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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Talking About Opioid Addiction; Justice Department vs. North Carolina Law; Johnny Manziel Due in Court; Flint, Michigan, Water Cleanup. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired May 05, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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


[12:30:02] DR. DREW PINSKY, HOST DR. DREW: And they cannot sleep.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN HOST: That's right.

PINSKY: That's right. That's exactly right Ashley. Now, the -- most of my patients coming off opiods, they complain, they feel like he have this the flu, they desperation and the desire to pursue drug, and they cannot sleep. We had heard rumors that Prince was complaining he'd been awake for 154 hours. I guarantee you if he can get his hand on purpose, that he can get his hand on a sleeping medication. And that probably two dirty little secrets in all the story.

One, hyperalgesia, that opiate in that setting of chronic pain made pain worse. That's something that people don't realize, and then you get in the cycle of pursuing the opiate and making it -- and the pain actually getting worse, number one.

Number two, when you come off and you can't sleep, if you add in that benzodiazepines or the hypnotic the combination of the benzo and the opiate is a lethal combination. If today, when my patient die of addiction, they do not die of an elicit drug, they die of a combination of these two medicines that doctor prescribed, with the doctor's prescription at the bedside taken as directed.

BANFIELD: I feel like we are a broken record, you and I talk about this all the time. Dr. Drew, I know you have to go, you got another engagement. But I'm going to keep Sanjay if I can. I want to keep around I have question.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Sure.

BANFIELD: You know a lot about this. When I say I feel like a broken record when I talk with Dr. Drew about this, I am a broken record, this is an epidemic, it's happening over and over.

You are monitoring the National Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit with the president of the United States just this past March. And when you see these statistics, and I'm going to put them up on the screen for our viewers, it gives your head an extra shake.

With prescription drug abuse in the United States, we represent 5 percent of the world's people. And we represent 80 people of the worlds prescription drugs. We have 15 million abuse prescription drugs. In just 2014 over 28,500 people died involving opioid painkillers. Why on earth does this keep happening with very smart people like Prince and like others who we have reported on? How is this continuing to happen at an increasing rate?

GUPTA: Well, you know, there is a lot of different reasons for this. Some of them -- some of the roads in terms of how we got here were paved with good intentions, some of them with terrible intentions. Fact of the matter is that we used to treat -- we overmedicate and over treat many, many things in this country. That is a theme for our country when it comes to our medical system. And Dr. Drew and myself, we've been reporting on this for years.

One of the things to keep in mind is that for a long time we used to say that pain was sort of the fifth vital sign. Someone comes into an emergency room for -- some even, you know, a cold or something and they're asked about pain. And maybe even walking out with the a prescription for narcotic pain pills, for minor dental procedures people walking out with narcotic pain pills. Young people, for relatively innocuous things, getting these types of prescriptions.

So, it is a huge problem. We are now more cognizant of it than ever before but I can tell you, Ashleigh we have paid the price. Every 19 minutes on average someone dies of an accidental opiod overdose in this country. More people die in this way than from car accidents.

BANFIELD: Wow.

GUPTA: It's one of the number one preventable causes of death in this country and it is entirely, entirely man-made.

BANFIELD: Preventable.

GUPTA: This is just us.

BANFIELD: It's just -- it's so frustrating and of course headlines are only made when it's someone like Prince.

Dr. Gupta, thank you, as always, so appreciate your expertise.

Coming up next, the State of North Carolina is in trouble with the feds, the U.S. Justice Department to be exact over that so-called Bathroom Bill. Does it violate transgender people's civil rights? You bet it does says the feds. So what's the state's response? It's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Three things about North Carolina today. The Justice Department says the state is violating Federal Civil Rights law. And that they have got to clean up their act. And they have until Monday to do so.

Specifically, they have until Monday to explain how they're going to do so. I'm talking about that Bathroom Law that they he passed in North Carolina and who is allowed to use which public toilets.

The governor signed the bill in April saying basically, whatever gender you consider yourself, doesn't matter, you have to use bathroom that corner with your birth certificate, the sex on your birth certificate. It doesn't matter if you are transgender, you got to use the bathroom that you are listed as.

Enter the United States Justice Department saying that won't fly, change it.

Jillian Weiss is an attorney who specialized in transgender-specific legal issues and Danny Cevalos is our legal analyst here.

So, Jillian, the Justice Department sending a letter, it sounds sort of scary and all the rest it's not --it's not a legal action. It's a letter threatening something to the state. Exactly what are they threatening?

JILLIAN WEISS, TRANSGENDER EMPLOYMENT AUTHORITY: Well, they are letting the state know there is a federal law that prohibits discrimination based sex, which includes transgender people and that under title nine, which gives funding to state and other organizations that receive federal funding, if they are violating that law, they cannot receive that funding.

BANFIELD: So basically, this is a saber rattling from the federal government to this state to say, what you are doing we don't appreciate. And you are going to feel it in the pocketbook. Or is there more? Could they do more than just withdraw some funds?

