The Eric Metaxas Show - Robert Marbut and actor Billy Baldwin

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

Senior Fellow Dr. Robert Marbut and actor Billy Baldwin discuss their new documentary, Fentanyl: Death Incorporated. https://watch.salemnow.com/series/kc5bUXyc23El-fentanyl-death-incorporated

Noble gold investments is the official gold sponsor of the Eric Mataxis show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you can protect your wealth with noble gold investments. That's noble gold investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Metaxus show. It's the show featuring Go-Go-Go the Chimp. Nothing like a chimp to liven up the radio show. Easy there. Go-go, go, go. Go-go. No, go-go! No! Hey there, folks. As I have mentioned, and I am so excited, we are this month, March, 2025, doing our campaign, our annual campaign with our friends at food for the poor. Look, we do this every year, and I say this, why do we do it? Because we know that there's suffering in the world, and we always want to know where or how can I help. And one of the ways we can help is to give to an organization that we know is doing God's will that is going to stretch the money we give dramatically.

That's why every single year we, on the Eric Metaxis show, partner with our friends at Food for the Poor. And I thought, maybe we can get somebody from Food for the Poor on to help you, my audience, understand what you are doing when you help. So Paul Jacobs, welcome to the program. It's great to be with you, Eric. Thank you. Well, you can tell them excited about this because it's, I think so many times people feel like, you know, their money's being wasted or what's the point? A lot of people have been stunned at the waste.

I mean, you pay taxes and you think, oh, the American government is doing it. And you find out, no, it's bloated bureaucracy, it's waste. And it makes people cynical. So that's why I get excited about organizations like Food for the Poor. because we know the track record. So what is the need right now? I know that we're focusing this month on helping hungry children in El Salvador. Most of us find it hard to believe that they're hungry children, like really hungry,

not just sort of like really suffering with malnutrition. What's the focus of food for the poor as people give? Well, I want to touch on something you just said a moment ago. You talk about track record. And for those of you that are just watching and hearing the name, Food for the Poor for the very first time. This is new to you, but it's not new to the four decades that food for the poor has been ministering to those in need in 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Just, you know, Salem Radio News, SRN has been working with Food for the Poor for the last 20 plus years, helping those same families, working with pastors on the ground. And when you talk about the need, the urgency of why we're here right now, there is one in four children. One and four children. So maybe you're a big family. You've got about four kids of your own. Maybe you have a few more. Look at one and four of those children and just put them aside and say, and just look at them and think that in El Salvador, that child is chronically malnourished. Now, that's chronically malnourished. That's acute malnutrition where children are not getting the food, not getting the nutrients that they need. And unfortunately, with something as simple as a

common cold, because they don't have the immune system to build up in their bodies to fight back those things, it could cause death. And the other three, well, the other three are not far behind. And why you're needed right now is beyond just making sure that these children get nutrition in the schools, where it's going to help them get educated and thrive. But it's also going to make sure that those children and their bodies and their future is put back on track. I mean, I have to say, I want to keep speaking the action point. Folks, we're asking you to go to metaxis talk.com. And you'll say, you'll say, you'll say, I want to keep speaking the action point. Folks, we're asking you to go to go to metaxis talk.com. and you'll see the banner at the top of the page.

And we're going to be brutal on this. I'm going to be brutal throughout this month. I'm going to bug every single one of you to give something. We're asking $100 that that's kind of the basic because that's the amount of money, $100 U.S. dollars that can help feed a kid for one year. Think about that. Think about how efficient food for the poor is, that they're asking you for that and saying, oh, for that, no, this doesn't provide a week's worth or a month.

This is a year. How do they do that? Now, I should ask you, Paul, I know the answer. But how does Food for the Poor operate that they're able to take $100 U.S. dollars and stretch it this far? Because this is why I partner with Food for the Poor, because I know the work they're doing. It is effectiveness and efficiency at its finest. Working with Food for the Poor means that you're working with a network of pastors

and local ministries, partners that are vetted on the ground in El Salvador that are making sure that they are doing the work. And many of those ministries are doing the work at no additional cost. There's no taxes, no tariffs, there's no government involvement in El Salvador that is going to basically get in the way of your compassionate giving and those children that are in need.

