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American Morning

Mine Explosion; Hoping For A Miracle; $45 For Carry-On; Health Effects of Working as a Miner; RX or Murder; America's Pill Problem

Aired April 07, 2010 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. It's Wednesday, April 7th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran in New York.

John Roberts joins us again from Raleigh County, West Virginia, this morning, for a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

And we found out during that press conference a couple of hours ago, John, that they had made some progress at least drilling one hole through the mine. Anything else?

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, according to the governor, Joe Manchin, it's going to be a big day today because this afternoon, maybe sometime between noon and 2:00, they should be able to get some ventilation fans going on that single hole that they've got drilled, try to get some of the methane gas out of the mine and perhaps clear the air enough so that, potentially, by the end of today, those rescue crews could be back in the mines to search for those four remaining miners.

So, that would be -- that would be big if they could get some closure. I mean, maybe they're holding out hope that they could be found alive, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of that. But at the very least, get some closure for the families who have been waiting for so long to find out what the fate of their loved ones is, you know.

And when you think about those people and the stress and the anxiety that they're going through, you've got to know that it's awfully difficult for them to be coping in these hours.

Our Ed Lavandera is with us, and he's going to be bringing us some thoughts from one family member whose brother is a miner, who may be among the four missing.

But immediately, there are -- you know, all of these issues surrounding the violations that this mining company had filed against it, more than 600 in just the past 15 months and seven in the last month of March, dealing with ventilation issues. And when you get a methane explosion, you get ventilation issue, some people are wondering whether or not this mine should have been operating at all.

But it is very difficult, though, Kiran, you found out last hour, for federal authorities to actually shut a mine down. I spoke with the CEO of Massey Energy Company, as well as some people who are involved in mining regulations about all of that. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS (voice-over): To hear the CEO of Massey Energy tell it, the hundreds of safety violations filed against the Upper Big Branch mine were neither excessive in number nor particularly significant.

(on camera): People may be wondering why this mine was even operating.

DON BLANKENSHIP, CEO, MASSEY ENERGY: Well, I think the reason it was operating is that all the people who are very knowledgeable of mining -- whether they be with the federal government, the state government, or Massey -- had concluded that the mine was safe to operate. And these violations and the efforts on the ventilation are efforts to improve it.

ROBERTS (voice-over): But the man in charge of keeping America's coal mines and coal miners safe, Kevin Stricklin, doesn't see much room for argument.

(on camera): Is it -- is it your stance, Kevin, that this is a mine that really needed to clean up its act?

KEVIN STRICKLIN, MINE SAFETY & HEALTH ADMINISTRATION: Well, we think all mines need to clean up their act. But number of violations that were issued here and some of the significance of them, it gave the indication that the mine operator would have b been better suited to just comply with the regulations rather than us finding them.

ROBERTS (voice-over): It's an emotional issue in this one industry land. Safety is a huge concern. But Massey mines provide thousands of jobs and pour money into the local community.

Ron Wooten is the West Virginia state mining director.

(on camera): Are they a good operator or a bad operator, in your estimation?

RON WOOTEN, STATE MINING DIRECTOR: I don't have an opinion on that -- on that particular question. I've seen them do good thing. I've seen them do things not so good.

ROBERTS: One person told me -- a source who chose to remain anonymous told me that you were one of the worst operators in terms of the number of violations and the severity of those violations.

BLANKENSHIP: We would disagree in terms of the condition of our mines. The number of violations can depend on what area you're operating in, what district, who the inspectors are and the whole host of issues.

ROBERTS (voice-over): Mine safety sources say they grow frustrated with the deep-pockets industry and big-money lawyer who challenge violations.

(on camera): Isn't it true that they can take you to court and they can spend a lot of money, and they can drag this out, and they can get the violation reduced, and they can keep operating, tying you up in knots?

WOOTEN: They may be able to do that, but the real cost is when you shut them down -- when you shut that mining machine down and they can't run coal. That's the real cost.

ROBERTS (voice-over): But shutting down a mine isn't easy. The feds find it hard to touch even repeat offenders if they correct the violation. It's like an endless series strikes with few ever called out.

STRICKLIN: The law gives them the opportunity to correct their violations and go back to work. There's nothing in the law that tells me that I can keep them from mining.

ROBERTS: Until there's a big accident. Then everyone pays.

WOOTEN: I get concerned and upset anytime we have a violation and when something like this happens. This devastates our state.

