WHEN SUBSTANCES TAKE OVER

God's Holy Spirit should direct our thoughts and actions

Ephesians 5:15-21

Intoxicated: from toxicum "poison" (see toxic). Meaning "make drunk" first recorded 1570s. 

Toxic:  poison, from ancient word source *tekw meaning "to run, flee."

Rather than coping with reality, many people seek to flee from reality.  Why?  Reality overwhelms many people (see last week's lesson).  Many turn to intoxicating substances to flee from reality.

The United States has the largest "Christian population" in the world, with nearly 240 million Christians; 75% of American adults identified themselves as Christian in 2015. This is down from 78% in 2012,  81.6% in 2001, and 85% in 1990.  As the professed number of Christians declines in our country, the statistical numbers of substance abusers increases.  

In today's lesson Paul describes how the reality of being new creations should be lived out in believers' daily lives, and how they are to fulfill GOD'S PURPOSES as they live. We are to "pay careful attention" to how we live.  We are to choose "wisdom" over "foolishness." 

Wise:  "learned, sagacious, cunning; sane; prudent, discreet; experienced; having the power of discerning and judging rightly." 

Foolish:  "silly, stupid, or ignorant person; madman, insane person; windbag, empty-headed person."

We are to "understand what the Lord's will is."

Will:  "mind, determination, purpose; desire, wish, request; joy, delight,"

We are to "speak to one another" teaching, sharing, confessing, praising, praying, and more and "submit to one another" out of respect for Christ.

We are to help one another get through this present reality, understanding the purpose, desire and joy of God through our personal connection with the Holy Spirit.  We are not to seek to "escape" reality through intoxication, or to allow toxic substances, ideas, pleasures direct us into foolish or unwise actions and attitudes.

We need to help others connect with the Holy Spirit to cope with reality, not seek foolish toxins in hopes of "escaping" reality.  The reality is that reality is present whether you are intoxicated or not.

Here are the numbers on substance abuse in America:

The substance abuse crisis in our nation and state prompted the Texas House of Representatives’ Speaker Joe Straus to appoint the Select Committee on Opioids and Substance Abuse (Committee).  The committee was tasked to “develop and present concrete principles and action items to reduce the scourge of opioids in Texas and to provide legislative solutions to address these issues, as well as examine other topics related to substance abuse in Texas.”

The committee has produced a detailed report outlining the current challenges, including recommendations that can make a positive impact if enacted by the Texas Legislature.”

The Select Committee’s report notes that “every day, on average, 115 Americans die from an opioid overdose. Americans with an opioid addiction equaled 2.4 million in 2016, and approximately 20.1 million Americans aged 12 or older were reported to have a substance use disorder, with 11.5 million misusing pain reliever opioids.”  The population of the United States is said to be 325.7 million people. This makes over 6% of the population of the United States experiencing a "substance use disorder.

“In Texas,” the report notes “in 2016, 2,831 persons died due to a drug overdose. In 2017, 90 out of 172 child fatalities, of families involved with the Texas Department of Protective Services, were caused by abuse or neglect and involved a parent or caregiver actively using a substance.”

"Reports show four Texas cities in the top twenty-five United States cities for opioid abuse, Longview, Texarkana, Odessa, and Amarillo, the issue is alarming.”

Common opioids include morphine, heroin, codeine, oxycodone, and fentanyl. Opioid overdoses slow down bodily functions, including the impulse to breathe. Brain damage and death are possible results of an overdose.

The report notes that the number of days needed to become dependent on or addicted to prescription opioids is only seven days.

The report also notes that “although the most widespread and deadly drug crisis in the nation’s history, the current opioid crisis is not the first involving addiction and government response.”

"A brief history of opiate drugs in America entails high levels of addiction and withdrawal post-civil war ...” 

“To combat the crisis, alternative pain medications were developed, stricter prescription laws were enacted, professional literature was written and published to train physicians on morphine prescribing, the Pure Food and Drug Act passed in 1906.” 

"In the 1960s, heroin use surged.... The prescribing of amphetamine tablets surged for psychiatric conditions and for weight-loss. ...President Nixon declared a “war on drugs”; the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act passed in the 1970s which established the modern set of controlled substance “schedules”; and the DEA was established." 

“In the 1970s, powder cocaine emerged and in the 1980s ‘crack'." 

“The current epidemic is fueled by two primary factors, the unsubstantiated claims that were made in the 1980s about opioid addiction being rare and the increased prescription rates for opiates seen between the 1990s and the 2010s." 

"The federal government declared a Public Health Emergency specific to opioids on October 26, 2017.”

Not only opioids are a problem.  “Other drugs are also increasingly present in inpatient stays, overdose deaths, and drug exposure calls made to the Texas Poison Control Center,” the report notes.  “Antidepressants have, and continue to be, the most frequently seen in drug exposures, and benzodiazepines are increasingly present in data collected by the Poison Control Center.”

Opioid Epidemic by the Numbers In 2016... 116 people died every day from opioid-related drug overdoses.  11.5 million people misused prescription opioids. 42,249 people died from overdosing on opioids.  2.1 million people had an opioid use disorder. 948,000 people used heroin 170,000 people used heroin for the first time. 2.1 million people misused prescription opioids for the first time. 17,087 deaths attributed to overdosing on commonly prescribed opioids. 19,413 deaths attributed to overdosing on synthetic opioids other than methadone. 15,469 deaths attributed to overdosing on Heroin $504 Billion in economic costs. Sources: Texas House Select Committee Publishes Report on Opioids and Substance Abuse This lesson's handout Opioid Epidemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_the_United_States