And here's the best part of all of this. And that is, well, it's local farmers. Local farmers that are being supported. It's not food being shipped in. It's food already being grown in the country. country of El Salvador through over 500 local farmers that are growing the products needed for this product to be able to feed and give nutrition to children in schools. I mean, I was, I'm reading my notes here.

So think of this, folks. And again, the action point is go to metaxis talk.com. At the top of the page, you'll see the banner. You click on that and you can do everything. But imagine that food for the poor is supporting local farmers and food producers to strengthen the local food production so families can stay in El Salvador so they can exist where they have grown up so that they don't think to feed my kids, I have to migrate to the United States of America. I mean, this is basically what Americans should be trying to help.

This is long term. I should also say there's a phone number, and if anybody wants to text, you can text my last name. We should get this change to my first name, so it's easier. but my last name metaxus, M-E-T-A-X-A-S. You can text Metaxus to 5-1-555-5-5. If you text Metaxus to 5-1-55-5-5, they'll send you a link to this campaign. I can't believe, I mean, again, I'm reading the notes that kids in El Salvador, under five years of age, face hunger and anemia. rate of 25%. Can you imagine, folks? And I think that that's the bad news. The good news is we have it

in our power for very little. Maybe you can't give $100. You can give $20. Maybe you can get your kids involved and say, hey, kids, these are the values we have as a family. We believe what the Bible says about helping those who are suffering, feeding the poor, and we've chosen to give as a family this much. Maybe you can give a little bit out of your allowance and we can pool together. It's a beautiful opportunity to teach our kids. How do you live out your faith? You don't just talk about it. How do you live it out? If there are children that are hungry in El Salvador, that's where we're focusing on, I mean, it's a lot of Central America and South America, but right now we're focusing on El Salvador, how can we help them? What can we do? How can we give out of how

we've been blessed to give a little bit. So as I said, every $100, it's a one-time gift provides life-altering nutrition for a whole year. So you can text my name Metaxus, M-E-T-A-X-A-X-A-S, to 5-1-5-5-5. Again, text Metaxis to to 5-1-55-5. Or you can go to Metaxis-talk.com. You'll see a banner that, That says feed their future. Metaxistalk.com. That's my radio website. Or if you prefer to call, some of you, you can call right now. You can write this down.

I hope you'll do it. We, the need is urgent, folks. I don't know how else to put it, when you have little kids that are hungry. This is as basic as it gets. Let's live out our faith together. The phone number 844-4-4-8-6-3-4-4-6-3-4-6-6-3-4-6-4-6-4-6-4. 6, 7, 3, 4, 8, 4, 86, 3, 4, 6, 7, 3. We hope that you will be generous.

A generation of kids in El Salvador are lost to malnutrition, and the only way to a better future is through a school feeding program. Join me, Eric Metaxus, in saving lives with food for the poor. When you click the Feed Their Future banner at metaxus talk.com, your gift. of $100 will provide a child in El Salvador with daily school nutrition for a year. Call 844-863-4673. Make your most generous contribution, please. The nutrition these kids get in school is often their only meal of the day. Food for the Poor School Nutrition Program effectively addresses malnutrition and increases children's school attendance. Your donation will also support local farmers who produce the nutritional supplements. You are needed to improve children's

nutrition in El Salvador. Your gift will allow them to focus on learning rather than worrying about their next meal. Today, you have the power to feed a child or an entire classroom for a year. Please click the blue banner at metaxis talk.com or call 844-863-4673 with a gift of $100 to feed their future. Numbers don't lie. The impact that Balance of Nature makes every single day is astounding. You can see the numbers for yourself on their website at Balance of Nature.com. Listen to these stats concerning balance of nature's worldwide success.

