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).
Israel rolled tanks into northern Gaza for what the military called a targeted raid aiming to destroy Hamas infrastructure. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council failed to pass two separate resolutions proposed by the U.S. and Russia on humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza.
Republican Mike Johnson is the new speaker of the House, but the ally of Donald Trump inherits many of the same political problems that have tormented past GOP leaders.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday spoke out against retaliatory attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. He also says he's redoubling his commitment to working on a two-state solution.
The U.N. warned on Wednesday that it is on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip, forcing it to sharply curtail relief efforts in the territory blockaded and devastated by Israeli airstrikes since Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel more than two weeks ago.
The judge in Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial fined the former president $10,000 on Wednesday, saying Trump violated a limited gag order barring personal attacks on court staffers.
Republicans eagerly elected Rep. Mike Johnson as House speaker on Wednesday, elevating a deeply conservative but lesser-known leader to the seat of U.S. power and ending for now the political chaos in their majority.
With mail theft and postal carrier robberies up, law enforcement officials have made more than 600 arrests since May in a crackdown launched to address crime that includes carriers being accosted at gunpoint for their antiquated universal keys, the Postal Service announced Wednesday.
