Post by A on Oct 29, 2017 17:48:43 GMT -7
This past Thursday, President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump delivered a speech addressing the nation's opioid crisis. You can read the remarks here or watch here. Below are 10 take-aways from the address.
1. Addiction is affirmed as a disease and a health crisis.
This is in direct contradiction to God's Word, which consistently describes the drunkard/addict as one engaged in sin (Ephesians 5:8, Romans 13:13, Galations 5:21). Any attempt to combat opioid use and overdose deaths must accurately identify the problem. To affirm the disease model of addiction misidentifies the problem and thus puts effort to combat the problem on a wrong trajectory.
2. The recovery industry will profit massively from the initiatives taken by the administration to combat the crisis.
In 2015, Forbes magazine reported that addiction treatment was a $35 billion industry. Think about that. $35 billion is spent annually on trying to keep addicts from using again. That number has most assuredly increased since then and will only continue to do so with the new initiatives set forth by the Trump administration. The overwhelming majority of these treatment facilities are based on the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step method of recovery and the disease model of addiction. That’s not to say that a treatment center isn’t advisable for the addict during withdrawal, but that only treats the temporary physical symptoms of habitual drug or alcohol use. Aside from contributing to higher insurance premiums, stop to consider that insurance companies are providing funding for the addict seeking help in these treatment centers and that they are almost always hearing a humanistic solution. Any Christian should pause and ask if this is really money well spent.
3. In the words of the First Lady, the "stigma" of addiction must be normalized.
Instead of seeing addicts as those who are living out their willing bondage to sin, the disease model tells us we should see them as victims of a disease that happened to them. This ultimately de-humanizes the addict because it denies that they need the gospel of God's grace and forgiveness of sin. That is true of everyone living in bondage to sin (which is really everyone not in Christ), but is often most visibly true for those who are substance abusers.
4. Trump’s plan is for education to play a large part in solving the crisis.
A worldview that rejects God's Word regarding addiction and sin will ultimately not look to God's Word for answers to addiction, and if it does, it will not be consistent. That means solutions will by necessity involve secular education that attempts to change minds and hearts. The most notable approach in the US is the D.A.R.E. program that has been widely criticized and met with mixed reviews since nearly it's inception. We should recognize that government use of education as a tool will never really address the root cause of drug and alcohol abuse, which is idolatry. That’s a distinctly spiritual problem, and any education that doesn’t teach addiction is sin and offer the gospel doesn't have the power of God's Word to change hearts (Hebrews 4:12, 2 Timothy 3:16).
5. Guided by evidence and results?
Despite President Trump's claim, any efforts to combat the opioid crisis that treats the problem as a health crisis and relies on secular education to combat addiction is not based on evidence when looking at the demand side of the problem. There is no credible scientific evidence which points to an objective, repeatable, and observable biological cause of addiction. This comes despite over 80 years of efforts by a medical community that has bought into the disease model of addiction.
6. The statistics are staggering.
The statistics quoted in the address give some staggering revelations as to the scope of the problem (see links above to the address). While there are other major cultural and moral issues plaguing our country, as Christians we can't neglect the rampant drug abuse and overdose deaths happening in our country. The Triune God who created us has told us exactly what the problem is and has given us His one and only solution. It should be incumbent upon us to evangelize those struggling with addiction and their families. This has our national government's attention and the attention of health care professionals, how much more so should it have ours?
7. The Trump administration should be commended for recognizing there is a problem.
This should go without saying, but we shouldn’t expect the unregenerate to have a biblical outlook when governing. With various organizations and states moving to legalize marijuana and others even going so far to legalize all drugs, we should be grateful that our government recognizes this is a problem. We should be thankful our government wants to continue the ban on illegal drugs and to restrict legal drugs so they are used more wisely. Let us pray for our leaders to adequately confront these problems on the supply and demand side of the equation, and most importantly pray for their salvation (1 Timothy 2:1-2, 1 Peter 2:17, Romans 13:1).