More than a thousand success stories reported each month, hundreds of thousands of customers worldwide, millions of orders delivered each year, and billions, yes, billions of fruits and vegetables consumed by people who've decided to start living better. There's only one number missing, and that's you. Do what I did and add yourself to these numbers. Start taking Bounce of Nature's Whole Food Supplements like so many others around the world. Here's another number that should get your attention, 35%. Use my discount code Eric to get 35% off plus free shipping and their money back guarantee.

You must use my discount code Eric. Call them at 800 2468-751 and use discount code Eric or order online at balance to nature.com. Use discount code Eric to get 35% off plus free shipping balance of nature.com. A generation of kids in El Salvador are lost to malnutrition and the only way to a better future is through a school feeding program. Join me, Eric Metaxus, in saving lives with food for the poor. When you click the Feed Their Future banner at MetaxistalksTalk.com, your gift of $100 will provide a child in El Salvador with daily school nutrition for a year. Call 844-863-4673. Make your most generous contribution, please.

The nutrition these kids get in school is often their only meal of the day. Food for the Poor School Nutrition Program effectively addresses malnutrition and increases children's children's. school attendance. Your donation will also support local farmers who produce the nutritional supplements. You are needed to improve children's nutrition in El Salvador. Your gift will allow them to focus on learning rather than worrying about their next meal. Today, you have the power to feed a child or an entire classroom for a year. Please click the blue banner at metaxis talk.com or call 844-863-4673 with a gift of $100 to feed their future. You know, unless you're living under Iraq, you understand that we have an insane crisis with fentanyl in this country.

So it gives me joy to bring on two folks who have created a documentary on the fentanyl crisis. The title of it is fentanyl Death Incorporated. I have Dr. Roger Marbutt, who's with the Discovery Institute. Anybody who's with the Discovery Institute, I'm a big. fan. We also have Billy Baldwin on, who I believe technically is one of the Baldwin brothers. Billy, Dr. Marbutt, welcome. And I'm married to China Phillips, so that qualifies you as a big fan for me as well. Actually, that's now your biggest claim to fame. Forget about the brothers thing. You know, brothers come and go, but marriage, that's your... Might sure do.

We can talk about that. They've got together 30 years. I guess married, what, 28, 27? Married 30, together 34, yeah. Oh, wow. Wow. You don't see that in Hollywood. You don't see that in a lot of America, to be honest.

In Hollywood, that would be like the equivalent to having been born during the Civil War. That's unbelievable. Unbelievable. Well, all right, so I got to ask both of you, and you can answer as you see fit, but how did you get involved in making this documentary? Dr. Marl, but let's start with you. Well, on fentanyl, I was working at the White House about four years ago, and I was up on the hill and I was talking to a very friendly senator,

a senator I consider a friend who was on the right committee, who had probably received seven or eight of my white papers or staff from the White House white papers on the growing fentanyl crisis. And he proceeded, we were in a hallway and he proceeded to say, fentanyl is just another form of meth. And it couldn't be more opposite. You know, fentanyl, it paralyzes your chest cavity. It slows your heart rate and your lungs down so much you eventually die.

That's why it's an anesthesia, you know, for surgeries. And meth is the completely opposite. And so here's a senator who's a friend who's on the right committee, who's getting all these white papers, and I realize white papers just weren't getting it done. And, you know, storytelling, movie, documentary is the way to really increase information in form. And now we're at a death crisis spiral that the United States has never seen before. So that's the why we needed to do it right away. And what about you, Billy?

What's your entree into the project? Well, you know, I've always, you know, been an activist. and then I, you know, took a little sabbatical for a while while I was raising my three children with China. All of a sudden, I had empty nest, and I got invited to do this film No Address about homelessness. We did, we went two or 20 cities at 18 different states. We interviewed federal, state, local, corporate, nonprofit, and we went up spinning off a documentary on homelessness called Americans with No Address. And I partnered with Marbert on both of those projects. We were in on the set and we were in our hotel sitting in the lobby waiting to get picked up to go to the set and waiting after we wrapped it.