ROBERTS (on camera): I sense a certain frustration.

WOOTEN: Perhaps. I'm frustrated anytime these kinds of things happen. And I'm frustrated when I know that we're trying and it's still happening. That's annoying, most annoying. It just really tears at you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: But the bottom line for the some 50,000 people who work in the coal industry and so many of them who go underground to work the coal, it's an honest day's wage for an honest day's work and they just want to feel someone is looking out for them.

As you can imagine, you know, since the explosion on Monday afternoon, there's been so much pain and anguish that has gripped this community and really the entire mining community in America as people wait for the fates -- wait to learn the fate of those four miners who are still trapped underground.

And Ed Lavandera is with us.

Ed, you've been talking with family members of one of the miner who is among the missing.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We spoke with Judy Petersen, who believes her brother is one of the miners that is missing. Her hope right now is that he was in perhaps one of the parts farthest away from where this explosion took place. That is the one piece in the shred of hope that they're holding on to that perhaps helped him survive.

We spoke with her about that hope and talked about that hope that they're holding on to and she also talk to us a little bit about her brother, Dean Jones. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Have you talked to his wife?

JUDY PETERSEN, SISTER OF MISSING MINER DEAN JONES: We're -- we've talked to his wife not directly, through her sister. You know, his wife is so distraught about this that she hasn't been able to speak.

LAVANDERA: Despite the dire warnings we've heard from officials here, you seem really still be holding on unto that hope.

PETERSEN: I have to hold on to that hope, you know, even though, it may be, you know, just from a tiny string or web. You know, I think that all of us until we know for sure, that we have to hold on to that hope.

LAVANDERA: Tell me about your brother Dean.

PETERSEN: My brother Dean is a -- is an incredible brother, an incredible father. He's a father of a 13-year-old child with cystic fibrosis and he -- you know, he has been working for Massey for a very long time. And, you know, he's worked here because they've provided stable health insurance so that he can keep his son treated and taken care of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And Dean Jones kind of exemplifies what you see over and over around here, John. You know, his father was a miner. It's -- he followed in his father's footsteps.

And, you know, I think one of the hard things for a lot of these families to kind of go through as well is that his shift was ending. He was almost at the end of his work day when this happens.

So, if it is tragic here at the end of the day, I think that's one of those other things that just kind of lens for making this such a much more difficult situation for these families.

ROBERTS: There are so many stories like that associated with this disaster. We heard the story early yesterday morning of the father who was living the mine. His son was going in, along with his son's cousin and the father's brother. And the three of them died. And it's just, as you said, multiple generations of families here in some of these tragic stories.

Ed Lavandera, thanks.

LAVANDERA: Thanks, John.

ROBERTS: Let's send it back to New York and here's Kiran.

CHETRY: John, thanks.

Well, new this morning, one of Michael Steele's biggest supporters now says it's time for the Republican chairman to step down. CNN political contributor Alex Castellanos says that a change in leadership would be a good thing for the party.

Steele has been accused of misusing party funds. A new finance report also found that the RNC spent nearly $1,000 at a Vermont winery for what it called office supplies. Steele says he will not step down. Some are warning that could be a big problem for the party when America votes this November.

Still ahead: mine safety under the spotlight. Should somebody be held accountable for what happened? West Virginia Congressman Nick Rahall, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Back now in Raleigh County, West Virginia.

And the big news of the day, that it maybe by this evening, that rescue crews can get back into the mine to look for those four remaining missing miners, progress on those bore holes has gone more quickly than was first thought. The first one punched through the roof of that space where it's believed those miners maybe trapped about 4:00 this morning, and they would begin very soon to start ventilating some of the methane out of that mine.

You know, we've been talking so much in the last 24 hours about mine safety and violations and how to keep miners safe.

Let's bring Congressman Nick Rahall. He is a cosponsor of that House legislation on mine safety. It was the Senate version of the legislation that eventually became the MINER Act of 2006.

But there seems to be some good progress being made in terms of getting back into that mine and reaching those miners.

REP. NICK RAHALL (D), WEST VIRGINIA: Yes, John, there is progress being made. That's good news. We hope, by the end of the day, we can have some news for the families and they can move closer toward closure on this issue for their families.

ROBERTS: The news may not be good but some news is better than no news. You know, the governor was saying earlier this morning, they were banging on the drill bit as it came down, they didn't get any response. So, there's no one in the immediate area of where the drill came through who's alive.

