Name: WRAL Documentary: Crisis Next Door
Uploaded: 2023-03-14T12:00:00-0400
Duration: 1536408
Description: North Carolina is in the grip of a drug overdose epidemic, with fentanyl being the primary culprit. The new WRAL Documentary focusing on fentanyl's impact, Crisis Next Door, debuts Wednesday, March 15 at 7:30 p.m. on WRAL.

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North Carolina is in the grip of a drug overdose epidemic, with fentanyl being the primary culprit. The new WRAL Documentary focusing on fentanyl's impact, Crisis Next Door, debuts Wednesday, March 15 at 7:30 p.m. on WRAL. 

<p>FentaNYL is absolutely devastating North Carolina families, communities, people's lives. I call it the devil. I mean, it has no boundaries. It doesn't care what color you are. What, what race, I mean, doesn't care if you're male or female or, or rich or poor. It, it doesn't matter. It's, it's once it, it comes for you, it's got you and it calls your name, it calls your name and, and there's no going back You guys, the stuff the mere end of, it ain't, is enough to kill you. We're talking about just a chemical drug that is 50 times more potent than heroin. And what the drug traffickers are doing is putting it in all kinds of products. They're putting it with cocaine, they're putting it with marijuana. he was a dynamic, brilliant, talented, amusing person. He wasn't just the kid who snorted that heroin had died. This can happen to or with anyone. fentaNYL is an opioid. And what that means is it's a painkiller in its pharmaceutical form when it's produced by pharmaceutical companies and approved by the FDA. It's used for acute and chronic pain. Unfortunately, we're talking about fentaNYL from an overdose perspective. We're mostly talking about illicit fentaNYL. And this is fentaNYL that is produced by drug cartels and used for money making purposes, not for health care. As little as two mg can lead to death. If two mg could kill someone, why would it be in these drugs? Like why would a drug dealer who's trying to make money, put it in drugs if he could kill their customer? So, unfortunately, that is all about business, right? So they want fentanyl's cheap to produce. And if you can, put in a tiny amount of something and produce a big high, then you can make a lot more money. So obviously, if the dealer has the strongest stuff on the streets, that's what these drug users are going to look for. We are in the deadliest moment of the deadliest drug epidemic in American history. My name's Jeff Nash. My name's Laurie Nash. And we're talking about our daughter, Amanda Nash. Amanda was a fun kid. She always wanted to make the other kids laugh. I think she had a great childhood. She was very involved in her church. She played little league, went to girl scouts, piano lessons, kind of the all American kids stuff. She left for college, went to Appalachian State University and we started seeing some changes. You know, we thought maybe she was getting involved in, in uh just more of the party lifestyle the college lifestyle. I thought it was just alcohol. I thought it was an alcohol issue or something like that. So she was gonna take a semester off and a semester turned into a year and she was working and, and she was working full time and making money and living in an apartment. She could walk into a room and convince you that everything's fine and, and you look at her and I mean, and why wouldn't it be? I mean, she's holding a job, she's showing up for work. She's involved. She's singing in a band down there in, in Boone, There's a knock at the door. I went to the door and there were two Apex police officers there He asked me if I knew Amanda Nash And I said I did. And that was my daughter and I said, was she in an accident? and he said she's no longer with us. and I am, I said, excuse me, He said she has passed away. He just said it like it was very, matter of fact, it was a fentaNYL overdose. And I said, oh, what, And I can remember, I was standing out on the deck and I went, There's no way. And how could she have even tried something like that? Because it made absolutely no sense to me. At the end of the day, there's, uh, Lots of responsibility for this. I mean, there is a drug dealer who has some responsibility. There is an Amanda herself who is a grown adult who made up her own mind and made her decisions, excuse me. And then, um as a dad, it's my job to take care of her. And that failed. you'd be hard pressed to find a family in, uh, in the United States that hasn't been at some level impacted when you're talking about the numbers that we're talking about. Little over 75% of drug overdoses in North Carolina involve fentaNYL in some way. Unfortunately, in 2021, we lost the most North Carolinians we've ever lost to drug overdoses. And that was 4,041 individuals. My name is Will Stevenson. My name is Diane Stevenson