Anti-Smoking Group 'Truth Initiative' Takes Aim at Opioid Epidemic
*By Christian Smith*
When the anti-substance abuse platform "Truth Initiative" began in 2000, the smoking rate for teens was 23 percent ー almost two decades later, it stands at 5 percent.
And now, after major inroads with young smokers, the organization is shifting its efforts to another pressing danger facing teens, according to its managing director.
"Opioid dependence can happen in just five days," Mary Dominguez said Monday in an interview on Cheddar.
Truth Initiative recently launched the second phase of its "The Truth About Opioids" campaign, aimed at preventing opioid addiction among teens and young adults.
The organization released a new video that shows a 26-year-old's real-life experience as she undergoes opioid addiction treatment and experiences withdrawal.
Dominguez said the video, however jarring, is meant to highlight that opioid addiction can happen to anyone.
"A lot of people might go to the doctor and get a 30-day prescription for it and not know what could happen to them, and what that could lead to," she said.
In 2016, 2.5 million young adults ages 18 to 25 reported misusing an opioid in the past year, according to statistics from Truth Initiative.
Dominguez said her organization hopes to replicate its success with curbing teen smoking.
"We felt like we owed it to our audience to talk about \[opioid addiction\] with them and to let them know what the facts are about it."
Truth Initiative collaborated with Ad Council and the Office of National Drug Control Policy to create The Truth About Opioids campaign, which has received prime advertising space, thanks to partnerships with major companies like Google ($GOOGL) and NBCUniversal.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/truth-initiative-launches-new-campaign-to-prevent-opioid-addiction).
A second Starbucks location in the U.S. has officially voted to unionize. On Monday, the National Labor Relations Board announced workers at the Starbucks store located in the Buffalo, NY suburb of Cheektowaga voted 15-9 in favor of being represented by Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. The New York Times reports votes were tallied in December but remained inconclusive as the union challenged the ballots of several employees it said did not work at the store. A Starbucks spokesperson has said that it may appeal the labor board's decision, which comes as several other Starbucks stores across the country are also pushing to form a union. Danka Dragic, shift supervisor for the second Starbucks store in the country to unionize, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Earlier today, Minnesota Republican Representative, Tom Emmer, introduced a bill that would prevent the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency directly to American consumers. According to the Congressman from Minnesota, requiring Americans to open a fed account to access a digital currency, would "put the Fed on insidious path akin to China's digital authoritarianism." Rep. Tom Emmer joined Cheddar's None of The Above to discuss more.
Sixteen of the country's most prestigious universities have been hit with a lawsuit claiming those schools illegally conspired to eliminate competitive financial aid offers for students. Just some of the schools mentioned include Yale, Brown, Columbia, UPenn, and Cornell. Author of "Who Gets In and Why" and Professor of practice at Arizona State University, Jeff Selingo, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Navient, a major student loan collecting company, agreed to cancel $1.7 billion in debt owed by more than 66,000 borrowers across the U.S. and pay over $140 million in other penalties to settle allegations of abusive lending practices.
The recently expired child tax credit helped a wide swathe of families throughout the U.S. Megan Pratz looks into the impact the payments had, and how the end of the program will have a drastic effect on families that could still use the help with child care.
The Supreme Court has stopped the Biden administration from enforcing a requirement that employees at large businesses be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing and wear a mask on the job.
Buckingham Palace says that Prince Andrew’s honorary military titles and royal patronages have been returned to Queen Elizabeth II with her “approval and agreement.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has apologized for attending a garden party during Britain’s first coronavirus lockdown, but brushed aside opposition demands that he resign for breaching the rules his own government had imposed on the nation.
