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What about babies born addicted to opioids? Or kids being prescribed heavy meds at a very young age? Sure, nobody held a loaded gun to my head, but I trusted a quack as a young teen and got addicted that way. So much for "my fault".

Even the ones who got cancer from smoking?

Not all cancer patients look after their health.

No, they don't cause they never had to personally deal with it.

Taking drugs is not the same thing as being addicted. It's like saying smoking is the same thing as lung cancer.

A large percentage of cancer patients recover too. The addicts that recovered didn't because of a belief. They just got lucky their brains recovered due to neuroplasticity.

Bullshit. Most cancer is caused from life choices, choices of the parents and genetics, which all play a role in addiction.

Mom I'm so sorry. He says it softly then louder I believe.

Exactly, We're simply asking for the same compassion to help stop the shame and stigma around addiction.

In ways I have a hard time seeing the differences. If it’s a disease. Drug and alcohol addiction can kill you quicker than cancer. It does damages to your brain and organs. There is huge signs that there is a life threatening problem. It doesn’t just rear it’s head, families and friends ignored it. Nor do they know how to properly handle it.

Quitting all drugs doesn't remove an addiction. Both cancer patients and addicts can be cured from their affliction, but not by their own volition. Quitting drugs doesn't automatically cure addiction just as chemo doesn't automatically cure cancer. They do help in both cases.

Apparently, You dont understand addiction. Just wait till it happens to you.

Nebzz if you knew the first thing about addiction u would realize that it is not just a choice u make to have fun. It is an overwhelming compulsion that is rooted all the way at the instinctual dopamine/reward system that is required by all animals for survival. Imagine having to fight the urge to eat and drink? Willpower is irrelevant when the compulsion comes from the most basic survival mechanisms. Your brain literally thinks you will DIE without it. Animals are capable of tremendous feets to survive including chewing off their leg to escape a trap. Its like that only your brain is telling you that you need a drug. You have no fuckin clue what youre talking about

@@jakeleahy2083 preach it man!!! I guess some people will remain ignorant until it happens to them and then they ask themselves why they can't stop using?! Its a shame that addicts/alcoholics(myself included) get viewed like this, people need to do some research or go to an open AA meeting and then hopefully they'll see that we cant help to not stop using even though we know of the consequences that it will cause to our selves and the people we care about.

90% of the things that could put you a situation that this video was representing are illegal. i have sympathy for people who get hooked to scipts, but only if they got them for a valid reason. they were tricked by their doctor who was tricked by big pharma. i don't have much sympathy for alcoholics. there are a lot of life choices made before alcohol gets its snare in you very deep.

What about babies getting addicted in the womb? Kids being put on Ritalin without a proper ADHD diagnosis? It's all their fault too right..m

You do realize that there is more addictions than just drugs? And if society accepts it as normal, and you do it, then find yourself addicted because you didn't understand, what does that say about society? And if you do one thing once and become addicted, are you gonna blame everyone, or the poor person who tried it once? Just once?

lol i just started keyboard warrioring through the comments, then ive realized that all hope is gone. rip. hope karma gets these kids.

Tara marmolejos neither do addicts. They didn't chose to be sick or stuck in their need to use drugs.

That's exactly that kind of misconception & misunderstanding this ad is trying to fight. Nobody decide to be an addict, the social context and psychological factors are important and pretty much out of the control of the sick/addict. Addiction is actually a symptom of a much complex a deeper problem/disease, i think.

you are right. Not all the cases are the same.

Stealing, cheating, and lying is done to relieve the afflicted person's current suffering, not to prolong addiction (the pain of relapsing in the moment feeling a greater priority then getting clean). I bet every cancer patient on earth would lie, steal, and cheat if it meant that the pain they currently experience as a result of their illness would subside, if only temporarily.

youve never met a cancer patient that was fucked up in the head, so what? wanna just pretend that they dont exist? point is, they are fucked up because theyre ill. its not like they have always been that way.

The point is that cancer patients don't lie steal and cheat. That is why comparing the two is illogical. Its apples and oranges

Dylan Griffith have you seen breaking bad?

Took the words out of my mouth

We’re simply trying to raise awareness that addicts don’t receive the same level of compassion as those suffering from other diseases.

so what is the cause of that disparity? because people don't believe addicts deserve the same level of compassion as those suffering from other diseases...

not feeling the same way about these two issues is discrimination. if someone makes a PSA you better fucking feel some damn compassion no matter how ludicrous the argument.