and we're here to talk about our two sons. we had five boys, William was the oldest and Parker was our middle son. I just absolutely loved every moment of being able to be called their mother. William was full of personality. He just lit up a room and he was always fun to be around We dealt with his situation with drugs for about 11 years in high school. I think he started dabbling in pills and then eventually it became heroin. We knew that if he didn't change his lifestyle, that he was going to end up in jail for the rest of his life or ultimately he would die. Parker was larger than life. He had an amazing personality. He had a great smile. He was very athletic. And if he were here today, he would say that he was a mama's boy, Parker also struggled with addiction, but his was a little different than his brothers, He had gotten married, his wife was five months pregnant and he had decided that he was ready for rehab. It was a 90 day program. He really felt like he was equipped with what he needed to conquer the world when he came out. when we got the call. Um We were, most of us were in the kitchen, Diane had stepped out of the room and she came back into the room and she hit the floor screaming. My, my my baby is dead. And our first thought was William. I mean, I think everybody in the room thought it was William and it was Parker. You know, we were all shocked beyond belief. a fentaNYL and heroin overdose. And that's what killed him. It was mostly Fenty, but mostly fentaNYL. We all had hoped that. Wow. Now Williams finally got to wake up, you know, losing a brother. It has to have him wake up from this terrible disease. unfortunately, it did not. And he says I'm much smarter than Parker was. I never do heroin or meth. I never do drugs alone. which he did do drugs alone because he was alone when he passed also. I see families that are very intact and then a kid gets on fentaNYL and cocaine and heroin and it ruins them and it ruins the family. We got to remember when we come up, there was marijuana. People were not addicting and dying over it. Then cocaine come out and people were addicted to it, but they probably weren't dying over it. Then crack come out was a whole lot more addictive, but it won't kill them instantly. Now you have heroin that is laced with fentaNYL and opioids is killing people instantly. My name is Christy Barker cummings and I'm going to talk to you about my son Kevin who died of an accidental fentaNYL overdose in 2018 He was very, very, I, I really wanna say he was brilliant. I don't say that about many people. It's not just because I'm his mom. He was off the charts in terms of his intellectual capabilities, his school performance, This was a time period when Zans or Xanax, right was sort of all over the street. So he was hooked. By the time we really knew what was going on, then it was a struggle, it was a two year struggle trying to get him care. It was just a a cycle, you know, of binging, getting in trouble being sober for a week binging there was one particularly bad day where he had come home and sort of vandalized the house because I told him he couldn't be there intoxicated in front of his younger brothers. The police. Then at the time in Hillsborough where I lived said we're gonna press charges on him. And so he was held in jail for 10 days, 10 days. At 17, he was treated as an adult and put into an adult jail. They would sleep with, separate from the adults, but they were with the adults in the jail all day. So that, that's actually where he met. Um Nathan. Nathan, I think was 44, years old, you know, and Kevin was 17 and so it was not appropriate for them to be together, you know. So I think Kevin learned that, that Nathan knew how to get access to harder things. They decided to trade, uh, Kevin was going to trade some marijuana to Mr Windham in exchange for some heroin. He was celebrating his 18th birthday with this, with these drugs. Kevin got three bundles of heroin which unfortunately not only did have real heroin in it, but it was laced with fentaNYL and he consumed that and it killed him. so I picked up the phone and I was just screaming and, and then I real, I kept, I heard my, I heard his dad saying It's Kevin, you know, he's dead, he's dead. Kevin's dad. And It's surreal. It's so surreal. So we initially decided to charge Mr Wyndham with second degree murder. Cummings overdosed and Windham was charged with second degree murder at that time when I first found out I, I felt I felt glad you know, like, oh, it's the right thing that somebody should have should be arrested and be held accountable. What we elected to do with the support of the family was to offer Mr Windham a plea to involuntary manslaughter still going to prison. But for less time than he would have had. He been convicted of the original charge. Nathan Windham pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He'll