Boot, M. (1996, March 6). "Drugs and god." Review & Outlook of Wall Street Journal, p. A20.

OVERVIEW

A growing number of social science evidence shows that one of society’s most effective weapons against social ills is an old-fashioned one, namely religion. You don’t need a computer printout to figure out that kids who do God are less likely to do drugs or turn to crime or get pregnant. In the inner city, churches are often the only institutions that still work.

It is, however, on the basis of several social science studies that experts are using statistical evidence to change public policy. Columbia University’s Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) determined in the summer of 1995 "that one of the best predictors of whether a child will stay free of drugs is whether he or she practices a religion."

Head of CASA, Joseph Califano (previous head of President Johnson’s Great Society) believes that in the public fight against drugs, the "separation of church and state has been carried to an extreme." He believes ministers, priests, and rabbis are key and wants them to be better trained to counsel drug users.

Califano also believes religion is often a crucial part of effective treatment. In examining programs sponsored by CASA, such as one in St. Louis for paroled prisoners, he found that every ex-addict he met looked to religion to stay clean.

Another expert, Princeton criminologist John DiIulio, who has studied "drug crazed predators" and the effect of religion, concludes: "My one big idea is borrowed from three well-known child-development experts—Moses, Jesus Christ, and Mohammed."

This article notes the trend of the nineties of increased drug use especially among younger teenagers, and another CASA study finding that illegal drugs cost New York City $20 billion a year, or 21 cents of every taxpayer’s money. The article concludes:

Yet the drug war is not lost, despite the claims of the noisy but tiny legalization lobby. Some 30 years into that war, we have a pretty clear idea about what works and what doesn’t.

The prejudice against religion by much of our judicial and media elites seems all the more curious when set against the seriousness of the drug problem.

...drugs are not just a social problem; they’re a moral one and require a moral solution. Churches can’t keep every child off drugs and crime or cure every addict, but there’s plenty of reason to believe that overall they’d do a pretty good job of it if they got more support from society. Religion gives people, particularly teenagers, what they most need to combat drugs, a reason to say no.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. What most impresses or disturbs you about this article and this point of view? Why so? How would you like to discuss it?
2. Do you think social problems like drugs, crime, and pregnancy have moral and spiritual, as well as economic, cultural and psychological, aspects?
3. How affective do you consider AA? Does it have a religious aspect?
4. What do you consider to be most important in society’s strategy to combat the harmful use of drugs and sex?

IMPLICATIONS

1. Most societies are concerned about drugs, crime, and unhealthy sexual activity among young people.
2. Enough study has gone into these problems globally, in Europe and America, to draw some conclusions.
3. There seems to be unrefutable evidence that religion works as a factor in preventing self destructive patterns among youth and in rehabilitation of addicts and criminals.
4. Many people resist harmful activities or find rehabilitation without religion.

Dean Borgman cCYS