Daly Focus Blog
What does addiction look like?
Johnny Baker compares it to a small water leak he discovered on the side of his house one day. He wasn’t sure of the cause, but the leak seemed small and posed little risk.
A few weeks later, the water stain had grown, and moss was growing.
A few weeks after that, Johnny’s wife called him at work and said, “You have to come home right now. Water from our house is flooding the neighbor’s yard.”
The small leak had grown into a full water line break.
More than 72,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2017.
Numbers like that are the latest sad statistic from a culture of drug abuse that broke into the open in the 1960s and 1970s. The cost of illegal drugs in terms of crime, lost work productivity, and the impact on the health care system is estimated at $200 billion a year. To that figure, you can add another $80 billion in prescription drugs.
Despite the staggering numbers of traffic deaths, overdoses, and a new generation of “stoners” who would rather get high than pursue productive lives, there’s growing momentum in the United States to legalize drugs.
We are pleased to hear of the U.S. Senate’s passage of the Opioid Crisis Response Act by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 98-1. This followed an earlier House vote of 393-8. The bill now goes to President Trump, who last year declared the opioid crisis to be a national emergency, for his signature.
The opioid epidemic in this country is destroying lives and families. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 63,600 people died in 2016 from an overdose in the United States, of which 42,249 involved an opioid.
Gary Morland believes families are like a river – good and bad choices alike flow downstream across generations. Gary’s family of origin was an unhappy one. There was a lot of arguing and disharmony. His dad was an alcoholic. So was his grandfather, who left the family as a result of his addiction. Gary learned to accept dysfunction as normal and unchangeable. The influence of his past sent him on a 15-year journey down what he calls the “Rocky Rapids of Addiction.”
When Gary turned 21, his dad took him drinking, and for the next 15 years, three quarts of beer a day became his habit.
Jim Daly is a husband, father and President of Focus on the Family and host of its National Radio Hall of Fame broadcast. His blog, Daly Focus, is full of timely commentary and wisdom designed to help you navigate and understand today’s culture. His latest book is Marriage Done Right.