RAHALL: Well, that's not necessarily bad. So, you know, we're still hanging up hope however small it maybe. But it's certainly -- to see these families and to visit with them during this ordeal as much as I have, it's heart-wrenching, yet it's heartwarming to see what they're going through.

ROBERTS: You know, we talk so much -- as I said -- about mine safety and the hundreds of violations that have been filed against this company. And we should say that, you know, members of this company, including Blankenship, the CEO, have contributed heavily to Republican candidates. One of those candidates will be running against you in the election in 2010. I just want to get that out there.

But in terms of violations and this company's operating record, many people have asked the question in the last 24 hours: should it have been operating at all? What are your thoughts on that?

RAHALL: Well, it's a valid question. When you look at the background -- when you look, not only of this particular mine, which does appear to be a bad apple, there's no question about it, because of the history of violations, including this latest March 30th of this year, and you look at the past record of this company -- Aracoma, several years back. You may recall that disaster, same operator.

So many people are asking, I repeat, that something is wrong here. And certainly, when you talk to those that have been underground, that have kept rescue miners, both at Aracoma and here, when you talk to others that perhaps escape. Or you talk to family members that everybody had somebody worked in a mine or is working in a mine. Or has lost a life in a mine, when you put the pieces together, everything you hear or the course of many, many years something's fishy.

ROBERTS: Just by way of background, Aracoma, a fire in a mine back in 2006, two miners died. The company pled guilty to ten criminal charges and was fined $2.5 million in that particular case. But when you look at the over landscape, the overall universe of mining companies, the ones who are the worse violators versus the ones who are the best, where does this company fall?

RAHALL: Well I can't rate it one, two, three order, but I know that this company has a rather maverick reputation. There are other operators in the area including the vast majority of which are responsible operators that have not always even publicly, at times, been in agreement with the operating principles of this company or the strategy that they employ.

Several board members of this company, for example, have resigned over the tactics employed. So it's been a rather maverick operation here. And the company itself has pulled itself out of our West Virginia Mining Association, for example, in the Chamber of Commerce is in the National Mining Association. So you know it's a rather lonely operation sometimes here.

ROBERTS: And on the question of these violations, we spoke with the CEO of Massey Energy Company, Don Blankenship, yesterday, aired some of that this morning, and he said that the violations are up partially as a result of the Miner Act. You tighten the regulations, companies violate these violations because they find it difficult to get compliance. Do you buy that argument?

RAHALL: Well, some companies fought the Miner Act implementation. Others agreed to change it when necessary and they wanted to do what was necessary to improve the mine safety health underground. And because violations are up doesn't mean it's necessarily because somebody's after them. It means that you have to do a better job.

And most responsible mine operators want to do a better job. They want to prevent accidents. They do not want to cut corners. They do not want to shortchange a miner's life in exchange for the bottom line profit. And, you know, that's number one in every mine operator's heart should be the protection of the health and safety of their employees.

ROBERTS: And at the same time, though, the politics of it is complicated isn't it because of these mines. They provide thousands of jobs in this area, they put money in the community, going to be spending a million dollars to build a new school here. So the miners don't like the environmentalists who are fighting the mine companies, it's a convoluted world.

RAHALL: Well it is and I recognize the charitable contributions, the upstanding efforts in the communities that this company has provided all of our coal companies have provided. I recognize the jobs. I recognize what revenues from coal mean to our state economy and many of our counties in the southern part. You can't turn the lights on you can't employ law enforcement officials if you don't have that coal revenue. I recognize all of that.

But we're not talking about abolishing the coal industry here. We're talking about doing it in a responsible manner both environmentally and safety wise. And the price of a coal miner's life, you cannot put a price tag on that and there should be no corners cut when it comes to protecting the health and safety of our most precious resource, which is the coal miner him or herself.

ROBERTS: Congressman Nick Rahall, good to talk to you this morning. I know you're headed up to Vermont, thanks so much.

All right, let's send it back to New York.

CHETRY: John, thank you.

Well it's a first airlines adding fees for carry-on bags. Would you pay $45 for your carry-on well fires are outraged, we are going to explain what's going on now, 19 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Twenty two minutes past the hour right now.