We just kept having conversation after conversation about every issue under the sun. And we realized like through all this noise and finger pointing and chaos, you know, we realized on many, many, many issues, these are easy mental health, homelessness, fentanyl. But on many more tricky issues, we agree 75, 80 percent. And we thought we weren't going to like each other. I speak to him a lot. I speak to him more than my brother Stephen. He's become my brother Marbitt. And after we did Americans with No Address, he launched into Fentanyl Death Incorporated.

And I've been working with him on that to promote it. I did the voiceover on it. And I've learned a lot about it. Well, what are some of the things that my audience needs to know about this? Because obviously, I hope that they'll see the documentary, Fentinel Death Incorporated. but what is some of the things that people need to know? Because there's... I think that these need to understand that we have...

While we have a homelessness crisis and we have a fentanyl crisis, we really have a mental health crisis. And there's tremendous overlap between the three. A lot of people on the street that are homeless that are doing fentanyl are doing so because they don't have access to health care. They can't see a doctor, a psychologist, a psychiatrist. They can't be treated for PTSD. bipolarity, schizophrenia, so they're self-medicating on the street with alcohol and with fentanyl.

One important thing or several important stats that they should know is that more people have died from fentanyl overdoses since 2019 than have died in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Desert Shield. Every combat casualty we've taken since World War II combined, more people have died from fentanyl in the last five, five and a half years. We're losing 75 to 100,000 people a year, and in Vietnam we lost nearly 59,000 people in 15 years. And think about that number staggering, and we're not acting like where, you know, our house is on fire, you know. You could say we're in a virtual war. You could use all sorts of other things. But more people have died in two to three years of fentanyl, well, three years, then all of World War II, five and a half years of fentanyl for a hundred

years of military combat deaths of America. That's just mind-boggling to me. And the lethality of fentanyl is part of the problem. The addictive nature of it is also part of the problem. But one rice grain will kill 15 people. You know, one rice grain equivalent of fentanyl will kill 15 people. And, you know, a couple of grains of salt or two or three grains of salt will kill any individual person. So the lethality of this, the addictive nature of it is information we need to get out.

And it's no longer the teenagers dying. Fiddle is the number one cause of death, 18 to 45, of full stop period, male, female in the United States. And the saddest number, that scares me is for children zero to five, fentanyl is the fastest growing death rate for children zero to five. I have to ask, you know, the dumb questions. How did this happen? You say 2019. I mean, it strikes me, tell me if I'm wrong, that the Biden administration didn't care or were too incompetent. I mean, this is as bipartisan as it gets. How did this happen? I mean, is it that we had no southern border and this kind of stuff floods in and China's taking advantage of it. I mean, I would if I was the enemy of the United States. I would flood America with, you know,

fatal drugs. That's what that's what they do. I mean, what is the explanation for this? Because, you know, 10 years ago, nobody's talking about fentanyl. And we got to understand how we got here. Our documentary goes all the way back to the Opium Wars in Hong Kong and such. I mean, there's some part of that that ties back. But the immediate history is important to understand. The Purdue Pharma Crisis is what started the fentanyl crisis. And we had millions of people on synthetic opioids. We had hundreds of thousand, very addicted. And when all the lawsuits that happened, all the doctors stopped writing scripts, pharmacies, stopped filling them, hospitals, stopped giving it. So suddenly we had millions of people looking for a synthetic opioid, hundreds of thousands

severely addicted. And so the Mexican cartels that at that time were really predominantly bringing in meth and coke were already had distribution system. And so they worked with China and backfilled fentanyl. And that's only in like 2013, 2014. This is less than 10 years ago. And so the cartels were backfilling. the problem that got caused by Purdue Pharma with China. And then since then, it's evolved. And now

we have a lot coming through the northern border in Canada. We're now starting to see local gangs starting to make their own stuff in their neighborhood now. And so it's proliferating because it's so easy to make, and it has such a high markup on the street. So when you got a cheap production, that makes you a lot of money, there's just always... going to be a draw for bad, bad actors to make this stuff. What do you talk about in the documentary? I guess the, the big question is, what is a way forward here? How do we think we can deal with this?

