Surgeon General: Addiction is not a "Moral Failing"

The U.S. Surgeon General published a landmark report on the treatment of addiction on Thursday, the first time the body has acknowledged the affliction directly. Heroin addiction in the United States is on the rise, and in 2014, more people died from substance abuse than in car accidents. The report says that 78 people die a day from opioid overdose, and that only 10 percent of the 20.8 million people with a substance abuse disorder seek help. "For far too long, too many in our country have viewed addiction as a moral failing," reads the 400-page report. "This unfortunate stigma has created an added burden of shame that has made people with substance use disorders less likely to come forward and seek help." The author of the report, Dr. Vivek Murthy, says she hopes it will change attitudes toward addiction the way the surgeon general's report changed views on smoking in 1964.