Christine Romans is "Minding Her Business" and we're both sitting here deciding whether or not to get outraged about this latest news because Spirit Airlines is now going to be charging you extra money to put your carry-on bag into the overhead compartment, but they have an interesting spin, they call it the new phase of unbundling.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Unbundling, this is what the airline industry calls this new - this new way that you can pay for things. You by the airplane ticket and then you pay for everything extra. You pay to check the bag, you pay to sit in an aisle seat in some cases. You pay to board first in many other cases and now Spirit Airline says that you can pay to actually put the carry-on. I thought the carry -- I mean this was one of the last frontiers of things you could do was stash your carry on.

CHETRY: Right for armrests or a seat belt.

ROMANS: Not yet for seat belt or an oxygen mask. But this is unbundling what they are trying to do is take apart the pieces of the fare so you pay for what you use. So at the gate you would pay $45 to check -- not to check the bags, sorry, to put it in the carry-on. If you'll put things in the overhead bins. If you go online $30, if you are a member, Spirit Airlines members pay $9 to be a member and then you pay $20 online. So that's how it works out. Now there are some things that are exempt here. An umbrella, for example, if you use assistance device, I think that means a cane.

CHETRY: Or one of those walkers.

ROMANS: Right or a walker, you don't have to do that. A baby bag, for example. Say you get a big bag of food to feed your kids, a hat, you know, that kind of stuff they're not going to charge you for, but basically you have to just be able to fit the thing, the laptop bag, the purse and the briefcase underneath the seat in front of you, that's all you get unless you want to pay extra.

CHETRY: Spirit Airlines is a - they're a discount airline.

ROMANS: Ultralow fare.

CHETRY: That's what they call themselves. So they say that you pay a penny in your ticket.

ROMANS: Right.

CHETRY: This is how they break it out and then break it out from other things.

ROMANS: Right.

CHETRY: The fuel, the taxes.

ROMANS: So you pay nine bucks to be a member, then you get a penny for your tick from Atlanta to Myrtle Beach and then they tell you exactly how much you pay in fuel $12, and then $18 in taxes and fees and then your total ticket is $31. Right? Well then it's another $20, if you want to, you know, so that's how - that's what the unbundling is. So I don't know, it's interesting. I mean, people complain about it constantly. People just complain about all of these fees, but this is the way this industry is going and as long as there's something to charge a fee for, they'll figure out a way to charge a fee for it.

CHETRY: Do you have a "Romans Numeral" for us this morning?

ROMANS: I do, this is the other side of this story. 80 percent. This is from the flight attendants' point of view. 80 percent. 80 percent of flight attendants have had a strain, or a pull or an injury because of these big, huge carry-on bags we are bring in. Now that they're charging you to check your bags, the carry-on bags are getting bigger and bigger. People are putting like their tennis shoes tied around their roller bag and they've got - and they come in with the huge bags, drop them off, sit down and then the flight attendance are like struggling to get them up in there.

CHETRY: Right, right because no one ever knows how to quite fit them in there correctly and it always falls on --

ROMANS: Right and we don't want to pay to check it, we don't want to pay to check it -

CHETRY: Right.

ROMANS: So we figure out how to bring everything we possibly can onto the plane and so now this next step from Spirit is OK, now we are going to charge you to bring everything you possibly can on the plane.

CHETRY: There you go so travel light or stay home.

ROMANS: Travel light, yes.

CHETRY: Thanks, Christine.

Well everybody is hoping for a miracle in the search for four miners still missing. What are the chances if they are able to get in there today, complete the rescue mission that these miners could still be alive underground. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to join us next. Twenty six minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Thirty minutes past the hour right now, time to check our top stories.

Armed with a revamped nuclear strategy, President Obama heads to Prague later today to sign a new arms control treaty with Russia. It calls for both countries to reduce nuclear arsenals by a third. The president will also host a nuclear summit next week in Washington.

Shuttle Discovery was able to dock at the International Space Station this morning despite a faulty antenna knocking out radar tracking. The mission includes three spacewalks and it is the first time four women are at the space center at once. Discovery should return in about two weeks.

And in Montcoal, West Virginia, they've now broken through a refuge chamber more than 1,000 feet below the earth's surface where they believe as many as four missing miners might be trapped. They're trying to ventilate toxics gasses from the area so rescue teams can head down safely.

