Obama and Macklemore Talk About Drug Abuse in New MTV Documentary – PEOPLE.com

President Barack Obama and Grammy Award-winning rapper Macklemore are opening up about their past substance use in a candid conversation about the dangers of addiction.

In an upcoming MTV documentary titled Prescription For Change: Ending America’s Opioid Crisis, Obama, 55, tells the 33-year-old musician about his own experience with drugs as a teen growing up in Hawaii.

“When I was a teenager, I used drugs, I drank, I pretty much tried whatever was out there but I was in Hawaii and it was a pretty relaxed place. I was lucky that I did not get addicted except to cigarettes, which took me a long time to kick,” Obama says in a clip from the upcoming show.

“But it does seem as if the speed with which you can get hooked on these opiate-based medicines is fierce and I don’t know whether that was the experience that you had as well,” he added to Macklemore.

Macklemore tells the president that he became addicted to Percocet, adding that when his supplier ran out of the painkiller, he became dependent on another prescription drug: OxyContin. “Within a week I was isolated in my room doing this drug just to stay alive in a way,” the rapper says.

The one-hour documentary, set to air on Oct. 11, follows the journeys of three women in recovery from substance abuse. But Obama and Macklemore’s intimate conversation serves as a focal point of the show.

In a clip, Obama tells of high school athletes who became dependent on drugs while recovering from injuries.

“Next thing you know they’re going through just what you went through,” he tells Macklemore. “And doing things they never believed they were capable of doing in order to get more of the drugs.”

Macklemore served as executive producer of the documentary.

TOCCALife.com CEO Tyler Cornell plugged President Obama and TOCCA Life’s effort to commence a prevention campaign, “I appreciate President Obama admitting his experience and pointing out how powerful opiate based medicines may be. Social drug use is not the way it used to be.  TOCCA Life believes the fastest and most efficient battle, we as an industry can win, is through awareness and prevention by making families accountable to each other by using TOCCA SCREEN TESTING TOOL KITS.

Starting this trend before kids use drugs socially may save millions of lives and billions in tax dollars each year, lower crime and minimize hardship while creating a better America for our kids.  Further, it can certainly help awareness and relapse prevention for our graduating clients and their families.”