Dr. Oz takes Philly residents to detox centers for addiction treatment
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the GOP Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, ended a three-stop campaign swing on Monday by driving off with several Philadelphia residents who told him they were dealing with drug addictions -- with Oz then heading to reserve spots at a detox center.
The trip was unplanned, Oz told ABC News.
"The solution is this: Getting people to detox. It's going to fail a lot of times, but it's going to succeed a lot as well," Oz told reporters ahead of their departure for the centers, with the residents in a white pickup truck.
After scheduled events in Germantown, Kensington and McPherson Park, the former surgeon and talk show host spent roughly 20 minutes at a park in Kensington, dubbed the "BadLandz" by residents due to its high crime rate, speaking with community members, some of whom were bystanders who approached Oz and told them they used drugs.
"Do you want help?" Oz asked one man, who identified himself to ABC News as Robert Alvord.
"I need help," responded Alvord, who said he'd lost family members to overdoses.
Oz gave him a drug overdose treatment to have on hand and pointed to community leaders he'd assembled as resources.
"Detox saves lives, but the first step is often the most difficult," Oz tweeted after the interaction, along with an ABC News clip of him driving off with the residents.
--ABC News' Will McDuffie