Right On! Drug abuse is, at the core a SPIRITUAL ILLNESS. Working in the healthcare industry, I daily see the use of marijuana as “self-medication” the disease of the soul.

CONSIDER THESE FACTS:
“Marijuana… is the most abused substance in North America.” - MADD

DO CHRISTIANS ABUSE DRUGS?
“More than one in five Christian kids admit they use or have used drugs/alcohol. In a nationwide survey, 17% of pastors with kids ages 10 to 30 revealed their children either currently abuse drugs or alcohol or have abused them in the past; 74% of those pastoral families do not seek professional assistance when they discover the problem in their family.” - Barna

“58% of clergy acknowledge that they avoid addressing alcoholism among the individuals and families they counsel.
When asked how many had tried marijuana, 47 percent of the unchurched young people had done so compared with 38 percent of the churched youth.” The Road to Recovery: A Landmark National Study

AMERICA’s #1 HEALTH PROBLEM
“By the 12th grade, …49 percent (of US youth) have used marijuana…. Research has long shown that the abuse of…
illicit drugs is the single most serious health problem in the
United States…. Thirteen-year-olds are three times
more likely to know how to obtain marijuana or to know someone … who abuses drugs than are 12-year-olds.”
- Department of Justice

THE GOOD NEWS!

“Only 1/4 of individuals who abuse
… illicit drugs seek treatment. Recent studies have shown
that after 6 months, treatment for alcoholism is successful for 40 to 70 percent of patients” - Department of Justice

“Treatment of addiction is as successful as treatment of other chronic diseases, diabetes, hypertension and asthma (Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse, Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment, 1999)”

WAKE UP CHRISTIANS!

“If the gold rusts, what will the iron do?” - Chaucer