serve at least two years in prison for the death of Kevin Cummings. old prison camp road and head south to Beach Street drive and we are going to interview Nathan Windham. So we're going to the ansen correctional facility. So the prison in ansen, I didn't know if Nathan Windham would talk to us. Why do you want to talk to? Nathan? Nathan Wyndham is part of the story. He's in prison right now and an 18 year old is dead as a result of his actions. Ok. Looks like we're here Yeah. We're not allowed to bring cameras into the jail. It's just their policy. So I'm going to go in alone. I'll use an audio recorder and record our interview. My name is Nathan. I'm currently at correctional institution. What has fentaNYL done to your life? FentaNYL has got me where I'm at right now I didn't know that the drugs had fentaNYL in them at the time, you know, found out at a later date, after I was arrested, but I hear about it everywhere and you said you got to know Kevin briefly. Yes, we were locked up together in Orange County jail. I was in for D W I, I'm not sure what he was in for, what was he like? He was very intelligent. You could just tell by the way he talked and the things you know how bright he was and uh real outspoken, real spunky. I think he was a good kid. He just had a problem. And then and then they knock him along. I wasn't in my right mind. I wasn't thinking right. I was under the influence of drugs. the same road to count. It just goes to show people out there how, how fast that your life can change. I'm just so I'm sorry if I could change places with him, I would in a heartbeat. He could be a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a kid. He has no boundaries. The good thing about this is it stopped before we got into a home. This morning, we stopped a vehicle that was loaded with methamphetamines and fentaNYL. When you stop the, drug on the highway and it does not get into the community and it don't get into a family member or a sibling or anybody's hands. It's a success. Originally, we were seeing fentaNYL flown in from China. That's where a lot of the component chemicals are manufactured. But more recently, the fentaNYL components are being sent to Mexico where they're being manufactured there and driven across the border through border checkpoints and those drugs are coming all across this country, including here to North Carolina and they are absolutely devastating people's lives. we have to approach the supply, but we also have to approach demand and that's drug addiction. And so I've been holding the drug companies accountable that created this crisis in the first place. How did they do this? Like, you know, how are they To blame. There were three waves of this opioid epidemic. The first wave from 2000, 2010 or 12 had to do with prescription pills and the drug companies were aggressively promoting these pills to prescribers asserting that they were effective at treating pain and they were not addicted and it turns out that neither. of those things are true. And so millions of Americans got hooked on these pills while these companies were making billions and billions of dollars when the pills became less available, folks started transitioning to using heroin, buying it on the street because heroin was cheaper than the prescription pills. And now this third wave has to do with, Which is even cheaper than heroin. And that's what's killing people because it's incredibly, we're making them pay over $50 billion. North Carolina share is going to be about $1.4 billion. It has to go to prevention, harm reduction treatment or recovery services. harm reduction is a safe space for people to come and get clean sterile supplies. Narcan fentaNYL test strips. Basically anything a drug user needs to stay safe. Be safe. Erica Mitton. I am the harm reductionist here. Um for s recovery, revolution, Simon recovery. My husband and I had substance use disorder. We were addicted to opiates among other things. And unfortunately in December, uh, December 31 of 2017, I lost my husband to an overdose I came here to recovery to put his picture on the somebody, someone wall and it just so happened that those events led up to, they needed a harm reductionist. Do you have some returns? Ok. Awesome. I love to see my come back. every day when I come into work and I touch his picture and I feel him, I just know he's working with me. and we pretty much take all the work that we do here out to people. Hey, you need some supplies. All right. So we distribute fentaNYL test strips. fentaNYL test strips, right? They can test that substance so that they can make a better choice for themselves and know what is in that supply. I I used to say people overdosed. I now say people are being poisoned because people don't even know what they're getting as far as Narcan. Do you want the intramuscular or