WHO IS TO BLAME FOR DRUGS?

I recently heard two young men describe their entrance into the world
of drugs and crime.

Each of their families lacked the maturity and love necessary to give
their children a solid foundation.

Although this is true of many youths who become tangled in the drug
web, other users and sellers grew up in a caring, disciplined family
environment.

So who do we blame for the problem of drugs? A thorough answer would
take several gigabytes because societal problems arise from a variety
of causes. I've already referred to one factor - troubled marriages
and families.

Other causes might include mental illness, manipulation by drug
pedalling predators, slack justice for offenders, ignorance of the
presence and power of drugs in the community and so on.

Yet, even though the causes appear numerous, one condition is common
in every case and that condition is a longing for lasting hope and
happiness. While it's important to treat the causes, we must address
the condition.

For example, one of the men I referred to earlier spoke of his need
for acceptance and love. Predators in the drug trade are keenly aware
of this need; it provides them with a nice living. And even predators
know their lives are hopeless. These men discovered something every
clean and sober recovered addict has to learn -- you can't change
until you come to the end of yourself.

At that point, each of them turned his life over to Jesus Christ as
the only one who could love him completely, just as he was.

Furthermore, Christ was the only one with the power to heal their
wounded spirits. Religion, as one astute young observer said, 'is just
memorizing the right answers.' In other words, religion or religious
practice often has little to do with the living God.

Instead, it often consists of singing the right songs, being in the
right place and saying the right words without either conviction or
power to change.

By contrast, these two men experienced love and hope through the
Spirit of the risen Christ who loves us as no one else can. We
shouldn't be shy about telling people trapped in the drug bog that
Christ can pull them out. His power isn't a simplistic cliche we throw
at a complex problem. On the contrary, he treats the condition behind
the causes.

As a case in point, 78 per cent of the addicts who find Christ through
the Teen Challenge ministry these men enrolled in are still off drugs
five years later.

Compared to other treatment statistics, that's phenomenal. Someone
criticized a recovered addict of merely switching his addiction from
drugs to Jesus. Maybe, but if that's how you see it, remember this:
one of these addictions will rob and kill you; the other will give you
life and hope.