I think there are five things we got to do, and I'll rip. Go through them real quick. One, you got to get tough on China. We got to work on the precursors and now pre-pre-pre-cursors coming from China. We got to get tough on the Mexican cartels. And I think we should be trying to pursue a, pursue a joint operation sort of like we did Columbia with Escobar 20 years ago. That was very successful. We got to get our focus on the biker gangs up in Canada.

Everybody forgets the United States has the longest linear border with Canada than any two countries in the world. And it's not just Maine to Blaine. It's also the Alaska frontier. We got a, I, in my opinion, need to criminalize. and recriminalized high volume and high powerful drugs. The West Coast, in particular, had gone through a movement of decriminalizing and not prosecuting. And the fifth, which I think is a real important issue in the faith community, why does United States overconsume fentanyl?

We're 5% of the world, 4.25% of the world's population, yet we're consuming 38% of fentanyl. Excuse me. forgive me we're going to go to a break we're going to keep going the other side of the break hang on folks we'll be right back my pillow is having a huge sale on overstock clearance and brand new products right now you can save $40 on bed sheets in any size and color body pillows are only 2998 and the multi-use 2.0 pillows with a pillowcase are just 998 you can also save 30% on the brand new mic crosses designed after the one mic has worn every day for over 20 years

these beautiful crosses come in both men's and women's styles and are proudly made in the USA. For limited time, six-piece bath or kitchen towel sets are available for just 2998. Initial quantities are extremely low, so don't wait to get yours before they're gone. And for the first time ever, when you spend $100 or more, My Pillow will give you two free standard My Pillows, absolutely free. To take advantage of these incredible offers, visit MyPillow.com. Click on the Radio Square and use promo code Eric or call 800-9778-3057 today.

That's promo code Eric, mypillow.com, or call. 800-978-3057, 800-978-3057, or Mypillow.com. Use code Eric. Welcome back, folks. I'm talking to Billy Baldwin, husband of China, Phillips, and I'm talking to Dr. Roger Marbutt, Jr. with the Discovery Institute. Robert, Robert. What did I say, Roger?

Yeah, Robert Marbit. Just go with it. Come on. Come on. Nobody listens anyway. Just go with it. Robert Marbet Jr. year, who's with the Discovery Institute. This is such a serious topic. It's disturbing. So I'm

grateful for both of you kind of getting into it with me. Now, before we go further, because Dr. Robert, you were making some points. How can people see this before we forget about that part? That's important. Our long website is FitnoDethincorporated.com, and we have a shorter one. you can get to the website, FDI, like FBI, but with the D, so FDIMovie.com. And if you go there, you'll see how you can watch it, how you can get it, and get a lot of information about fentanyl. Okay, FDIMovie.com. So let's get back into it.

You were just ticking off a number of issues on the way forward. That's Dr. Marbitt. And I think you were at number four. So the fifth one is we really have to have an honest conversation inside the United States. Why does United States citizens overconsume not fentanyl, but all pretty much, every illicit drug. If you go back to PCP, Angel Dust, Coke, crack, black tar, K2, Spice, Math, etc. United States citizens generally consume 30 to 40% of every one of those drugs I listed. worldwide. And you know,

part of that because it's just more available here somehow than it would be in, for example, Germany? I think some is its availability, of course, without availability, it wouldn't be there. But I also think there's a crisis of loneliness in America. I know that sounds like a really soft, squishy issue, but it's turning out when you really get into the research. It's there. And the other is Americans have this tend to see it, one pill to solve every problem. You take a pill for this, a pill for that to solve every problem rather than go, you know, work out, go exercise, go walk around the block, do yoga, whatever. And so we have to have an honest conversation why we're over consuming eight times the amount

consumption worldwide. And we also have some of the highest death rates on federal. Listen, to me, Billy, you were talking about this as a mental health crisis. As far as I'm concerned, And, you know, we kind of say stuff like this, then you think, well, wait a minute, what is that? What is, why would we be having a mental health crisis? What happened suddenly that we're having a mental health crisis? I mean, there was a mental health crisis before COVID. This problem with homelessness, mental health, and addiction was compounded tenfold with fentanyl between COVID and fentany. I was talking to a therapist friend of mine, and she's seeing 10, 12 people a day.

into the wee hours of the night, even on Saturday. She said all of these teenagers that were dealing with isolation and medication during COVID has caused there to be a spike. You then factor in fentanyl. And like I said, before, many of these people that are on fentanyl that are on the street are not choosing the drugs. They're not choosing to be homeless. They are self-medicating because they're suffering from a mental illness, whether it's anxiety, depression, bipolarity, schizophrenia, or whatever it is. And one of the problems we have today, we go on the road and we talk about this all the time, Marvin and I, and we just spoke to the Washington Policy Center up in Spokane, 800 conservatives.

