{"id":18686,"date":"2016-05-14T08:06:48","date_gmt":"2016-05-14T15:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=18686"},"modified":"2016-05-14T08:08:40","modified_gmt":"2016-05-14T15:08:40","slug":"presidents-weekly-address-a-conversation-about-addiction-with-macklemore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=18686","title":{"rendered":"President&#8217;s Weekly Address: A Conversation About Addiction With Macklemore"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;THE PRESIDENT:  Hi, everybody.  I\u2019ve got a special guest with me this week \u2013 Macklemore.  For those of you who don\u2019t share the same love[i] for hip-hop, he\u2019s a Grammy-winning artist \u2013 but he\u2019s also an advocate who\u2019s giving voice to a disease we too often just whisper about: the disease of addiction.  MACKLEMORE:  Hey, everybody.  I\u2019m here with President Obama because I take this personally.  I abused prescription drugs and battled addiction.  If I hadn\u2019t gotten the help I needed when I needed it, I might not be here today.  And I want to help others facing the same challenges I did.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AZQPsD3q0pc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Drug overdoses now take more lives every year than traffic accidents.  Deaths from opioid overdoses have tripled since 2000.  A lot of the time, they\u2019re from legal drugs prescribed by a doctor.  So addiction doesn\u2019t always start in some dark alley \u2013 it often starts in a medicine cabinet.  In fact, a new study released this month found that 44 percent of Americans know someone who has been addicted to prescription pain killers.<\/p>\n<p>MACKLEMORE:  I didn\u2019t just know someone \u2013 I lost someone.  My friend Kevin overdosed on painkillers when he was just 21 years old.  Addiction is like any other disease \u2013 it doesn\u2019t discriminate.  It doesn\u2019t care what color you are, whether you\u2019re a guy or a girl, rich or poor, whether you live in the inner-city, a suburb, or rural America.  This doesn\u2019t just happen to other people\u2019s kids or in some other neighborhood.  It can happen to any of us. <\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  That\u2019s why just talking about this crisis isn\u2019t enough \u2013 we need to get treatment to more people who need it.  My administration is working with communities to reduce overdose deaths, including with medication.  We\u2019re working with law enforcement to help people get into treatment instead of jail.  And under Obamacare, health plans in the Marketplace have to include coverage for treatment.<\/p>\n<p>MACKLEMORE:  I know recovery isn\u2019t easy or quick, but along with the 12-step program, treatment has saved my life.  Recovery works \u2013 and we need our leaders in Washington fund it and people know how to find it.<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: We all need to do more to make that happen.  I\u2019ve asked Congress to expand access to recovery services, and to give first responders the tools they need to treat overdoses before it\u2019s too late.  This week, the House passed several bills about opioids \u2013 but unless they also make actual investments in more treatment, it won\u2019t get Americans the help they need. <\/p>\n<p>On top of funding, doctors also need more training about the power of the pain medication they prescribe, and the risks they carry.  Another way our country can help those suffering in private is to make this conversation public.<\/p>\n<p>MACKLEMORE:  When you\u2019re going through it, it\u2019s hard to imagine there could be anything worse than addiction.  But shame and the stigma associated with the disease keeps too many people from seeking the help they need.  Addiction isn\u2019t a personal choice or a personal failing.  And sometimes it takes more than a strong will to get better \u2013 it takes a strong community and accessible resources. <\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  The good news is, there\u2019s hope.  When we talk about opioid abuse as the public health problem it is, more people will seek the help they need.  More people will find the strength to recover, just like Macklemore and millions of Americans have.  We\u2019ll see fewer preventable deaths and fewer broken families. <\/p>\n<p>MACKLEMORE:  We have to tell people who need help that it\u2019s OK to ask for it.  We\u2019ve got to make sure they know where to get it. <\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  We all have a role to play.  Even if we haven\u2019t fought this battle in our own lives, there\u2019s a good chance we know someone who has, or who is. <\/p>\n<p>MACKLEMORE:  President Obama and I just had a powerful conversation here at the White House about opioid abuse, and what we can do about it.  You can catch it this summer on MTV.  And to find treatment in your area, call 1-800-662-HELP.<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: Thanks, and have a great weekend.<\/p>\n<p>[i] \u201cSame Love\u201d is the title of Macklemore\u2019s hit 2012 song about marriage equality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;THE PRESIDENT: Hi, everybody. I\u2019ve got a special guest with me this week \u2013 Macklemore. For those of you who don\u2019t share the same love[i] for hip-hop, he\u2019s a Grammy-winning artist \u2013 but he\u2019s also an advocate who\u2019s giving voice to a disease we too often just whisper about: the disease of addiction. MACKLEMORE: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Fullscreen-capture-5142016-80726-AM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}