Justin Landreneau says he's been using heroin for four years. He's checking into Bridge House today for treatment after a relapse.
As he checks in, the U.S. Drug Czar and Senator John Kennedy were also there on a fact finding mission to learn what best works to combat drug use and the crimes that go with it.
"Making people aware. You know. it's hard. I've tried to quit many times," Landreneau wanted the policy makers to know.
Senator Kennedy opened with information about a recent meeting with the Vice President of China.
"We told him straight up, 90 percent of the drugs, the opioids, the fentanyl that's coming into the United States comes in through Mexico, but it doesn't start in Mexico. It starts in China," Kennedy said.
The Senator and President Trump's U.S. Drug Czar Jim Carroll asked people on the front lines, the sheriffs, the addiction doctors, judges, coroners and public health experts, what is needed to battle the deadly crisis.
"I can tell you from personal experience, there's not a lot for adolescents. When you got kids on drugs, they're not going to grow out of it. It's not a phase they're going through. It's going to get worse," said Sheriff James Pohlmann or St. Bernard Parish.
Doctors talked about the need for funding longer treatments with both medication and counseling, and why, because of genetics, some can get hooked the first time they use. They also talked about the over prescribing of opioid pain killers.
Others in the room pointed to the large number of people in the criminal system who are there due to the lack of mental health treatment.
"Until we as a state decide that mental illness needs funding, and needs attention, I don't, all of this is great and it's going to work and it does great stuff, but we've got a little part called mental illness, which I don't think we've addressed in a really meaningful way," explained William "Chuck" Credo of the Louisiana State Coroner's Association.
They agreed that drug courts work to get the addict treatment, rather than just prison time. But judges had concerns that reduced sentences and what they call 'probation light' takes away from the incentive for a person to do the hard work in drug court and treatment.
"To me the whole idea is put them in treatment rather than incarceration, but if incarceration is so light that treatment is not attractive, they're not going to do it," said Judge Ellen Kovach, of the 24th Judicial Court.
The Drug Czar told the group the President told him to be relentless and charge hard in fighting the crisis.
And he said they are seeing a reduction in the number of pain killer prescriptions by 34 percent.