And they were thrilled that someone from the left and the right were so finding common ground, finding consensus. It was very civil with one another. And we're doing some work that they admired together. They were very, very happy with that. And he's very busy criticizing the right. and I'm too busy criticizing the left, who even go after the right, he's already taken care of that for me. And there's a lot to, there's a lot of course correction that we need. There's a lot of policies specifically in the Northwest that they tried 15, 20 years ago,

that were well intended. It's clear now 15, 20 years later, they're not working the way they hope they would work, and we have to course correct. And we have to do, as Marlboro always says, we're making it too easy to get high and not, say the line again, Marble. To me, my mantra is the United States. We've made it very easy to get high and hard to get treatment. And we've got to flip it on it head and make it easy to get treatment and hard to get high.

And one of the big problems with that, Eric, is people sit around and say, well, that sounds expensive. Tell us what that looks like. Tell us what that means. And we're saying there are programs in America, including Marbert's program, Haven for Hope in San Antonio in Austin at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Fort Smith, Arkansas, Pinellas, Florida. They're doing comprehensive wraparound, healthcare, addiction treatment, job training, job placement, and his program has a 70 to 80 percent success rate of getting people back on their feet, independent, self-sufficient, on their own, off the services. People say, wow, that sounds a little bit

expensive. Where's the money going to come from? Let me tell you right now, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of 911 calls every day. We were there watching people flatline, watching people revived by Narcan, watching people die at our feet in front of us on the street in Seattle, Spokane, Sacramento. And when you get a 911 call, fire department, sheriff, police, paramedics, cost the taxpayer. Emergency room, cost the taxpayer. They get admitted, taxpayer. Into the court system, judges, lawyers, taxpayer. Incarceration, cost the taxpayer. Department of Commerce, Department of Tourism, small business, quality of life, property values. We are now paying a price that's way greater to do not enough.

And if you have a 70% success rate in Fort Smith or at Johns Hopkins or in San Antonio, we should be trying to replicate this county by county, state by state. We can eradicate, if we could eradicate 50, 60% of this and get these people back on their feet, self-sufficient. I did a conservatorship over a family member one time. They got on medication for schizophrenia. They've been living by themselves with a job, earning a paycheck, paying the bills,

totally independent, living on their own in Jersey City for 30 years. Guys, hang on, we'll be right back. Folks, we're back. We're talking about a documentary Fentanyl Death Incorporated. You can find it at FDIMovie.com. That's FDIMovie.com. So, Billy and Dr. Mara, but you're both, you know, you care about this.

And, Billy, you were saying that Dr. Marbett criticizes the right. Now, Dr. Morbitt, you are conservative. You work for Trump, who as I am told, I can't prove it, but he's literally Hitler. So it's very big of you to come on the program because, you know, I'm anti-Hitler. Let me ask you, give me your criticism of the right. What have they been doing or not doing on this issue? And that was exactly where I was going to suggest we go. I think it's important to learn from history.

In 1950, United States had about a half a million federally state local-funded treatment beds in psychiatric beds, like mental health institutions, etc. So a half a million people were under care. And on the far right, they were saying that that's not a role of government. We shouldn't be paying for mental health services. We shouldn't be paying for mental health hospitals. And so they, under Ronald Reagan and Dick Dorman, and I'm a big Ronald Reagan fan, I agree with a lot he did. But this is an area where I disagree. They started saying this is not the job of government.

