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Arielle: Hey, guys, I am Arielle Hixson. It is Wednesday, April 18.

Now, we begin today by remembering an American first lady, Barbara Bush. Mrs. Bush was the wife of one U.S. president and the mother of another. The former first lady died last night — she was 92 years old. 

The former first lady had recently been in and out of the hospital battling health problems. Barbara Bush is only the second woman to be both a wife and a mother to a president of the United States. But before America came to know her, she was a teenager at a prestigious private school, and at 16 she met George Herbert Walker Bush. She later left college to marry him after he returned home from World War II.

George Herbert Walker Bush served as a congressman, ambassador, CIA director and vice president, and then he became the 41st president, serving from 1989 to 1993. Her son, George W. Bush, went on to become the 43rd president. But it was her role as first lady that defined her.

While in the White House, she championed literacy and visited schools, reading to children.

Barbara Bush: I honestly believe that if more people could read, write and comprehend, we would be that much closer to solving so many of the problems that plague our nation.

Arielle: By the 2012 campaign, she spoke of the lack of civility in political debate. 

Bush: I just hate it. I hate the fact that people think compromise is a dirty word. It is not a dirty word. 

Arielle: In 2016 she was back on the trail as another son, Jeb Bush, sought the Republican nomination.

She died surrounded by family at her home in Houston, Texas. Her grandson, George P. Bush, tweeted: "For her family, she was a steady, loving, guiding hand. And for her country, she was an inspiration and example for all."

President Trump tweeted: "Melania and I join the nation in celebrating the life of Barbara Bush."

Barbara Bush will be remembered as a gracious first lady who headed one of America's most prominent political families. 

And our thoughts are with the Bush family.

Okay, now, moving on, the Department of Justice announced a big drug bust yesterday targeting more than 100 people operating in West Virginia and Michigan. Now, law enforcement officials said they seized enough fentanyl to kill more than 250,000 people. Fentanyl is a potent opioid drug, part of the growing problem of opioid abuse, addiction and overdose across the U.S.

Today Emily Reppert introduces us to two young people who understand the struggle to beat the drug.

Emily: Zachary Good is a talented tattoo artist in Dayton, Ohio, but getting to this point hasn't been easy. 

Zachary Good: Just a complete sense of hopelessness and despair and not knowing what step to take next, whether it was to keep going, kill myself or change the way I was living.

Emily: That was him just a few years ago, hooked on heroin.

You hear that term, hitting rock bottom. Was there one particular time where you really — that was it?

Good: You know, living on the streets, homeless shelters, under bridges, in abandoned houses. I mean, it was like a long bottom for me.

Emily: It started when he was 16 years old, experimenting with drugs and alcohol and becoming addicted to the prescription opioid Oxycontin — a story line that is all too familiar these days as the opioid epidemic sweeps the country. 

Shannon: I found it from friends who’d had it from wisdom teeth surgeries or other ACL surgeries or something.

Emily: Sophomore year of high school, Shannon tore her ACL playing soccer and was prescribed Oxycontin. And soon she began misusing the prescription, continuing to take it after it was no longer needed for her injury. 

Dr. Maureen Boyle: They’re playing for their football team or their volleyball team, and they have an accident, and the doctor prescribes them opioids. Even if they're taking them as the doctor is prescribing, that can lead to an addiction. Just because a doctor prescribes them to you doesn’t mean they're safe.

Emily: And although it is no surprise drug use is dangerous and can cause addiction, experts say the stakes are even higher for the teen brain.

Boyle: The human brain doesn't complete development until the mid- to late 20s, and the earlier you take them, the more susceptible your brain is to developing an addiction. 

Emily: But how did prescription opioids meant to relieve pain become dangerous? 

Boyle: It started with a massive increase in the prescribing of opioids, so about a fourfold increase over the course of about 15 years.

