President Barack Obama has invited Macklemore to assist him on his White House weekly address, where the two engage in a discussion regarding opioid addiction.
“Deaths from opioid overdoses have tripled since 2000,” Obama says. “A lot of time, they’re from legal drugs prescribed from a doctor, so addiction doesn’t always start in some dark alley; it often starts in a medicine cabinet.”
Macklemore, who has battled the disease himself and lost friends to addiction, explains:
“Addiction is like any other disease: It doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t care what color you are, whether you’re a guy or a girl, rich or poor, whether you live in an inner city, suburb or rural America. This doesn’t just happen to other peoples’ kids or some other neighborhood; it can happen to any of us.”
The video coincides with Obama’s call for Congress to pass $1.1 billion in funding for treatment and research — on top of $500 million already in his budget for overdose prevention — so that “every American with an opioid use disorder who wants treatment can get it.”
Honored to be at @WhiteHouse with @MTV to talk to @POTUS about opioid addiction. Really excited for this project. pic.twitter.com/feb7AfoHqn
— Macklemore (@macklemore) May 12, 2016