the nasal? Both people commonly call it Narcan and that's the opiate reversal medication The easiest is the nasal spray. Literally anyone can use it. We aren't enabling drug use by distributing Narcan. We're saving lives so that hopefully people can get well, we need some supplies. All right, harm reduction is hope short or long in the depths of addiction. It's important to have hope. Hope gives them a chance to look towards tomorrow. There you are. Thank you. Be safe. I can count on one hand the number of times I've cried in court and this was one of, Nathan Windham traded drugs with 18 year old Kevin Cummings. Windham was charged with second degree murder. Today he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter And so we went to court that day knowing that Mr Wyndham was accepting the plea offer for a case of this magnitude and many criminal cases, the victim, the defendant, in many cases, they still want a chance to be heard. What I hoped for that day was an opportunity to, speak for Kevin. So what did you think going in that day? You had your pictures, right? Yeah. Yeah, I wanted something that was big and would stand out, you know, but a regular photo I, I, I didn't think would make the, the impact that this, this painting does. You know, Kevin was only 18 years old and Different people look different when they're 18, some 18 year olds look like adults. He looks a lot like a kid. I've been working with this case for a couple of years so it shouldn't have hit me the way it did. But seeing that portrait of Kevin while his mother was talking about him was um, Very um moving. What were you trying to convey I just wanted to let them know it's, you know, it's not a day go by that. I'm not I'm just so I'm sorry And when Nathan talked, what went through your mind? His concern, I could see it. He wanted me. He wanted us to know Kevin's family to know how sorry he was, how much remorse, how much regret, how much it's impacted his life. And then you and I hugged Nate. Then I saw him standing there and I could see him reach for me. I had to hug him. You know, I just felt their humanity. I said, I forgive you. I mean, I told him, I said, I, I, I can tell you're really sorry. I thanked him for saying he was sorry. And I told him that I don't blame him. I don't blame Nathan. I have never seen in my experience, a man who just pled guilty to a homicide, hug the mother of the person, he's now been convicted of killing. and just changed my life and, and I prayed about it, prayed about it to see, for her forgiveness. And uh they come true. And it just happened it felt Freeing. Freeing it felt like uh like I was released, from some. chain Yeah, Hey, good morning, how are you? My name is Laura Carden. And I know Christy through the death of her son, Kevin Cummings, what? The day in the courtroom was uh something that Nathan and I had been waiting a long time for and just to simply say I'm sorry because he was truly sorry for what he had done. And a great moment for him and myself too was to get the forgiveness that Christie had to give and to show the The love in that courtroom because I can't imagine where she's coming from to be able to give that That was an answered prayer. So, Laura amazed me too. This is the first time I've spoken in front of a crowd of people. She told her story at church one for one sermon one day, Kevin Cummings. will be a name forever in our hearts and to never be forgotten in our lives. She said, I, I'm telling this story here, but I'm telling you this this, this became my purpose in life. This has now defined my purpose in life. From here out. she's been volunteering with people who have addiction. Are you ready? I am. Let's do it together. Absolutely together. we could be, our story could be really powerful if we worked together. You know, I love you. I love you moving forward. I would hope that we could change as many lives as possible by sharing our stories because I know that our story is not a normal story for anybody. I definitely have a purpose and I hope that that gives people hope if we have forgiveness for somebody else, no matter what the situation could be, it could be life altering and make things so much better. We were, we weren't gonna be quiet anymore People need to hear about the real lives of normal people that are losing Children every day. I mean, every day and we know we can't save a child because if we could have saved a child, we would have saved her too. we all tried different things in different combinations of things and then we each wish we had done the thing the other person did, but we ended up with the same outcome. Our kids are, are dead. There has to be a reason for us going on, if that makes sense, our lives going on. I think if there's anybody out there who's having suspicions about someone they love, um, maybe they need to hear a man's story.</p>

