• By Rodd Smith
• Posted Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Local Debut of Nationally Acclaimed Film

The Coalition for Drug Abuse Prevention along with the Forsyth County Department of Public Health will debut locally an award-winning film, “The Anonymous People” about America’s addiction epidemic Tuesday, September 22nd at Behavioral Health Plaza, 725 Highland Avenue, Winston-Salem at 6:30 p.m. The film explores the rise of a controversial new movement following in the footsteps of the HIV/AIDS and breast cancer survivor movements. “The Anonymous People,” by filmmaker Greg Williams, takes an unparalleled look at the public health crisis of addiction to alcohol and other drugs and the meteoric rise of the New Addiction Recovery Advocacy Movement. The film will be followed by an open question and answer session and community discussion. "The Anonymous People" explores how deeply entrenched social stigma and discrimination have kept recovery voices silent and faces hidden for decades. Just like women with breast cancer, or people with HIV/AIDS, courageous addiction recovery advocates are coming out of the shadows to share the truth and reality of recovery.

New public recovery advocates question the approach the U.S. has taken with addiction: criminalizing a health condition, marginalizing those impacted, and giving superficial treatment to the chronic illness of addiction. This failure has resulted in an annual price tag of over $350 billion, lost lives and disrupted families and communities.

“To shape the future of recovery, we must end the silence, stand up, organize and speak out for equity and the right to recover for all Americans,” said Pat Taylor, Executive Director of Faces & Voices of Recovery (a multimedia advocacy portal for those in recovery, visit - manyfaces1voice.org/). “Only then will we end disparities such as the fact that we invest only one-third of the amount of money on addiction research as we do on cancer research, despite the fact that addiction costs us two-thirds more in health-related costs.”

The Coalition for Drug Abuse Prevention supports efforts of all the county’s citizens in recovery and as an asset identified by the City of Winston-Salem as a primary resource on matters related to substance abuse, continues to hone its mission to reduce alcohol and other drug problems through coordinated and committed community prevention efforts. Come to the viewing of “The Anonymous People” and stay to join in the discussion on Tuesday, September 22 at 6:30 p.m., Behavioral Health Plaza Auditorium, 725 Highland Avenue, Winston-Salem, NC. To learn more call Ava Troxler at 336-759-7500 or Rodd Smith at 336-703-3260, the event is free and registration is not required. This event is sponsored by the Coalition for Drug Abuse Prevention and the Forsyth County Department of Public Health.