--- title: Surgeon General's Report Call Substance Abuse Moral Test description: U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called addiction "a moral test for America" in a new landmark report released Thursday canonical: https://time.com/4574651/surgeon-general-report-addiction-substance-abuse/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-17T14:00:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:52:58.800Z article:section: Health og:title: Surgeon General's Report Call Substance Abuse Moral Test og:description: U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called addiction "a moral test for America" in a new landmark report released Thursday og:url: https://time.com/4574651/surgeon-general-report-addiction-substance-abuse/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67e09408a549ce29/6988aee1a988ca480b6ba340/vivek-murthy-addiction.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The National Action Network Conference - 4/14/16 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Surgeon General's Report Call Substance Abuse Moral Test twitter:description: U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called addiction "a moral test for America" in a new landmark report released Thursday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67e09408a549ce29/6988aee1a988ca480b6ba340/vivek-murthy-addiction.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Surgeon General Says Addiction Crisis a 'Moral Test for America'  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Nov 17, 2016 2:00 PM UTC  U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy at The National Action Network Conference on April 14, 2016. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy at The National Action Network Conference on April 14, 2016.Dennis Van Tine—STAR MAX/Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Nov 17, 2016 2:00 PM UTC U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called addiction to drugs and alcohol “a moral test for America,” given the more than 20 million people in the country with substance abuse problems in a new [report](https://addiction.surgeongeneral.gov/) released Thursday. The report is the first from his office to address substance abuse and Murthy hopes that it will influence how the public treats the issue much like the Surgeon General’s [report on tobacco](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876429,00.html) began a move away from the product 50 years ago. “We can never forget that the faces of substance use disorders are real people,” Murthy wrote in a letter accompanying the report. “Are we able to live up to that most fundamental obligation we have as human beings: to care for one another?” The report attempts to erode some of the stigma surrounding substance abuse by highlighting the growing evidence that substance abuse has roots in neurobiology. Repeated use of drugs changes the brain so that it demands more to function. Only 10% of people with a substance abuse receive treatment, according to an [editorial](http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2587685) by Murthy, and the report looks at ways to help the millions who go untreated. Recommended initiatives include expansion of community-based programs, increased investment in training for health workers and policy reforms. The report assesses addiction and substance abuse across a wide range of drugs, but opioids have received the most attention given the scale of the [opioid crisis in the U.S.](http://time.com/4527209/2016-election-opioid-addiction/?iid=sr-link1) Nearly 30,000 people die from heroin or prescription opioid misuse every year, according to the report. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4574651/surgeon-general-report-addiction-substance-abuse/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4574651/surgeon-general-report-addiction-substance-abuse/"},"headline":"Surgeon General Says Addiction Crisis a 'Moral Test for America'","datePublished":"2016-11-17T14:00:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:52:58.800Z","description":"\"Are we able to live up to that most fundamental obligation we have as human beings: to care for one another?\" he writes in new report","url":"https://time.com/4574651/surgeon-general-report-addiction-substance-abuse/","keywords":["Public Health"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67e09408a549ce29/6988aee1a988ca480b6ba340/vivek-murthy-addiction.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt67e09408a549ce29/6988aee1a988ca480b6ba340/vivek-murthy-addiction.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The National Action Network Conference - 4/14/16","caption":"U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy at The National Action Network Conference on April 14, 2016.","creditText":"Dennis Van Tine—STAR MAX/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/public-health/","name":"Public Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4574651/surgeon-general-report-addiction-substance-abuse/","name":"Surgeon General Says Addiction Crisis a 'Moral Test for America'"}}]}] ```