Emily: In the late 1990s, prescription drug companies told doctors their drugs for pain were not addictive, so doctors began prescribing them more and more. But they were addictive, and by the early 2000s, opioid overdoses were on the rise. Now the pharmaceutical industry faces dozens of lawsuits for their role in the epidemic.

Attorney General Mike DeWine: These companies put profits above the health and well-being of Ohio consumers.

Emily: In 2015 about 2 million Americans abused prescription opioids. 

Boyle: There are people who have an addiction to prescription opioids, and then we have people who are addicted to heroin. And about 80 percent of people who are addicted to heroin started with prescription opioids.

Shannon: Like, in movies and stuff, they always make it seem that people who do cocaine or heroin are, like, in their 40s or 50s and living under bridges and stuff. I mean, I was 18 at the time and, like, gonna go to college and, like, from a really good family, so I didn’t think it was possible. I was very naïve about it, I guess. I was until it happened.

Emily: Heroin grabbed ahold of Shannon.

Good: Like, I didn’t realize how bad it was.

Emily: And for Zachary, the drug almost cost him his life. 

Good: I spent a few months in jail, and the same day I got out, I used and overdosed in the women's bathroom at the bus hub downtown and was taken to the hospital and was Narcaned multiple times.

Emily: Now his mug shots serve as a reminder of a time and place he hopes to never visit again. 

Good: That was the first time I was arrested. And all these happened in, like, a three-month period.

Emily: What is it like to look at these?

Good: It's hard to believe that's me and that's where I was.

Emily: Do you keep them on your phone like this for a reason, though? 

Good: Yeah, it's a reminder of what could happen if I choose, and it’s also just, it’s a way for me to find gratitude for where I’m at now.

Emily: Both Zachary and Shannon went to treatment facilities and are clean today, but it is a daily battle.

Boyle: Society tends to think that it is hopeless, but there are 25 million Americans in stable recovery right now. It’s not an easy process, but it is possible. We can help people with this by not stigmatizing drug addiction.

Emily: Now you have your own business card. That must make you proud.

Good: Yeah, I have a job, my own car, have my own place to live. I paid my bills. Yeah, life’s pretty good today.

Emily: Emily Reppert, Channel One News.

Arielle: But not everyone gets a second chance. Tomorrow we learn how one bad decision can cut lives short and how a mother is using her tragedy to fight the crisis.

All right, when we come back, a new way to battle plastic pollution.

Arielle: Now, just in time for Earth Month, an accidental discovery by scientists may help us fight the plastic pollution, which is overwhelming our oceans and piling up in landfills. To date, humans have made more than 8.3 billion tons of plastic, a product that can take years to break down. But nature may have a solution. It is today's Get Your Geek On. 

Researchers at the University of Portsmouth in Great Britain have made a discovery that could cut down on plastic pollution, one of the world's biggest environmental problems. They figured out a way for a natural enzyme to eat the plastic commonly used in bottles.

Professor John McGeehan: What's really special about this enzyme, it digests something man-made. 

Arielle: These images were magnified and sped up to show the enzyme breaking down the plastic.

McGeehan: Most enzymes are digesting, you know, maybe grass stains or things like that in your clothing. But this material has only existed for the last 50 years, so to have an enzyme evolved that actually eats this man-made material is really stunning.

Arielle: It usually takes decades, even centuries, for plastic bottles to break down. This process takes just a few days. So will this discovery help cut down on pollution? Environmentalists say there is still a long way to go.

Jacob Hayler: It does only focus on one type of plastic. There are many different types of plastics that are used in our packaging and in our products.

Arielle: Scientists are now working to improve the enzyme so that it works on all plastics.

And that brings us to today's Words in the News: enzymes, which are proteins found in plants or animals that speed up chemical reactions. 

And if you want to check out how one young entrepreneur is planning on cleaning up that giant plastic mess in our oceans, just head to . 

Okay, it is time to head out, but we are right back here tomorrow.

 

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