A Teen Wrote and Co-Directed This Powerful PSA About the Rapid Spiral of Opioid Addiction

'Hey Charlie' aims to promote medical treatment over faith-based recovery

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A recent opioid-abuse awareness ad isn’t just targeted at teens; it’s also written and directed by one.

“Hey Charlie,” is a nearly 4-minute ad from The Christopher D. Smithers Foundation and Columbia University Medical Center, following a 17-year-old boy living in suburbia as he goes from a star athlete with good grades to abusing prescription pills and worse—almost in an instant.

A pointed narrative about the kind of rapid, surprising decline that’s becoming increasingly common in recent years, it’s the brainchild of Brinkley Smithers—the 18-year-old granddaughter of the philanthropic nonprofit’s founder and great-granddaughter of its namesake.

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