We’re not so much comparing addiction to cancer as we are pointing out that addicts do not receive the same level of sympathy and support.

The only addicts who should receive the "same level of sympathy and support" of a cancer patient are children born addicted to something. Not some kid who starts taking drugs to "fit in" and then becomes addicted. The PSA was a creative idea. The acting was perfect, and it was shot well but choosing a cancer patient was not a good idea.

+muffinman5423 Most people don't take the kind of drugs that land you in hospital frequently (heroin, or other opiods for example) because they want to "fit in", you don't have a clue...it's a systemic problem, poverty, mental health issues, a way of just once wanting to feeling okay with your life, it's insidious, drug problems are avoided when people can access the tools to a happy life, anyone can be prone when mental health issues go unseen and untreated, when jobs are scarce, when you feel your life has no value.

Drug problems are avoided when you choose not to take drugs. I'm not saying addicts should get/seek help. I have sympathy for them. I've know addicts, but I will not give them the same sympathy I would give a cancer patient. Poverty, job scarcity, the "system", and "wanting to feel okay with your life" don't force you into abusing drugs. Thats a personal choice.

"People use drugs to self medicate their issues" I never said I don't think people did that. I'm saying that it's still a choice, unlike cancer. You are really hung up on the "fit in" line. "Why do people abuse drugs" - to see how it feels to be high, to escape their problems, to fit in, they think it's cool, because they like it, to self medicate [like you mentioned] because they are weak to pressure, because they ignored all the warning, and many many more reasons. It still comes down to a personal choice unlike cancer. "Offer me something of worth seeing as you're so quick to say i'm wrong in my view." I've offered/stated my opinion just like you have to me. Our opinions have worthy in and of themselves. One of the fist things you said to me was "you have no clue". You were quick to say I was wrong also. Do you believe that no one has tried hard drugs to fit in or look cool? Do you think people don't choose to start using drugs? Is it out of their control?

Addiction makes physiological changes to your body. Just as heart disease changes how your heart functions, addiction changes the way your brain works.

What????

Lets imagine the user cannot prevent the choice from happening. Environmental pressures, psychological problems, over administration of drugs from the clinic etc. The user will develop a tolerance before the addiction. Tolerance is the decreased effect of a drug that develops with continued use. The first time you take that drug, you get the normal high and then the come-down. However, after continual administration of the same drug, larger doses are required to produce the same desired response. You tend to create this connection between the high and the drug. So you can have either physical dependence ( FirstCallKansasCity calls it physiological dependence) where the taker has adverse physical symptoms and signs that result from the withdrawal of the drug. Or you can have psychological dependence. This is more complex where the drug affects the REWARD system of the brain. Again the user associates pleasurable sensations with the drug causing the user to continue taking it. A patient could have tolerance to the drug, where they dont respond to the drug anymore, which is normal. Addiction is a maladaptive state.

I think your cause is noble. Addicts need more sympathy. It's a vicious cycle that I've been in. But your video makes it look like addicts are powerless. Addicts feel powerless... What got me out was feeling powerful. Powerful enough to take control of my life. I fear your video will further convince addicts that they are powerless, when what they need most is to feel powerful.

Funny thing is smoking is a choice that leads to both addiction and cancer...clearly cancer can be byproduct of a choice you made.

IISocratesII not getting high with that attitude!

Both of my parents died of alcholism related issues. There treated me and my family terribly, and they suffered the consequences of those actions, but being honest about what addiction is and isn't despite the actions it might cause people to do is one of the most effective ways of helping cure this epidemic. You can respond to peoples actions, but you have to be able to separate the medical aspect of the disease from those actions.

steve rausch hey bro, I know you're smart enough to know this, but I'm still going to say it. don't even think about drinking a drop of liquor because you can also become addicte. alcoholism unfortunately can run in the family so stay away from it as far as you can. ✌

steve rausch hey bro, I know you're smart enough to know this, but I'm still going to say it. don't even think about drinking a drop of liquor because you can also become addicte. alcoholism unfortunately can run in the family so stay away from it as far as you can.

@John Y. This was how I lived my life as a young adult, but around 22 I started drinking occasionally. I'm always on the lookout for warning signs of being an alcoholic. I only drink every other weekend or so now. Plan on keeping it that way. I've realized that when I'm sober I generally want to stay sober. That's not to say I don't enjoy drinking, but it isn't something I crave. Thanks for the kind advice though.