90 percent oral opiates in the world are consumed in America. There’s enough Vicodin out now to give every single person in this country a pill every four hours for one month.
CBS News is exploring the challenges of addiction and recovery, and showing solidarity with the millions of people who are struggling with these issues.
In this video, Dr. Drew Pinsky, a board-certified internist, addiction medicine specialist and TV host widely known as Dr. Drew, is urging people to change the way they view addiction. He spoke with CBS News about the need to “let go of this moralizing model about substances.”
The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) offers a concise definition of addiction: “Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is reflected in an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors.”
Dr. Drew explains that all the brain’s systems that are driven or motivated by survival, even such basic instincts as hunger and thirst, can be overtaken by the disease, compelling the addict to prioritize using drugs and alcohol above all else.
Although this is a social media campaign launched by CBS, I challenge you to give up your “drug of choice” for #14days.