The opioid crisis in the United States now rivals the Vietnam War in terms of how many Americans have been killed. After calling the opioid crisis a national emergency, President Trump has officially declared it a public health emergency — a distinction with a difference. We speak with a recovering addict who was 14 when he tried oxycodone for the first time. “By everyone’s standards, I should be dead,” he said about his former drug dependency. Guests: Aaron Pope, who lives outside Lexington, Ky.; Julie Hirschfeld Davis, a White House correspondent for The Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.
