The Insidious Disease

The Insidious Disease

Over the course of a year I talk to hundreds, if not thousands, of people. It is one of my favorite things about my job that I can stop to take a few minutes to engage people in conversation and get to know something about them. I suppose that over the past decade the most mentioned subject has been the opioid epidemic in which we find ourselves. I believe it is fair to say that, at least over the past few years, every family I speak to has a story to tell of a family member who has fallen into the grip of these drugs. A while back I thought the big drug was going to be methamphetamine but the oxycodone, Oxycontin, fentanyl, heroin group has surged into the lead. The pervasiveness of the drug abuse that we now see are far above any that I have witnessed in my lifetime and I was alive in the 60s. It is no misnomer to call it an epidemic. The despair that I see in the eyes of those who have lost loved ones or who have loved ones in its throes is heartbreaking. Every family.

A while back I was having a Facebook conversation with a friend of mine who pastors in an inner city environment. He is one of the finest men that I know and , with his wife, they make a great team. They would never surrender but over the past few years I have witnessed the struggle they are going through. Remaining unjudgemental after facing this issue and the related crime that accompanies it has been difficult and has taken a toll. The conversation we were having had to do with what agency is going to have to take the lead if we are to combat this addictive crisis. His argument was that churches are in the best position to take the lead and I agree with their unique ability to address the issue. What I said to him was that, even so, churches are unable or unwilling to take up the cross.

Don't take me wrong. There are some churches that are elbow deep in the battle and who are doing good work that is profitable. Celebrate Recovery is a wonderful church sponsored addiction recovery program that is reclaiming lives all over but the efforts by the churches are just not enough. Let's face it. Until this problem comes home to someone and takes on reality most people just want to be insulated from it. Some churches don't want to be associated with those sinful people who are so needy and, to be fair, there are quite a few people who won't attend church with them. Well, that's on them. My position in this discussion was that I agreed that even if churches become healers the problem is too great, too pervasive for them to handle. And, it has to be recognized that addicts are not too keen on being looked down on by the righteous and don't look there.

Government agencies are going to have to take the lead if the numbers are to be met. Why should we have to deal with those miscreants who brought it on themselves? Well, other than the milk of human kindness we have to recognize that each one of them is costing us money in crime, medical expenses and, in many cases, disposing of the remains after they die. Hospital emergency rooms are filled with overdoses costing the taxpayer millions of dollars. Surely we can do a better job of rescuing these people. We will hesitate not an instant to imprison the addicts on any charge we can think up but this does not address the issue and it costs tens of thousands of dollars to house an inmate per year.

What do we do? First we have to take an honest look at the socioeconomic issues that drive addiction. It is not just a character flaw. Just get over that depiction. People know what to do but the problem is funding. Too many politicians make hay over castigating the addict which does absolutely nothing to deal with the issue but makes great stump speeches and 10 second campaign ads. After recognizing the problem we must get the addict off the street but not in prison. Prisons are only schools for criminals. We must get them into treatment facilities but even that is not enough. If an addict gets clean he is still not healed. Without further help the recidivism rate is astronomical. The recovering

addict will have to be housed in a half-way house or some other kind of supervisory method for months. Those months must be used to teach the recovering addict skills he or she is going to need for living without drugs. Without that there is only hopelessness and a return to addiction. Even with all of these things there is a high possibility that the former addict will once again become addicted and have to go through the whole thing again. This is just the way it is. It is an insidious disease.

Here's the problem. It is going to take money and lots of it. It is going to take social workers in numbers large enough to make a difference. And it's going to take a change of attitudes from people who only wish to be rid of the addict. In the long run it will be a big money saver because we will save those medical costs, imprisonment costs and the cost of the accompanying crime. Look at it this way. It will probably cost way less than fighting senseless wars.

Here's My Take on this one. Let's fight the wars at home.