Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Bill Clinton Cites Personal Losses in Pushing Fight Against Drug Abuse

Bill Clinton Cites Personal Losses in Pushing Fight Against Drug Abuse

Photo
Bill Clinton spoke on Wednesday in Keene, N.H., during a campaign event for his wife, Hillary Clinton.Credit Matt Rourke/Associated Press
KEENE, N.H. — Hillary Clinton has made battling the drug epidemic a central part of her presidential campaign. But she has only briefly mentioned of her personal connection to it.
On Wednesday in Keene, N.H., Bill Clinton opened up about three people close to the family who had lost their lives to drug abuse or an overdose.
“I got interested in this because a young man I had known since he was very young died at 32 while he was working for Hillary in the State Department,” Mr. Clinton said, his voice growing slightly thin. “And in the M.B.A. law program in George Washington University.”
Mr. Clinton said that the man had not been addicted to pain killers, but that he had “drank four beers” while out with his girlfriend, then went back to his apartment, where she gave him an OxyContin.
“Millions of Americans don’t know that if you mix alcohol with opiates, it deadens the part of your brain that tells your body to breathe while you are sleeping,” Mr. Clinton said. “So he never woke up.”
He said a similar thing happened to “the son of the Kosovar Albanian immigrant who lives across the street from Hillary and me in Chappaqua, N.Y.”
And over Christmas, Mr. Clinton said, “it happened to the daughter of one of my best friends from law school.”
He said that the daughter spoke four languages and was conversant in another five, and that her body was found in front of the television.
But after these stories of loss, Mr. Clinton finished on a note of hope.
“We have got to do something about this,” he said. “And we can do this with the Republicans. And who knows, they might like it. And we might get in the habit of doing it.”
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Bill Clinton Cites Personal Losses in Pushing Fight Against Drug Abuse


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