Substance Abuse

Among the foremost problems of our time are substance abuse problems surrounding the use of drugs and alcohol.
A 1986 survey shows that 70 million Americans have at some time engaged in the illicit use of a drug. Thirty-seven million said they had used illegal drugs in the previous year, and 23 million in the month prior to the survey. Sixty-five percent of 18-25 year olds have experience with illicit drugs. The survey also established a correlation between drug and alcohol use. Eighteen percent of our population will exhibit dependency problems with alcohol or other drugs during their lifetime. Traffic and safety authorities estimate that alcohol is involved in 50 percent of all fatal automobile accidents in the United States.
The trend to use cocaine, heroin, marijuana, PCP, alcohol, prescription drugs and other mind altering drugs as entertainment or as an escape mechanism not only speaks of the pressures under which we live, but also indicates something of the moral and spiritual conditions of our time. Equally serious is the idea that so-called “mind expanding drugs,” such as PCP and marijuana, should be legalized for medicinal use. Above all, those engaged in the production and distribution of alchoholic beverages continues their massive and largely successful promotional efforts to make Americans a drinking people.
Word for the World Family Church believes the evidence is clear that the use of drugs has become a leading factor in the soaring crime rate, and that such use increasingly results in the loss of lives and the destruction of property. The total costs to our society are astronomical ($160 billion annually) Forty percent of hospital admissions involve drug or alcohol related diseases.
We deplore the evidence that at high levels and from many quarters immense pressure is exerted to encourage more people to drink, and at an earlier age. Sixty-six percent of high school seniors consume alcoholic beverages. By age 13, thirty percent of boys drink on a regular basis. Thirty percent of ten-year olds experience pressure to drink alcohol.
We hereby record our firm condemnation of efforts aimed at abrogating the laws restricting the possession and use of narcotics, hallucinogens, amphetamines, barbiturates and alcohol. We commend those who continue to consider it their duty to prosecute violators of existing laws, whether it is in regard to sale, possession or use of such drugs.
Specifically, we encourage the framing and passage of new laws that will make it easier to enforcement agencies to apprehend and convict drinking drivers who are the primary cause of highway fatalities. It is our understanding that among such desirable laws are the “implied consent” laws, which facilitate the detection and identification of drinking and drunken drivers through various tests conducted by arresting officers.
We also urge our church, other churches, including our own, to take seriously the problem of the use of alcohol and other drugs, educating their members to the dangers of such use and encouraging them to make abstinence a part of their personal Christian testimony. As evangelicals we affirm that even such extreme problems as those represented here are subject to the power of the Holy Spirit, and the solution through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.