Exec’s private pain fuels HBO’s ‘Addiction’

This HBO series' (debut's Thursday at 9pm) promotional machine is amazing--there are ads everywhere. More evidence that parents and other loved ones are the key to changing drug policy and treatment access:

HBO unleashed some of the industry’s best documentary filmmakers to take on the subject of addiction, a project born from the frustration of a top HBO executive whose son has struggled with alcohol and cocaine problems.
...

It all began with the realization by Sheila Nevins of HBO that she understood little about the problems bedeviling her son David.

...

All of the documentaries will be available to download for free off HBO’s Web site. HBO also timed the series to air on one of its periodic weekends where the service is offered for free to entice new viewers.

The series strongly communicates the message of addiction as a brain disease, which is not entirely accepted by the public or even the medical community, said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

“We need to create an empathy so we don’t react with anger and a stigma to the person who is addicted, which doesn’t help anyone — the person or society,” Volkow said.

HBO has done a handful of campaigns like this in the past, on issues like AIDS and cancer, and supported Nevins’ efforts here.

While still exploring the idea, HBO brought groups of people together to talk about addiction to hear their attitudes and experiences. A key moment in moving forward came when Nevins heard the story of one woman and her two children, one who had epilepsy and another who was an addict. The woman cared for the child with epilepsy and kicked the addict out of her house.

Now she has only one child — the addict is dead — and the decision not to seek medical help haunts her to this day.

“It gives dignity to the addict,” Nevins said of the HBO project. “They are responsible for seeking treatment, not responsible for the disease.”