So they stopped funding that. Right now in America, we have about 30,000 government-funded mental health beds in America. So we've gone from a half a million to 30,000. yet our country is about 45% bigger. So where did everybody go? Jails, street, emergency rooms, emergency departments. And of those 30,000 beds that are left, they're considered what's called forensic beds.

So they're in essence jail beds, but for people, like if you're ever, like Hinkley, you know, by reason. You'll be by insanity. Yeah. So by reason of insanity, there's a myth you go free. you don't go free, you don't go to jail, but you go to a forensic mental health hospital. But I think there's less than a thousand open mental health beds in America that are government funded that aren't forensic. So we've gone from a half a million beds to under a thousand

practical beds. And some of that I knew, but part of the partnership, the Democrats didn't want to do that, but the Democrats were willing to do that back then if we could protect the rights of, you know, because essentially it was inspired by one flu over the cuckoo's nest when they lobotomized, you know, McMurphy. And I'm not lying when I say that. You know, I don't know if you know, Eric, I'm sure you've heard that President Kennedy had a sister that was put away in an institution in Illinois. And to protect law enforcement and family members or the state from taking somebody against their will, they created all of these civil liberties, created all these protections. made it very difficult. Like I said, I had to do a conservatorship over a family member, and the definition is, is that person a harm to themselves or others, or a threat to themselves or others? And when I got all that work set up in the court system, I then sat around like a ticking bomb for a year and a half for this person to break the law before I could take control of their rights. And I'm saying, let's not wait a year and a half. These people

don't have, once you're hooked on fentanyl, your life expectancy on the street is about a year. I feel, and this is very controversial, and this is not very left side, is left leaning, is that perhaps they should leave it to the professionals in the street, the health care workers, firemen, paramedics, people that work with nonprofits on addiction and homelessness. Literally, we were in Sanford, Seattle. Seattle. The fisherman's wharf was in front of us. The original first Starbucks store was next to us.

The Nike store was on the left. There were 20 people in the fentanyl fold, as we call it. One guy was on the ground. His name was a blessing young African-American guy, 21 years old, got a 911 call. He was overdosing. He flatlined. They gave him Narcan. They revived him.

He threw, he vomited on the street, turned around to the fire department, pushed them away and said, I don't want you to, I don't want treatment. I don't want help. Leave me alone. That was his protected right to do that. But clearly, he was a threat to himself and others. And clearly he was, by the way, If Blessing is still alive today, six months later, I would be absolutely shocked. But clearly he was a threat to himself and others.

Clearly, he was harmful to himself because he flatlined. And I don't want to leave it up to a judge and a lawyer six months from now or a year from now to determine the safety and the fate of this person. If you have a fireman, a sheriff, a cop, a paramedic, and they say, we're taking him, and then that person will go against their will not to a 72-hour lockdown. Maybe I need professionals to determine this, but five to ten days. and they can make a decision on their future and on their health from a more sober, clear-headed perspective.

And the reason blessing didn't want to do it and the reason none of them want to do it in Spokane, they had a 911 call on the same person six times in one day, Eric, six times. And the reason they don't want to go is not only because the high is so good, is because the come down when you're detoxing, it is insanely painful psychologically and physically. They just are so terrified of not being high, and they have access to the high because it's only one, two, three dollars a hit. And they're terrified. So he got revived, Narcan, vomited, turned, and I was standing around at his feet, turned to the fire department and said, don't touch me, get lost, and they all look at each other to confirm that that's what he said.

They got back on the rig, and they took off. And think about this one we came up, and this has happened, everywhere Billy and I've gone out and toured, it's generally happened in the first one or two minutes of our ride along or walk on a street. And in Seattle, we literally walked out of the door where we met. We went to the corner intersection, and this was all going on. And when we talk about financing, this one gentleman, he gets four people on a rig that came in on an engine company. Then an EMS unit rolled up a couple minutes later with three people in it.

we had two sheriffs, two city police officers, three ambassadors that are paid for by the taxpayers of Seattle to sort of work the street. So you're a talk, what's that, about 12 people or so. Then they had two or three nonprofits who listen to the radio. They come in. And then the group Billy and I were touring with, who also work in this space, came. So there was almost 15 people all by taxpayers of Seattle taking care of this individual who literally, flat lines and dies in front of us. Fortunately, he was revived by Narcan, but it was unfortunate.