WEISS: Well, there 's many actions that could be taken, and more than by the federal government. Certainly Lambda Legal has brought a lawsuit against the State of North Carolina to say that this violates the United States constitution and other federal laws. But the United States Department of Justice has an obligation under the law not to those who discriminate.

[12:35:10] BANFIELD: And that's title nine you said with that, of course would only pertain to education and schools. But then there is the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and then there is the civil rights act which blanket all the other folks who maybe aren't in schools, et cetera.

Danny Cevallos, we seem to be going back and forth though often on these, the transgender Bathroom Laws, there have been other states and other town that have sort of entered fray. But you do not hear this kind of thing, say, when it comes to protected classes like religions or women, that kind of thing. How does, say a transgender person become part of protected classes so that there isn't this back and fort any longer between states and government and there's no more litigation over it?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Protected classes are creatures of statute. You have race, national origin, you have religion. Some of them come from the civil rights act of 1964. And others have been created along the way. For example, the age discrimination act for people over 40 is a federal statute that prohibits discrimination against people based on their age.

But, notably, no federal law explicitly prohibits discrimination based on transgender status. So it is interesting that the DOJ is now writing a letter saying, hey, state, you have to provide the same anti-discrimination legal protections even though we, ourselves as the federal government, do not provide those protections. Now, in fairness, the Department of Education and the EOC have interpreted federal law to say, yes this law does cover transgender individuals. But they haven't gone so far as to make it explicit federal law and create that protected class that you talked about.

BANFIELD: Well, North Carolina have till Monday, it will be interesting to see what the action is. Because putting out a statement isn't the response -- the kind of response the feds are asking for. We'll see what they do.

Thank so much of course Danny Cevallos as always and Jillian Weiss nice to have you set.

CEVALLOS: Thank you very much.

BANFIELD: Coming up next, President Obama says the government, "screwed up". That's what he told the people of Flint Michigan who have been drinking contaminated water. Find out what is finally going to be done to get the lead out the lead out. Actor Mark Ruffalo has been working to get clean water to flint. He joins me next to talk about it. >

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:46:21] BANFIELD: President Obama calls the Flint, Michigan, water contamination a government screw up. And he's pushing congress now, congress, for an additional $150 million in emergency funding to try to fix the mess that has been left behind there.

In his visit to Flint yesterday he met and then shared a big old hug yesterday with that little cutie patootie, 8-year-old Mari Copeny. She is known around town as little Miss Flint. She has been speaking out for all kids who live in Flint. And she actually took pen to paper and wrote President Obama asking him to come and meet her. And she finally got her chance right there.

And this morning on NEW DAY Alisyn Camerota spoke with Mari and her mom about what it was like to meet the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMARIYANNA "MARI" COPENY, LITTLE MISS FLINT: It was amazing.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: What did you like about it?

COPENY: When he said, do your homework because I wasn't at school.

CAMEROTA: Lulu, can you just give us a little glimpse into what it has been like for your family with the Flint water crisis? How has it affected you?

LULU BREZZELL, MARI'S MOTHER: We can't use our water at all. We found out that we have one of the highest levels of chloroform in our showers tested in the entire city from water. And so we can't bathe in it. We're not drinking it. Every time the water touches mine or my kid skin, we get rashes that look similar to chemical burns.

So our whole life is now nothing but bottled water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: You know, the Copeny family not alone. I had a chance yesterday to speak with actor, Mark Ruffalo and CNN Political Commentator, Van Jones. They have joined forces in a major effort to help clean up Flint's tainted water. They have been on the ground, they did a bus tour. They saw firsthand what the folks in Flint are really living through.

And Mark told me that the problem goes much, much further than just lead in the water.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK RUFFALO, ACTOR, "SPOTLIGHT": Where the problem really lies is not the EPA nor the state in Michigan nor Dr. Manar or Mark Edwards can tell the people of Flint that it's safe to bathe in that water because there's no standards.

We haven't done enough study. There is up to 600 different disinfected by products that haven't been studied. Only 11 of them have any kind of bottom or top allowable or minimal amounts in water.

And so there is just a lot more to be said there. We don't know where these disinfected by products are coming from, are they coming from the corroded lead? Are they coming from the corroded galvanized pipes?

So it's a huge mess.

BANFIELD: It's a mess.

RUFFALO: And it's going to take a long time. And the idea is just lead and copper it's just simply not enough.

BANFIELD: And it's going to take a lot of real ...

RUFFALO: Money.

BANFIELD: I mean for people to really commit to this which brings in Van Jones. You have word with this president. What effectively can he do?

It certainly assuages fears perhaps that no one is listening anymore when the president shows up. But at the same time, as Mark just said, this is a mess that requires a lot of different levels of fix. What can he do?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, I just want to say I'm glad that he went. But frankly let's just be clear. If al- Qaeda or ISIS can figured out a way to poison 10,000 American children, the entire country would be at Flint. Flint would be the only thing we're talking about. We would be in war with two or three countries right now. And yet it happened here on our watch. People do not understand, this was not just some, you know, local city council people doing bad things.

