A new campaign--from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the Truth Initiative and the nonprofit Ad Council--has live-streamed a woman's detox from opioids in a cubic "treatment box" to NYC passers-by. It then released a video including clips of the woman's detox, interspersed with melodramatic music, commentary from "experts" and pedestrians' gawking reactions.
It?s all part of a larger campaign titled "The Truth About Opioids." Ironically, that's the opposite of what this stunt delivers.
"It's wrong in about every possible way it could be wrong. It's really bizarre," says Maia Szalavitz, addiction journalist, Filter contributor and author of Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction.
So what's the problem? First, the choice to center withdrawal for shock value is misguided. The video opens with the young woman, Rebekkah, writhing and moaning. Stark text (accompanied by the sound of a heart pounding) announces "Opioid Withdrawal Day 01," followed by a list of symptoms. "This drug addiction has taken everything and everyone I've ever loved away from me," she says. "Everything."
"I'm the most camera-shy person in the world," says Rebekkah, "but if making my detox public is gonna help somebody, even literally just one person, I'm all for it."
