The hip-hop star makes a history as the first non-administrative person to join President's weekly address while raising awareness of opioid abuse.
- May 15, 2016
AceShowbiz - Macklemore joins President Barack Obama for his weekly address at the White House. The rapper becomes the first non-administrative person to do so. Sitting next to each other, the unlikely duo delivers a joint speech to raise awareness of drug abuse.
"For those of you that don't share the same love of hip-hop that I do," Mr. President says as he introduces his guest, "he's a Grammy-winning artist, but he is also an advocate giving voice to a disease that we too often just whisper about - the disease of addiction."
"I'm here with President Obama because I take this personally," the rapper says. "I have abused prescription drugs and battled addiction. If I hadn't gotten the help I needed when I needed it, I might not be here today. And I want to help others facing the same challenges I did."
"Overdoses now take more lives every year than traffic accidents," the commander-in-chief chimes in. "Overdose deaths have doubled in the last decade. A lot of the time, they're from legal drugs prescribed by a doctor. So addiction doesn't always start in some dark alley - it often starts in a medicine cabinet. In fact, a new study released this month found that 44 percent of Americans know someone who has been addicted to prescription painkillers."
"I didn't just know someone - I lost someone," Macklemore adds. "My friend Kevin overdosed on painkillers when he was just 21 years old. 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 the inner-city, a suburb, or rural America. This doesn't just happen to other people's kids or in some other neighborhood. It can happen to any of us."
