is that fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, and one dose can kill you. It's also so much cheaper. In some parts of the country, people can buy a pill for a dollar. John Koch, a 33-year-old outreach worker with Community Medical Services in Phoenix, who is also in recovery from substance use disorder is seeing how much fentanyl is ravaging his community.
John Koch:
I have over 25 dead people on my phone right now.
Romina Ruiz-Goiriena:
He's one of the many people we spoke to across the country. It's also alarming that overdose rates are growing fast in communities of color. And zip code is playing a role in whether people live or die. That's because treatment is expensive and a month in rehab can be the same as paying for a year of college tuition.
Now over the years, nation reporter Rick Jervis and I have covered different aspects of the US war on drug. The soaring death toll is concerning to so many more foot soldiers in the fight to save people from substance use disorders. Rick and I set out to understand what experts, law enforcement, advocates, doctors, and those who have experienced substance use disorder themselves consider to be the best way to end the country's long drug use crisis. There's basically two camps and they boil down to these two questions: continue to invest and have century-old policies that prioritize enforcement and place people in jail, or increase the focus on harm reduction programs that emphasize clean needles and education to users.
Enforcement hawks claim government dollars shouldn't be spent allowing people to use drugs. One of the biggest issues is that fentanyl is coming in at record rates through the Southern US border. Alberto Flores, Custom and Border Protection Port Director for the Laredo Port of Entry said, it's extremely difficult to detect fentanyl.
Alberto Flores:
Again, we know the transnational criminal organizations, they pay the numbers, right? You got 7,000 trucks. So obviously they know that it's impossible to inspect every truck. So again, we heavily rely obviously in our targeting team and, of course, our enforcement teams out there that are trying to find those needles in a haystack, right? Because again, it's challenging.
Romina Ruiz-Goiriena:
But some, including White House health experts argue that it's impossible for America to seize its way out of this spiraling fentanyl crisis. They say harm reduction programs are the nation's antidote to the disease. Under President Biden's proposed budget released this week, the federal government wants to spend 42.5 billion, that's a historic amount, on recovery services and harm reduction. And for the first time ever 10% of the 3.5 billion earmarked for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration would be set aside for recovery services, basically helping people who have historically been unable to access care. And while all of these policies continue to be ironed out, Americans are dying at record numbers. But the answer we kept hearing over and over, there's no silver bullet to end the drug use crisis and still, people need help getting life saving treatment.
Taylor Wilson:
Paste BN subscribers can find a link to Romina's full story in today's episode description. And if you have not yet subscribed, you can do so today to get your first two months free. You can also find Romina on Twitter @RominaAdi. And check out a special Twitter spaces event coming up today at 1:30 PM Eastern, 10:30 AM Pacific with White House Drug Czar Dr. Rahul Gupta.
♦
Ukrainian officials say Russian shelling has picked back up around the capital of Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv. That comes after explicit comments from Russia, that it was shifting focus away from that region to the country's eastern Donbas region. Chernihiv City Council Secretary Olexander Lomako said the Russian announcement turned out to be a lie.
And the continued shelling will likely cast a cloud on peace talks that are ongoing in Turkey. Still, Russia's military has struggled on the ground in Ukraine and several units suffering heavy losses have returned home or to Belarus to resupply, that's according to the British Defense Ministry. A British intelligence official also said this week that some demoralized Russian soldiers in Ukraine have refused to carry out orders. And at one point even accidentally shot down their own aircraft. Western intelligence officials increasingly feel that Russian President Vladimir Putin's advisors are misinforming him about the military's performance in Ukraine. White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield.
Kate Bedingfield:
We have information that Putin felt misled by the Russian military, which has resulted in persistent tension between Putin and his military leadership. We believe that Putin is being misinformed by his advisors about how badly the Russian military is performing and how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions because his senior advisors are too afraid to tell him the truth.
Taylor Wilson:
As for peace talks in Istanbul, there appeared to be progress on Tuesday when the outlines of a possible agreement seemed to emerge. Ukraine offered to declare itself neutral and drop its bid to join NATO, as Russia has demanded, that would be in return for security guarantees from other countries. Top Russia officials responded to that positively and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, the move marked significant progress.
But those statements were followed by more Russian shelling. Ukrainian military officials said Russian shells targeted residential areas and civilian infrastructure around the capital. And the Russian Defense Ministry said it targeted fuel depots in Central Ukraine, along with a Ukrainian special forces headquarters in the southern Mykolaiv region and two ammunition depots in the Donetsk region. Five weeks into the invasion, that's left thousands dead, more than four million Ukrainians have fled the country, half of them children, according to the United Nations.
♦
Electric cars are increasingly going mainstream. Americans are turning to EVs because they're cheap to run, not much more expensive than gasoline-fueled cars and for some, fun to drive. And National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise says all kinds of people, regardless of political association, are buying them.
Elizabeth Weise:
So it was fascinating. I'd been thinking about a story about electric cars for a while. And then gas prices started to take off and people started talking about them. Though, of course, as soon as that happened, it became very hard to buy an electric car because everybody else was buying them. But the thing that really surprised me when I talked to people who are... And these are not Tesla people. Tesla is the most popular electric car in the United States, but I mean, Teslas are expensive and I kind of didn't want to get into the whole, well, that's just a luxury car. So I was talking to people who had Leafs and Bolts and Kias and Hyundais. I mean, these are electric cars that are in the same price range if you just went out and bought a gas car.
And one of the things that really surprised me was the number of people I spoke with who said, "I am a Republican, I am conservative as all get out. I voted for Trump and I'd vote for Trump again, but why wouldn't I want to drive an electric car? They're fun to drive. They're cheap when you look over the lifetime of the car. And I don't have to buy gas. I mean, this is a win-win." And I was looking at this tick and this again, was a surprise. We have a fair number of electric cars on the market in the United States now, and there's a bunch coming. There's 30 models that are coming out in the next two years because automakers are really shifting to these, not in part for the American market, but mostly for the international market because the rest of the world is shifting to EVs. And China is the largest car market in the world at this point. So if I'm Ford or Chevrolet, I'm thinking, okay, where is my market? What cars am I making for that market? We're part of it, but we're not the whole market.
Taylor Wilson:
You can find Elizabeth's full story in today's episode description.
♦
President Joe Biden is set to order the release of up to a million barrels of oil a day from the country's strategic petroleum reserve. The move comes as a way to try and control energy prices that have spiked after the US and allies imposed steep sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The announcement could come as soon as today when the White House says Biden is planning to give remarks on his administration's plans to fight rising gas prices. The duration of the oil release has not been finalized, but could last for several months, according to anonymous sources to the AP.
♦
The resignation of Republican Nebraska US Congressman Jeff Fortenberry will take effect today. The lawmaker was convicted by a California jury of lying to federal authorities about an illegal campaign donation from a foreign national. He was indicted in October after authorities said he lied to FBI agents in two interviews about his knowledge of an illegal $30,000 contribution from Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian billionaire of Lebanese descent.
Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us on whatever your favorite podcast app is, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your smart speaker device. Thanks to PJ Elliot for his great work on the show and I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from Paste BN.