Addiction is a brain disease - this isn't a moral failing - and we have got to stop looking at it that way.

Addiction is a brain disease - this isn't a moral failing - and we have got to stop looking at it that way.

I hope 'Warning: This Drug May Kill You' documentary helps to show the humanity of the people who are struggling with the brain disease of addiction because that is what this is - this isn't about bad people, this is about good people who became addiction oftentimes in the process of being prescribed medication for pain.

We can prevent more people from becoming more addicted - that's number one - with prescribing laws and making sure that people can't get too many of these opioids when they are initially prescribed them. Number two is, we have to make sure the millions of people who are already addicted have access to good and effective treatment. Finally, it's critical that we remove stigma and that's why we've made a film, to show that this can happen to anyone.

It seemed that the problem of Americans overdosing and dying from drug addiction was being described as bad people, particularly kids, who were abusing good drugs. But Sheila Nevins, the president of HBO Documentary Films, and I were particularly interested in finding out the stories of people and families who had been ravaged by this disease of addiction and understanding what really was happening. What we found was that, and let's not make any mistake about it, this is an epidemic of addiction.

I really do think for the vast majority of cases, doctors didn't think they were doing anything wrong - they were doing what was being recommended at the time, and many times people were able to take these prescription opioids and not have a problem with it. But what we do know is that if we take these drugs long-term, dependency develops quickly, within as little as a week. What we all have to realize is that these pills are chemical cousins of heroin - one is an illegal opioid and one is legal, but they are relatives.

We must do something to let people in this country know that addiction is something that can be treated and this epidemic of prescribed opioids is something that we can fix.