[12:50:07] The power was stripped from the local city council. The governor took responsibility for that, the health and safety of every person in that city. He appointed an emergency manager that then switched the water supply to essentially a poisoned water supply.

That water supply was so corrosive that the G.M. Autoparts stop using the water.

In America we say the water was too corrosive for auto parts but apparently still OK for poor black children.

The president has already declared a state of emergency. Really, this is a disaster. By law, a disaster can only be declared in a natural situation. But frankly, the health of our children requires that we take extraordinary measures. We should be doing everything we can do get the pipes replaced, to get health care for the kids. It's bigger than just one visit.

BANFIELD: One of the things that we've seen in the campaign that's played out so far is Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have both called for Governor Rick Snyder to resign.

President Obama has not done that, hasn't weighed in on that. But do you think he should?

RUFFALO: I think one ...

BANFIELD: Either way?

RUFFALO: I think what has happened there is such a travesty. It's such a derelict of leadership on that governor's part.

We now know that he knew, and he knew months, at least months before what did happened, before it did happened, before it was made public, OK.

He should step down. He should step down and he should let somebody else take his place. What -- These are kids. What we don't talk about is this we're killing our kids. We're poisoning our children, OK?

When a country poisons its children, and it spends trillions of dollars going out in the world and fighting all over the world but we don't have the little bit of money to put the phosphates in the water to protect the pipes, OK, we have a serious crisis of morality in our country.

And this guy is morally impaired, that he would let this happen, that it would even come into his purview. Can you imagine?

BANFIELD: You know, there are others who ascribe blame on several levels saying the EPA had some role in this as well. And I think, you know, with those investigations that are ongoing there may be lots more that unravels. The president himself saying he would be beside himself if he were a parent.

I appreciate you coming by to talk about this, in such critical issue. And Van Jones, as always thank you as well. Do appreciate it.

If you want to get involved, you can check out greenforall.org, an organization cofounded by our own Van Jones, its mission, building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. And you can also find out more ways to help at cnn.com/impact. Great thing to do, I encourage to you do it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:57:04] BANFIELD: Got this breaking news just in to CNN, 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney says that he will skip out on the Republican National Convention this July.

And this all comes right after Jeb Bush told CNN that he also would not head to the convention. All at the same time, his brother and his father, two former GOP presidents of the United States announcing they would not plan to endorse a candidate -- which would presumably be the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, they will not endorse a candidate. Just to be more specific.

George W. Bush says he is not going to participate in the campaign. George Herbert Walker Bush, his father says he will not attend the convention.

More on that later.

In the meantime, Johnny Manziel, Heisman trophy winner an NFL bad boy making his first appearance in court today after posting bond in his domestic violence case. He's accused of attacking his ex-girlfriend.

CNN's Andy Schultz joins us now.

We know that he agreed to a couple conditions. Just walk me through what's happening in this case.

ANDY SCHULTZ, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah, Ashleigh, the judge laid out two conditions of Manziel's bond today. One was that Manziel could in no way contact or be in the presence of his ex-girlfriend calling Crowley. The other condition was that he could not be in the possession of a firearm.

Now those conditions of Manziel's bond was all that was done in court today. This was not an arraignment. Manziel didn't enter a plea today on the misdemeanor assault charge. The charge stands from a January incident where Crowley alleges that Manziel hit her so hard that he ruptured her ear drum.

Manziel's lawyer says that his client plans on pleading not guilty. No date has been set for Manziel's next day in court.

BANFIELD: OK, so in the meantime, any lawyer will tell you not to do this, but he did it anyway. He went and tweeted out another mug shot. Not the one from 2016, another one from 2012. Then he deleted the tweet, so what happened here, what's going on?

SCHULTZ: So I mean everything that Manziel done in this past couple weeks, and he kind of say no that he's not really taking these charges seriously. He joked on Twitter last night saying, "Just thankful that I had a shirt on this time."

And he was referring to when he was arrested in college for fighting and possessing a fake I.D. in that mug shot in 2012. Manziel did have a shirt on. And you say Ashleigh, Manziel deleted that tweet I'm guessing because someone told him tweeting something like that when you're under a misdemeanor assault charge was not a very smart idea.

BANFIELD: And a lot of people surprised through a misdemeanor assault charge here. I'm flat that time that he's looking at what a year in jail $4,000 fine.

SCHULTZ: That is the maximum punishment would be a year in jail, $4,000 fine. There is talk that he could come to some sort of plea deal.

BANFIELD: There is also the great loss of, you know, what was a great guy, great career, all of that, God bless you.

Andy Schultz, thank you. Appreciate it.

And thank you everyone as well for watching Legal View. You can continue to watch CNN. Stay right here to do that or you can also go on line which is fun. You can watch at cnn.com.

[13:00:02] In the meantime Wolf Blitzer starts right now.