8. Recommendation for training for opioid prescribers could be a good thing.
Addressing the supply side of the issue, a more wise approach to prescription narcotic medication could be hugely beneficial. Of course the details of Trump’s plan remains to be seen, but I think that any effort to stem the abusive prescribing of narcotics to patients by doctors should be welcomed. This is unlikely to stop anyone who is already addicted from seeking more prescription narcotics than they need. Yet this approach should be helpful in preventing patients with legitimate medication needs from being needlessly exposed to, and in control of, powerful narcotics for extended periods.
9. Stopping the flow of illegal drugs into the country still needed.
This approach to curbing the supply side of the problem will be expensive, but is better than doing nothing, or even worse, legalizing all drugs. A correct understanding of human depravity should help us to see that any deregulating of drugs will give ample opportunity for the sinful heart to pursue drugs as an idol. People will be immensely drawn to the emotional numbing narcotics bring in an effort to escape the emptiness of our culture’s hedonism. We have to understand that fighting the inflow of illegal drugs won’t make the demand for them go away in and of itself, but it can help in keeping people alive so that more have an opportunity to hear the gospel.
10. We must help those who are already addicted.
The recovery industry and the Trump administration are willing to spend billions of dollars to do what they think is best in helping addicts. Tragically churches all over America don’t know how to adequately minister to those in desperate needs of God’s grace and the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. Many will refer them to secular sources, allow 12-step groups to operate in the church, or will adopt a secular program wrapped in a thin veneer of Christianity (think Celebrate Recovery). This should shame us as Christians and should be a wake-up call to us all that we can’t continue to neglect this great need in our homes, churches, and community. Addicts need the gospel above all else and we do the addict a great disservice when we are not willing to lovingly confront them with their sin and then offer them the only hope and solution for their problem - the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Christ the addict is a new creation, no longer in bondage to sin, but to Jesus, who gives the Holy Spirit to indwell the believer, sanctifying them to the glory of the Father (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 2 Corinthians 5:17).
1. Addiction is affirmed as a disease and a health crisis.
This is in direct contradiction to God's Word, which consistently describes the drunkard/addict as one engaged in sin (Ephesians 5:8, Romans 13:13, Galations 5:21). Any attempt to combat opioid use and overdose deaths must accurately identify the problem. To affirm the disease model of addiction misidentifies the problem and thus puts effort to combat the problem on a wrong trajectory.
2. The recovery industry will profit massively from the initiatives taken by the administration to combat the crisis.
In 2015, Forbes magazine reported that addiction treatment was a $35 billion industry. Think about that. $35 billion is spent annually on trying to keep addicts from using again. That number has most assuredly increased since then and will only continue to do so with the new initiatives set forth by the Trump administration. The overwhelming majority of these treatment facilities are based on the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step method of recovery and the disease model of addiction. That’s not to say that a treatment center isn’t advisable for the addict during withdrawal, but that only treats the temporary physical symptoms of habitual drug or alcohol use. Aside from contributing to higher insurance premiums, stop to consider that insurance companies are providing funding for the addict seeking help in these treatment centers and that they are almost always hearing a humanistic solution. Any Christian should pause and ask if this is really money well spent.
3. In the words of the First Lady, the "stigma" of addiction must be normalized.
Instead of seeing addicts as those who are living out their willing bondage to sin, the disease model tells us we should see them as victims of a disease that happened to them. This ultimately de-humanizes the addict because it denies that they need the gospel of God's grace and forgiveness of sin. That is true of everyone living in bondage to sin (which is really everyone not in Christ), but is often most visibly true for those who are substance abusers.