West Virginia's governor is hoping that can happen in the next few hours even though attempts to signal any potential survivors failed to produce a response. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOE MANCHIN (D), WEST VIRGINIA: We're hoping that we can get the mine and the air safe enough to get our rescue teams back in some time this afternoon. So the timetables are still the same as we thought they would be. The drilling went better on hole number one than anticipated. They got through quicker.

We did not get any response back from, if you will, the beating on the pipes and signaling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: And once the deadly methane gas is safely ventilated from the area, that's when search teams would need about five hours to reach the location where they believe the miners are trapped.

So again, as we've been talking about, John, a slim hope, but hope nonetheless that perhaps there's a miracle to be found if they can see whether or not the four miners made it.

ROBERTS: And the way that they cling to hope in this particular case, like the Sago mine disaster in 2006 when 41 hours after the explosion there, Randal McCloy was found alive, the only guy who was found alive.

Of course, he had a lot of health problems lingering after that. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta actually talked with Randal McCloy sometime later. He joins us this morning with the overall health risk that these miners face.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: When you talk about a rescue situation like this, as you talked about, the methane gas and the carbon monoxide, they can certainly render someone unconscious and render someone's judgment impaired short of being unconscious.

And that's why the rescue mission continues, because even if they don't get a response now, that doesn't mean necessarily that someone has survived or not in a situation like this.

ROBERTS: And there is the possibility, too, that maybe they've made it to one of the refuge chambers and they've been waiting there for rescue.

GUPTA: I just find this fascinating the whole airlock situation, so you're really dispelling all of the potential toxic gasses, which eliminated the rescue efforts, and had the fresh air for a period of time. Who knows?

ROBERTS: As it was described, it was sort of like a room equivalent of the inflatable slide on an air craft. It sits in a very tight little package and the pull the pin on it, and rather than inflate into a slide, it inflates into an emergency room where 36 people have enough supplies to survive for four days. GUPTA: People thought about these things after Sago. I did spend some time with McCloy, Randal McCloy and his doctors afterward sort of learning about exactly what happened down there, and again, what some of the effects are, the lingering effects of exposure to these gasses.

It doesn't just simply go away. The brain is very sensitive to these types of gasses, so you do have effects in the long term as well.

ROBERTS: And McCloy had lingering exposure.

GUPTA: He did.

ROBERTS: But every day these people that come underground to work face health hazards that the methane gas is present in a lot of cases, but there's also that coal dust that can have debilitating health effects.

GUPTA: I'll admit to you I did not know about the extent of this. We all learned about black lung, but 10,000 people die a decade, so about 1,000 people a year still from black lung. I was really surprised by this.

And it is this coal dust that gets into the lungs and causes a profound inflammatory response. The lungs become these boggy air bags, almost. They simply can't inflate and deflate with effectiveness anymore, and that's what happens to patients.

I talked to a woman yesterday whose husband at the age of 51 was essentially debilitated by this, by this black lung.

ROBERTS: I recall that. She said he was a small person and when they did the x-ray he just had these lungs that filled his entire chest and part of the abdominal cavity.

GUPTA: That's right. It is so common down here. They almost expect it. People sort of working in the mining industry expect to get some sort of pulmonary disease -- 64 percent higher rate of this sort of problem here versus other places than West Virginia.

ROBERTS: Is it inevitably failure? Is there any treatment?

GUPTA: There really is no treatment for this. The lungs become so inflamed they just don't work. It's not like an infection you can treat or some autoimmune response where you tamp down the immune system. This is a lung that doesn't work.

They put patients on breathing machines knowing full well it will be impossible to remove them off the breathing machine. And you have kidney problems, neurological problems.

Later on I'll be visiting this 300 yard stretch of road where there have been five brain tumor patients over the last few years. Whether or not that counts for a cluster I don't know, but it's certainly something we'll look into. ROBERTS: You know, you talk about coal mining and not just actually in the mines, but in the entire area. You talked about the health effects of the actual mining and the health effects in the surrounding area. There's a coal processing facility beside us. There's an elementary school that lives in the shadow. And if you wipe your finger along the window sills, you pick up coal dust. It's everywhere.

GUPTA: Magnesium, cadmium, lead, just about every metal you can think of. You have these hill tops that have been taken off everywhere you look. What happens to all of that? A lot of times there's a slurry that's made of the coal processing. Those slurries are sometimes injected into the mines underground and seep into the water right here behind us. This is part of the process.

ROBERTS: This is something that you'll be looking into later today?

GUPTA: That's our plan today.

