President Barack Obama delivered an impassioned and personal speech addressing the national health epidemic of prescription drug and heroin addiction, which is killing more Americans per year than automobile crashes.

Obama, on Wednesday, talked about the need to address both addiction and overdoses from opioid prescription painkillers and heroin while speaking in West Virginia, the state that has the highest rate of deaths due to drug overdoses, reports The New York Times. He also opened about his own struggles with drug use as a youth.

"[Drug abuse] is an illness and we've got to treat it as such," the president said to an audience of about 200 people at the East End Family Resource Center.

"I did stuff, and I've been very honest about it," he said, referring to his admissions of illegal drug use, according to The Associated Press. "So when I think about it, there but for the grace of God."

During the event, Obama heard from parents in the community who nearly lost children to addiction, as well as Charleston police chief Brent Webster, who said his officers deal with a "community of zombies walking around" in need of treatment. Other speakers included advocates, health care workers, law enforcement officials and policy makers. After hearing the stories, Obama said he was reminded of his own teenage daughters.

"They're wonderful girls, but they're teenagers. They do some ... things," he said.

"It could be Malia or Sasha or Cary's kids or any of our kids," he said, referring to his daughters and those of a local mother named Cary Dixon. "Those kids don't always look like us, don't live in the same neighborhoods as us. They're just as precious."

The president went on to announce several modest steps to combat the problem, including offering more training to federal doctors and requesting federal health insurance plans to address barriers to addiction treatment.

"We're going to have to build and fund and support more treatment centers," he said.

He went on to suggest that billions of dollars would be saved if Congress eased sentencing guidelines for nonviolent offenders and offered drug addicts treatment programs rather than prison time.