ADDICTION; HEROIN AND CRYSTAL METH OVERDOSE

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One of my son’s lost an old friend to a very long battle with drug addiction. Three days before his 25th birthday he overdosed on heroin and crystal meth, two of the most lethal drug combinations and a growing threat in communities all around the country.

When I heard the news, I thought back a few years to my conversation with this young man in my living room. He had just exited another rehab facility and he was facing legal charges from crimes he committed in order to support his illegal drug habit. We were all hoping and praying that he would make it.

“I’m going to try to stay clean,” he told me. “I really want to.” “I know you do,” I replied. I encouraged him to seek additional support in a long term program like “Comunita Cenacolo” where my oldest son flourished. “I feel you need the safety, security and the spiritual support to break the chains of drug oppression that have enslaved your mind. It’s too hard to do it on your own.” He admitted he was worried because of the pull of heroin-and his history of relapse. I gave him a hug, told him I would be praying for him and then I never saw him again.

Drug addiction is a dance with the devil. It is an ugly, life sucking, soul depleting insidious dance with a force that slowly, methodically and craftily steals and destroys every human life that falls into its sinister snare.

This predator preys on our human weaknesses, pillaging our minds, destroying our destiny and pummeling the power of the almighty God who never intended for us to suffer this cunning, baffling and powerful brain disease.

You’ll be disgusted to know that Meth is made in clandestine laboratories, often in our neighborhoods, and the combination of chemicals used includes battery acid, drain cleaner, lantern fuel and anti-freeze.

Heroin (like opium and morphine) is made from the resin of poppy plants. Milky, sap-like opium is first removed from the pod of the poppy flower. The opium is refined to make morphine, then further refined into different forms of heroin.

Snorted, smoked, injected…all these illicit chemicals hi-jack the brain, and progressive, long term use leads to a physical and emotional addiction that eventually suffocates the soul. There is absolutely no redeeming quality to a fleeting drug rush that claims the life of at least one hundred people every single day. Overdosing is now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, surpassing traffic fatalities, gun homicides and suicides.

We must stay vigilant and galvanize our prevention efforts because addiction is a PREVENTABLE brain disease that does not discriminate! We must educate our children, their parents and every member of our community about the growing threat from within so that we can use the arsenal of weapons available to beat this devastating plague.

And finally, we need to pray for a miracle of grace to transform and illuminate our consciousness so that we will refocus our lives and rediscover the perfect plan that awaits us…from a God of peace who loves each and every one of us unconditionally!

If you are suffering ask for help, if you love someone who is suffering seek help, if you care about a healthier, safer community please join Action Against Addiction for our 3rd annual walk4recovery in New Orleans, Saturday September 20, 2014 at the City Park Festival Grounds. www.walk4recovery.org

REWIRED, RESTORED, REAL LIFE! RECOVERY REALLY WORKS! ADDICTION IS A PREVENTABLE BRAIN DISEASE!

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