4. Trump’s plan is for education to play a large part in solving the crisis.
A worldview that rejects God's Word regarding addiction and sin will ultimately not look to God's Word for answers to addiction, and if it does, it will not be consistent. That means solutions will by necessity involve secular education that attempts to change minds and hearts. The most notable approach in the US is the D.A.R.E. program that has been widely criticized and met with mixed reviews since nearly it's inception. We should recognize that government use of education as a tool will never really address the root cause of drug and alcohol abuse, which is idolatry. That’s a distinctly spiritual problem, and any education that doesn’t teach addiction is sin and offer the gospel doesn't have the power of God's Word to change hearts (Hebrews 4:12, 2 Timothy 3:16).
5. Guided by evidence and results?
Despite President Trump's claim, any efforts to combat the opioid crisis that treats the problem as a health crisis and relies on secular education to combat addiction is not based on evidence when looking at the demand side of the problem. There is no credible scientific evidence which points to an objective, repeatable, and observable biological cause of addiction. This comes despite over 80 years of efforts by a medical community that has bought into the disease model of addiction.
6. The statistics are staggering.
The statistics quoted in the address give some staggering revelations as to the scope of the problem (see links above to the address). While there are other major cultural and moral issues plaguing our country, as Christians we can't neglect the rampant drug abuse and overdose deaths happening in our country. The Triune God who created us has told us exactly what the problem is and has given us His one and only solution. It should be incumbent upon us to evangelize those struggling with addiction and their families. This has our national government's attention and the attention of health care professionals, how much more so should it have ours?
7. The Trump administration should be commended for recognizing there is a problem.
This should go without saying, but we shouldn’t expect the unregenerate to have a biblical outlook when governing. With various organizations and states moving to legalize marijuana and others even going so far to legalize all drugs, we should be grateful that our government recognizes this is a problem. We should be thankful our government wants to continue the ban on illegal drugs and to restrict legal drugs so they are used more wisely. Let us pray for our leaders to adequately confront these problems on the supply and demand side of the equation, and most importantly pray for their salvation (1 Timothy 2:1-2, 1 Peter 2:17, Romans 13:1).
8. Recommendation for training for opioid prescribers could be a good thing.
Addressing the supply side of the issue, a more wise approach to prescription narcotic medication could be hugely beneficial. Of course the details of Trump’s plan remains to be seen, but I think that any effort to stem the abusive prescribing of narcotics to patients by doctors should be welcomed. This is unlikely to stop anyone who is already addicted from seeking more prescription narcotics than they need. Yet this approach should be helpful in preventing patients with legitimate medication needs from being needlessly exposed to, and in control of, powerful narcotics for extended periods.
9. Stopping the flow of illegal drugs into the country still needed.
This approach to curbing the supply side of the problem will be expensive, but is better than doing nothing, or even worse, legalizing all drugs. A correct understanding of human depravity should help us to see that any deregulating of drugs will give ample opportunity for the sinful heart to pursue drugs as an idol. People will be immensely drawn to the emotional numbing narcotics bring in an effort to escape the emptiness of our culture’s hedonism. We have to understand that fighting the inflow of illegal drugs won’t make the demand for them go away in and of itself, but it can help in keeping people alive so that more have an opportunity to hear the gospel.
10. We must help those who are already addicted.
The recovery industry and the Trump administration are willing to spend billions of dollars to do what they think is best in helping addicts. Tragically churches all over America don’t know how to adequately minister to those in desperate needs of God’s grace and the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. Many will refer them to secular sources, allow 12-step groups to operate in the church, or will adopt a secular program wrapped in a thin veneer of Christianity (think Celebrate Recovery). This should shame us as Christians and should be a wake-up call to us all that we can’t continue to neglect this great need in our homes, churches, and community. Addicts need the gospel above all else and we do the addict a great disservice when we are not willing to lovingly confront them with their sin and then offer them the only hope and solution for their problem - the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Christ the addict is a new creation, no longer in bondage to sin, but to Jesus, who gives the Holy Spirit to indwell the believer, sanctifying them to the glory of the Father (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 2 Corinthians 5:17).