Welcome back to our The White House is opening a drug crisis summit and the main topic is what is actually needed at the federal level to stem the tide of opioid addiction. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a brand new task force targeting manufacturers and distributors. He says everyone will be held accountable. We will use criminal penalties. We will use several penalties. We will use whatever laws and tools we have to hold people accountable if they break our laws. We are attacking this crisis at its root. Attorney General went on to say President Trump has made ending the opioid crisis a priority for this administration. Dr. John Dombraowski, CEO of the Washington Payne Center, has a lot of expertise. He's back here on five. It's 30 good to see you. Great to be back. We've been talking about this, I mean from day one, I mean this has been such a major issue across this country. It transcends everything out there. What do you think the government can do to keep this from happening in the first place? Well, I'm not sure what all the government can do, but they are starting to make some big moves forward. First thing is awareness. We now know that we have big drug crisis out there, but more importantly, the American side of anesthesiology, margarinization is now training anesthesiology, surgeons, other practitioners on how to write medications more appropriately, what things we can do in the operating room. But then also, if you have a trouble, how to get to an addiction specialist or someone in rehab medicine who they can get you better? You mentioned holding everyone accountable, and I know this has to start from the addict all the way up to how they're getting their hands on these prescriptions. What sort of things do you think they need to do to hold people accountable? Well, obviously the point that we're just listening to was talking more about the cigarette industry. What did the industry know and when did they know it? Obviously as a physician, I can't speak to that. That's going to be held out in the courts. But sometimes we as physicians, where might be told one thing and really the medications do another. And now we clearly, for the past five years, have been on mark in terms of how to treat patients more effectively. And if you have a problem with chronic pain or other issues, we still want to care for you. We want to care for you generously, but not with these medications or if you do need these medications, go to the correct specialist like an anesthesiologist. Because I feel like the way that we approach the drug problem in the past, you had cocaine for one. I mean, we're talking about opioids, something that comes out of a pure medication that people have for lack of a better or bastardized into something far more addictive and far more dangerous. Well, I think that's always been addictive. We know that for a very long time, but I think sometimes we are caught between a rock and a heart, please. We want to care for people with chronic illnesses with chronic pain. But then we were very generous with other illnesses too. They said, well, just take these medications and we realized we had a problem. Is there an alternative, I mean, for folks who are living with this chronic pain? I think this is their only way out. Oh my goodness. You bet there are. It's funny. That's right. It's funny. Exactly. The good news is that with anesthesiologists and the research that we've done for the American side of anesthesiologists, we realized certain medications have analgesic properties, injection techniques, implants for pain that we can now do that's been around. But nowadays we can certainly make the public more aware like in this venue. And then with that, you don't really need these medications or you don't need as many. Okay. Which is important for sure. All right. Dr. John, thanks so much for coming in. Certainly, our conversations on this topic are not over. Absolutely. Thank you.