He didn't want treatment. He didn't want recovery because the process of detoxing was more scary than dying. Yeah. There is so much here. Do you guys have four more minutes? Yeah. Okay, hang on. Folks, we're going to a break.

It's the Eric Metax's show. You can see this film by going to FDI, FDI. F-D-I-Movie.com. We'll be right back. Talking about Fentanyl, Dr. Marbutt and Billy Baldwin, this is so messy, and it's so fascinating because you see the way things whipsaw politically back and forth. And it does seem like, you know, the left has certain things that it goes to. The right has certain things that it goes to. You were just saying, Dr. Marbitt, that, you know, the Reagan administration says it's not

the job of the federal government to do X and Y and Z. That's a principle that I agree with, but sometimes it's not practical. Similarly, it seems like the left says, you know, we don't want to be heavy-handed. We can let people do what they like. And then you have homeless encampments, people on drugs, people dying, horrible stuff. So that principle doesn't work. So it's so frustrating. But I think, you know, common sense, obviously, says sometimes you've got to step in. Is it going to be perfect? No. It's not going to be perfect.

But it's common sense. If you don't do that, you're going to get what you guys are describing. So this is a very complex problem. Yeah, I mean, I've been very critical with some of the stuff. I mean, I think it was well intended. But when you look at this low harm and no harm in the Pacific Northwest, you can't take a mentally ill person who's addicted to drugs and getting them off the street is fantastic. getting them in housing is fantastic.

You can't take a mentally ill person who's addicted to fentanyl and put them in housing and think your problem has gone away. It's far more complicated than that. And the care for that person is 360 wrap-around, you know, health care that's going to be protracted. This is not a 28-day program. You've got to work with these people. The partnership, and I'll let Marbury get into this,

but the partnership that's going on in the gathering in up in Auburn, California, to the Sacramento area with Haven of Hope in San Antonio. And I wanted to get into the work that they're doing with a faith-based mission in Baltimore and Johns Hopkins University, when they're providing the more comprehensive care that is longer, these people are there for three, four, months, six months. But the success rate is very, very, they're very successful. And obviously, from the compassionate side that looks at, looks at this, and then you have the cost-effective side that looks at this. And now everyone is

agreeing that it is, if you're having this high of a success rate and you're making this kind of an investment, it sounds expensive, but we're paying in the long run, again, with emergency services, with small businesses, commerce, tourism, property values dropping. So they realize it's costing them. It's cheaper to address this and spend the money because it's costing us more now to not do it. Tell them about Hopkins. Yeah, and Eric, in many ways, it's like that old pins oil ad, you know, pay me a little now or pay me a lot later. And it's actually from a conservative financial point of view, cheaper to fix it up front than to let it, you know, just get horribly out of control. And what's so cool about what's going on Baltimore, they're one of the epicenters of fentanyl.

And in the Christian Rescue Mission, it's a city gate mission. It's called Helping Up Mission. they had been doing a real good job for about 100 years, but they were struggling on addiction, drugs, untreated mental illness and all that. And then when fentanyl starts coming on the scene, it just turns Baltimore upside down. John Hopkins University,

which is a secular university, secular medical center, you would never think of as sort of a faith community. And they said from a common sense point of view, we're getting so many people hitting the ER from the homelessness world. Why don't we put a clinic for people experiencing homeless and fentanyl together? And not only did they do it, they built the clinic inside the second floor of the Christian rescue mission. And so you have this secular partner with the faith partner working together. When you ask them why they're so successful, the faith community says, John Hopkins brings the science and medical that

we just don't understand and don't do well. And then John Hopkins says, why does it work from your side? And they say they bring the face side that we're not good at. And when you mix them together, it is one of the most powerful combinations in the country. I love it. We've got to leave it there. Billy, Dr. Marwold, God bless you for what you're doing. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Eric. Be well.