ROBERTS: I look forward to your reporting. Sanjay Gupta, it's good to see you.

Let's go back to New York, and here's Kiran.

CHETRY: John, thanks.

Still ahead, we're talking about a prescription for trouble, painkiller abuse spirals out of control in some town across America. Carol Costello with the latest in our special "A.M." series "Addicted."

It's 36 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 39 minutes past the hour right now.

You've probably seen the headlines of tragic deaths, stars like Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson. But America's problem with prescription drug addiction is growing in places far away from the Hollywood spotlight.

It can be deadly not only for the addict, but in some cases for the doctor who comes between the addict and his fix.

Our Carol Costello joins us live from Washington with the latest installment of our special series "Addicted." Good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.

It's easy to sit back and shake your head when you hear stories about people addicted to prescription drugs. You say it's sad, but it won't touch my life. Well, that is not true. Prescription drug abuse is so pervasive and so dangerous for doctors he or she may refuse to write you a prescription no matter how much you're hurting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Small town America with a big problem -- pill poppers.

DANIELLE SANDLIN, DAUGHTER OF DR. DENNIS SANDLIN: I didn't really realize how bad it was getting until after I'd gotten out of college.

COSTELLO: Danielle Sandlin grew up in eastern Kentucky. Her father was a doctor who, like other doctors in this part of the country, watched prescription drug abuse spiral out of control.

In December things came to a head here in Portisville, Kentucky, population 792. In this clinic, Danielle's father Dr. Dennis Sandlin refused to prescribe painkillers to a man he suspected was an addict. Police say that man left angry and came back with a gun.

SANDLIN: My dad was writing in a chart at the nurse's station and they -- someone heard my dad say "You don't want to do this. I take care of a lot of elderly people." And he said, "Well, you didn't help me," and that's when he shot him.

COSTELLO: Dr. Sandlin's murder didn't come as a shock to Dr. David Greene. He works at a family practice clinic. Addicts come to his clinic to shop for doctors. They use every trick in the book to get him to prescribe every powerful pain medication like Oxycontin. It can get ugly.

COSTELLO (on camera): Have you had people come in and scream at you?

DR. DAVID GREENE: Yes.

COSTELLO: Physically push you or touch you?

GREENE: I have less of a problem because I'm male and I'm taller. So -- but one of the things we have to do in our office because I'm the only male doctor is I'm sort of on call for situations like that that involve anybody else, and I'll deal with them.

COSTELLO (voice-over): But some doctors do refuse to deal with it. They no longer write prescriptions for pain medication for anyone, regardless of need. Detectives in Louisville can understand that. They arrest two or three suspects a day who routinely call in fraudulent prescriptions to pharmacists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a forged prescription that you went and picked up, not just once, a bunch of times. Do you know who's calling these in?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know. Is it you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Claiming to be --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was wasn't in the beginning, but yes.

COSTELLO: It's become an old, tired story. Detective Steve Watts is dedicated to fighting one kind of drug crime -- illegal prescription drug use. He's looking at surveillance tape at a woman who used the doctor's name who called in a prescription for Xanax.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There she is with her same distinctive bag, her Wal-Mart bag, walking out.

COSTELLO: We rode along with detective watts. It wasn't long before she appeared along with her father, and that purse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I could make this her worst day of her life so that tomorrow she will seek treatment, then I've won.

COSTELLO: Back in Cornettsville, there are no winners. Dr. Sandlin's alleged killer has yet to face trial. He says he's not guilty.

GREENE: He has to see what he's done. He has to look at my family and know what he did. It's somebody's life. It's the lives of his patients, that community. It's, you know, it's everybody.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: It is everybody. Danielle is working with a number of groups to make it safer for doctors to practice medicine.

Kiran, here's the real problem. You met Dr. Greene in my story. He says it's very difficult to tell if someone's an addict. Say a patient comes into his clinic. The only thing he can ask them is how much pain are you in? And he expects them to tell you the truth.

I'll just share a quick story with you. He prescribed pain medication for a 79-year-old woman who lived in a nursing home. She had a broken leg so he figured she must be in pain. It turns out that she started dealing the drugs from the nursing home. You just never know.

CHETRY: A lot of the kids we talked to in our story, their parents, grandparents, other people had these narcotic prescriptions that they've forgotten about or left in the cabinet, and the kids get to them.

One of the kids in the story said that he never went through a gateway drug or marijuana. He tried three Vicodin tablets at a party and he was hooked.