Jodi Leese Glusco

WRAL Documentary: Crisis Next Door

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I'm neurologist, Elizabeth Garra, a mix of sun and clouds out there as you're headed out the door, places where we're seeing some cloud cover lingering should be breaking up by lunchtime, if not before 80 degrees in Raleigh, 81 in Durham and in Fayetteville, those are our highs for this afternoon. So it's going to be a nice day, the coolest day that we'll see this week, we're going to start to see things creeping up a little bit from comfy into tolerable in terms of our muggy meter for today. And then it continues to climb from tolerable to humid all the way up towards tropical by Thursday and Friday, we're going to see a lot more moisture working its way back into the area and a better chance for rain Friday into the holiday weekend. I know uh we've had some cool temperatures over the weekend so you can see North Carolina there in the blue shaded area. That's where temperatures are below normal. And then we get into the yellows and the oranges above normal starting tomorrow really and really amping up for say Thursday and Friday, we check out the Bulls game. It's going to be a really nice evening for a game tomorrow. They kick off their next home stand that lasts all the way through the holiday weekend, 630 game temperatures will be close to 80. Dropping into the mid seventies by around eight o'clock, we'll see partly cloudy skies and humidity again. Should be middle of the road. Our normal high is 81. We do jump to 88 Wednesday and then all the way to 91 we haven't seen a lot of 90 degree temperatures, but we'll be there. Thursday. It is cooler Friday because we'll see more cloud cover and a chance of showers and storms in the afternoon in the evening. And we check out the rest of that Memorial Day Holiday weekend and we have preview down because of course, it's a long time before Sunday and Monday, we're going to have a lot more information coming in right now. It looks like Saturday would be the wettest day. It would be drier on Sunday with a small chance of storms and then some scattered storms on Monday. But if you do have critical outdoor plans over the weekend, make sure you keep checking back as we continue to update the forecast.

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Good evening, Darren Ott here with tonight's drawings for Sunday. May 19th, 2024. Let's get started. As always with Carolina pick three where the first winning number is eight. The second is three and the third is four and our pick three. Fireball number tonight is eight. Joining me for tonight's drawing is our auditor from mcconal Jones L LP. We move along to Carolina pick four. The first pick four, number is one. The second is four. The third is one and the fourth is two. In our pick for fireball number is five. Turning now to the Carolina cash five. If no one wins the top prize tonight, tomorrow's top prize is estimated at $130,000. Good luck. The first cash five number is 11. The second is 12. The 3rd 34. The fourth is five and the fifth and final number tonight is seven over the past 16 years. The lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education. So thanks for your support and thanks for playing the North Carolina Education lottery.

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Good afternoon. I'm Claire Justin and welcome to this afternoon. Choice for Sunday. May 19th, 2024. Let's get started with our car to pick three. Your first number is eight. Second is nine, third is also nine and your pick. The fireball is two. Joining me for this afternoon's drawing is our auditor from mcconnell and Jones L LP. Now let's move on to the Carolina pick for your first pick. Four. Number is four. Second is six. Third is one, fourth is one and your pick four. Fireball is eight. The North Carolina Education lottery contributed over $10 billion to education. Thanks for your support. Get your winning numbers each day here on your exclusive station for the North Carolina Education lottery.

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Johnson tonight, we have another life changing jackpot for you. It's worth an estimated $77.5 million. I get those tickets out. Let's play. That first number is 42. Followed by the number 59. Tonight. We're going to meet, keep on trucking who won $50,000 playing powerball. Now, for the rest of those numbers, we've got 3719, rounding it out with 36. Your powerball number tonight. Good luck. Everyone is 19 and your power play multiplier is two. Let's take a look at those numbers one last time. Remember there are multiple ways to win. We'll see you back here Monday night. Good night, everyone. Favorite jackpot game. This is powerball. Good evening America. I'm.

Powerball Drawing

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>> ACROSS AMERICA WITH MEGA JACKPOTS, IT'S MEGA MILLIONS WOODS UP AMERICA. I'M JOHN CROW. IT IS FRIDAY MAY 17TH AND TONIGHT'S MEGA MILLIONS JACKPOT IS AN ESTIMATED A NEW TIES. 393 MILLION DOLLARS. AND WIN THAT JACKPOT. YOU MUST MATCH THESE 5 WHITE. PLUS THAT GOLD MEGA BALL NOW LETS SEE IF I CAN MAKE YOU A MILLIONAIRE TONIGHT. YOUR FIRST WINNING NUMBER TONIGHT IS 8 AND FOLLOWED BY 60. UP NEXT, WE HAVE 70. YOUR NEXT NUMBER IS 17 IN YOUR FINAL WHITE BALL NUMBER FOR THIS FRIDAY EVENING IS 40 NOW FOR THE MEGA BALL NUMBER. THAT IS 3. AGAIN. TONIGHT'S WINNING NUMBERS ARE 8, 60, 70

Mega Millions Drawing

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WRAL Documentary: Crisis Next Door

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