AUSTRALIAN NEWS 16th August 2006

CHRISTIAN DOCTOR SEEKS TO RAISE AWARENESS OF THE FIGHT TO OVERCOME ADDICTION

The writer of this article is a Christian Doctor who is a member of our Network. He works in family medicine with a particular emphasis on treatment of addictions. In an attempt to encourage more prayer to break the power of addictions in personal lives, and to encourage breakthroughs in the medical treatment of them, he has written this article which we are pleased to pass on for your education and to encourage you to pray more earnestly for those afflicted by addictions, and those in the forefront of the battle to treat them.

Although the church is largely unaware of it, the threat posed by drug addiction to civilization is extreme. Addiction is not just physical, or emotional, but also has a very deep spiritual aspect akin to Satanism and witchcraft, being as it is a form of idolatry. The over-riding point of an addicts life is to score drugs at literally any cost: drugs have therefore become his (false) god – or idol – which he serves in a dreadful slavery. Globally the UN estimates that there are about 250 million people addicted to illicit drugs. Other estimates from those closest to the problem suggest that the UN estimates are very conservative and the true figure could be up to ten times more. There may be another 500 million addicted to alcohol.

“Medical cannabis” or free government heroin trials, in which drugs are not used for their treatment effects, but merely for “control” purposes, in reality constitute an entry point to, or the ongoing underwriting of, a satanic idolatrous religion. Lest anyone be deceived it is reported for instance that only 10% of the scripts written for cannabis in some western countries is actually used for the purpose prescribed. The damaging effects of these drugs are far greater than most people, the medical establishment included, have realized.

I have just returned from a world trip to serve the Lord in the treatment of addicts with three conferences in Arizona USA, and Budapest in Hungary. Whilst some very good things happened, long standing concerns remain. I believe that addiction does not receive anywhere near enough prayer from the church in general. It requires timely, prevailing and determined prayer. It needs to receive the same status in Christian circles as issues such as abortion and euthanasia. Until it receives at least that much prayer we will continue to loose the cultural battles in the addiction area.

These areas are:

1. For years some of the senior scientists in the world have been talking about developing a methadone like drug (agonist) ostensibly to assist people to find relief from other chemical addictions, but the most likely affect of such a product would be to keep addicts in a permanent state of intoxication. There are many potential products in existence for cannabis and several also presently available for cocaine. The chemist who developed the replacement for cocaine (called “JD-Tic”) was given a major award and human trials are scheduled to start in January 2007. In a conversation I was able to have with him he clearly acknowledged that “We only intend the drug to be used for one to two weeks whilst people are coming off their habit.” My concern is that was also said of methadone forty years ago and such short term use has not been the actual result achieved.

Replacing one drug with another is also the opposite of the scriptural mandate to break every bondage and set the captives free, and smash every burden which crushes those for whom Christ died, especially the poor, the widows, the oppressed, the foreigner and “her who has no one to help.”

2. Scientists around the world are cash-strapped and struggling to keep their laboratories open and their staff employed. Drug companies are typically rich. This is a potentially dangerous situation with the balance of power held obviously by those controlling the purse strings. No drug company seems interested in carefully documenting the medical risks involved in new treatments. This global trend is likely to do the cause of freedom for patients great harm.

3. There is almost no research on the real medical and scientific side effects of addiction. No one is looking at side effects properly. This means there is little research to back up the position of those who are trying to warn people of the dangers and false seductions of addiction.

Even worse, after forty years of doctors failing to help patients become radically free from addictions through the failure of methadone programmes to achieve these goals, means that the medical profession itself is becoming “addicted” to the very concept of long term addiction. This has become so severe that various professional groups now argue vociferously that it is “unethical” and “unprofessional” for doctors to even try to assist patients to detox and become free. Whilst it is purportedly “ethical” for doctors to maintain addictions indefinitely, it is allegedly a gross breach of professional ethics to try to assist them to break their chains.

It is for these reasons that I urge and request devout and determined prayer, to maintain the defensive walls of righteousness in the global fight.

Source: Name supplied but withheld for privacy and ethical reasons.

http://www.ausprayernet.org.au/