COSTELLO: Yes. And sadly, this woman in the nursing home was selling to kids just like that. She was an addict, and she sold some of the pills to pay for her own addiction. So it's a continuing, out- of-control spiral. CHETRY: Yes, and we're also getting a bunch of e-mails actually about this series that we were doing. Now, a couple of people taking issue with you talking about -- that there's nothing between Tylenol and Oxycontin.

But what did Dr. Green tell you about the -- coming up with other effective, non-addictive ways to treat pain.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Tylenol was an extreme example and there are a few other pain medications, but they're a lot milder than Oxycontin.

Dr. Green says there hasn't been enough research done on pain control. He doesn't have enough choices to prescribe to patients who might not be in extreme pain, but some pain and you know he's got to make that decision.

Do I give them these very powerful painkillers that are highly addictive or do I prescribe them something that's maybe less addictive? He says he doesn't have many choices and there needs to be more research done in this area.

CHETRY: Right and also the doctor I spoke to, Robertshaw says there should be more emphasis on physical therapy, things like alternative therapies and ultra chiropractic and perhaps acupuncture and then oftentimes that also was not necessarily covered by insurance so people can't go that route.

Carol thanks so much. And very interesting piece by the way. We're going to be talking a little bit more about this with a DEA agent and also the author of a new study on the rise in prescription drug overdoses coming up.

We're going to have much more on what's driving the increase and what's being done to stop it.

Forty-five minutes past the hour.

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CHETRY: Forty eight minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

You know all this week we've been taking a look at America's pill addiction in our series "Addicted".

Before the break we heard from Carol Costello the story of a doctor who was murdered after he denied one addict his pain pills. In many cases doctors won't prescribe drugs like Oxycontin to anyone anymore.

Joining us is Wilbert Plumber, associate special agent in charge of the New York Field Division of the DEA and also from West Virginia University, Dr. Jeffrey Coben, author of the new study on prescription drug abuse.

Welcome both of you. Thanks for being with us.

This story has gotten a lot of attention certainly and the results of your study Dr. Coben came out at really an opportune time as we've been discussing this pill problem in our nation. What were the findings of this study as it relates to prescription drug overdoses?

DR. JEFFREY COBEN, DIRECTOR, WVU INJURY CONTROL RESEARCH CENTER: Well, our study reinforced what we're finding in terms of the fatalities. We've known that fatalities have been dramatically on the rise.

What we're finding is that it's really just the tip of the iceberg. That -- in terms of hospitalizations, we saw three times as many hospitalizations as we're seeing fatalities and this is really a significantly increasing problem. A 65 percent increase over a seven- year period.

CHETRY: And in many cases, I mean, you can take a look at the retail sales of these drugs from 1999 to 2006 going up 1,000 percent and you can also see that when that started to happen there were more and more overdoses.

Why are doctors prescribing these drugs that seem more than they were even a decade ago?

COBEN: Well, there's been a lot of emphasis on better pain control, and I think physicians are trying to respond to that.

It is difficult for physicians. We want to provide adequate and appropriate medications for patients to try to relieve pain. At the same time we are trying to deal with this increasing problem of powerful pain relievers and powerful medications in the community causing more and more overdoses.

CHETRY: Let's bring in Special Agent Plumber. Talking a little bit more about the problem, how big of a problem are prescription drugs when you analyze it against things -- street drugs that we typically see as a problem like crack, cocaine, heroin.

WILBERT PLUMBER, ASSOCIATE SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE NY FIELD DIVISION OF DEA: It's becoming more of a problem. This is like the second drug behind marijuana now that's being used in America.

CHETRY: What is?

PLUMBER: Prescription drugs.

CHETRY: The narcotics, the opiates?

PLUMBER: Yes.

CHETRY: And -- what are you guys -- what are you guys doing? I mean, how have you had to change your tactic as an agency to try to address this growing problem. PLUMBER: During the past several years we've restructured out diversion (ph) programs by, you know, developing tactical diversion squads within the field divisions, within the United States. We have over 61 groups that are now geared with special agent, diversion investigators, Intel research specialists as well as state and local offices, task force offices that come together and then we're targeting this problem in America.

CHETRY: You know one of the things, Dr. Coben that I also thought was interesting as we were doing this story. A few of the doctors that we spoke with, they said that -- one of the things that they are also seeing as a big problem is this perception among young people that prescription drugs are somehow safer because they're not street drugs, because they're not bought from a dealer on the corner.

