Wants national spotlight on drug addiction

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia woman whose son is fighting a drug abuse problem will sit with First Lady Michelle Obama during the State of the Union address.

Cary Dixon also spoke at an event that President Barack Obama had in Charleston in October on addiction. Her son is participating in a substance abuse treatment program in state prison while he serves a sentence for drug-related crimes. He will become eligible for parole in September.

Dixon told the Charleston Gazette-Mail that she’s honored and humbled to be invited as a guest of the Obamas for Tuesday’s speech. She said she’s grateful that the substance abuse problem has entered the national spotlight and that the country needs to understand that people struggling with addiction are “not bad people, they are sick people.”