The “Trews” host, who struggled with addiction for many years, sees drug dependence as the inevitable outcome of a consumerist, capitalist society that has stripped human lives of meaning. In an informative as well as hopeful video on the opioid epidemic sweeping the West, Russell Brand also looks at how criminalizing drug use, which began as a way to disrupt black communities and movements against war, according to one of President Nixon’s advisers, only exacerbates the problem.

In the clip below, Brand shares his thoughts on the crisis and talks about the alternative to drugs that has kept him sober for 14 years.

— Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata

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#drug addiction#drugs#opioid crisis#politics#richard nixon#video#war on drugs