How are we tackling the way that we -- that we view prescription narcotics and in some cases, these tranquilizer, these abusive stimulants as well as things like the barbiturates that we've also seen.

COBEN: Absolutely, I think that is a part of the problem. Not only are these drugs more readily available in the community, but there are also attitudes that suggest that people think they're safer and not as dangerous as other street drugs.

I think the approach to that has to be one of prevention. We've got to get messages out there that these are powerful drugs with life- threatening side effects and they need to be taken only as prescribed by the physician.

CHETRY: And it is interesting when we talk about this perception. It is a wrong perception. In 2006, Agent Plumber, they say overdoses of opiate analgesics -- analgesics and things like morphine and methadone actually cause more deaths than overdoses of cocaine and heroin combined. That's a shocking number.

PLUMBER: Yes, that's the trend we've been seeing over the past years that the death from heroin, cocaine have stayed steadily the same while the death from prescription drug has increased dramatically.

CHETRY: Do you find it's actually easier for people, for addicts or for potential addicts to get their hands on prescription drugs than the street drugs?

PLUMBER: Well, I think people in the community and teens and people in general have started doing it was that they believe it's more safer. That it's being prescribed by a doctor, or this is the prescription drugs. So therefore it's safe and not as much of a threat as cocaine or heroin.

CHETRY: So what do you do, then, Dr. Coben? What is the solution to the rise that we've seen in both accidental and intentional overdoses of prescription drugs?

COBEN: Well, I think that solution has to involve the health care community. And we need to do a better job of working with our patients to understand who is at most risk for abusing these medications and being judicious and careful in our use of those medications.

I also think the public health community has a role in terms of getting a message out there and effectively educating people in the community about using these medications and obviously, there's a role for law enforcement, as your other guest clearly attests to.

CHETRY: And what do you think of the biggest change that could happen that would help tamp down this problem could be?

PLUMBER: Well, one of these changes that occurred approximately a week ago. On March 31st the federal register of DEA just implemented a law that allows electronically prescribing prescription -- prescribing drugs by doctors now. So therefore the -- that can help reduce forged prescriptions that now doctors are able to electronically file prescriptions with the pharmacies.

CHETRY: I got you. So that could make a big difference in terms of forgeries.

PLUMBER: Yes. That and also states that implement prescription monitoring programs where you can kind of monitor the prescriptions that are being taken by people that also shows whether or not the person is doctor shopping. If they in one day have gone to three different doctors and obtained a prescription.

CHETRY: All right. Well, it's great to talk to you Wilbert Plumber, as well as Dr. Jeffrey Coben. Thanks to both of you for your time this morning.

COBEN: Thank you.

PLUMBER: Thank you.

CHETRY: We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, West Virginia governor, "no response yet" is what he said from any coal miner survivors to the rescuers beating on the pipes. We'll find out more about their efforts this morning and what's changed now.

Fifty-five minutes past the hour.

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ROBERTS: As governor Joe Manchin said earlier today, it's going to be a big day here in Raleigh County, West Virginia and here's the reason why.

Recapping where we are just to tell you what's going on. About 4:00 this morning, the drill bit in the first of those bore-holes punched through the area where it's believed the remaining four miners who haven't been found may be. That means that very soon they can start venting out some of that methane gas that has built up and has prevented rescuers from getting inside that mine. There are two other bore holes that are going in for ventilation; one other one for monitoring as well. After the first hole was punched out, the operators of the drill were banging on the pipe for about 15 minutes or so to see if they would get any response from anybody that might be below and able to respond. They didn't get anything.

They may conduct some seismic tests a little later on today and fire off two or three shots of dynamite and listen to see if there's any response because miners are trained that if they hear something coming from the top they're supposed to pound on the roof below and sensitive microphones may hear some movement.

So far there's been no indication that anyone is alive down there in the mine. Other miracles have happened as we saw in 2006. So we're going to keep a very close eye on this story throughout the day and bring you the latest developments on it -- Kiran. CHETRY: John, thanks so much. We welcome people to join the conversation on today's stories by heading to our blog CNN.com/amFIX.

That's going to do it for us. We'll see you back here tomorrow morning 6:00 a.m. Eastern.

Meantime the news continues. Here's "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Philips. Good morning, Kyra.