Video Transcript: Lesson 9
Throughout this course, we've been talking about addiction and the cause to the person and to different parts of society, including the family as well as colleagues as well as well everybody. But now let's look more closely at how addiction in the addiction cycle. And we looked at that addiction cycle, you may remember how that affects the economy, and also the economics of the person and his or her relationships. Yes, we're going to look at dollars and cents today, but more importantly, we'll look at the source, the source, who is God? Or is it going to be the addiction? Which is it? And of course, we've looked, we've talked about the it. What is it that is controlling you or me? If it is controlling me, then it's controlling everything that is of my being, my well being, and as we know in Scripture, as we look at economics and look at addiction and economics and their relationship, it begins with God and our relationship to him, Although it reminds me of a couple of examples from people that I work with and people I've been working with recently as of this past year, and also this past week at community recovery. I've mentioned how we have our recovery nights on Monday nights and also Friday nights, and I've had Jack and Jane, not their real names, but Jack and Jane, she went through a rehab program. He has been going up and down. They finally, last year, got together again. Yes, they are looking forward to getting married, but they're not there yet. We're working with them. They have their child who lives with them. The addiction that they are caught up in, of course, relates to alcohol or the drugs, and they are dealing with struggle, setbacks. Comebacks, but also doubt, fear, worry. You see with Jack, he had a bench warrant recently, and they threw him in jail because of an unpaid debt, because of his addiction and because of the cycle that he went through with her. She's now working at a local Denny's not too good of pay, but she's working on it because of the addiction from before. There's a loss of job, money, well being and also confidence. Another gentleman called Don, for lack of a that's not his real name, but Don got to see him this past week at one of our partner ministries in Grand Rapids that works with the homeless and also works with people off the street who are coming from a low income part of the neighborhood. And he was telling me Pastor Mark, he says, I have been put out recently because of my drinking. I'm an alcoholic. I've been struggling up down but I've never been homeless. It's been 11 months now. I've been I've been out in the street because my wife kicked me out, and I don't know what to do. And I want to get back. I want to get back into my my home, make it right with my wife, and have my well being back in order. It what is it? Is it that drink is it that food of choice. Is it that drug of choice? That's always taking over your decision making, taking over your life, taking over the economics. Because we look at social capital, we look at monetary capital, we look at also intellectual capital. There's capital and economics in every sphere of life. And as we look at economics, we go to the famous passage, Malachi 3, especially verse eight. And following it reads, and. Will a mere mortal rob God, yet you rob me. But you ask, how are
the how are we robbing you? Of course, this is Israel, or God talking to Israel, and God indicting them, saying, You have not done this. I commanded back in the law books. When I was setting things up, I was instructing you how to live,
who your first love is, and if you follow my commands, God says, I will bless you. And most of you have, you've taken your Bible and theology courses, you know this, and yet, Israel failed to do so. How are we robbing you in tithes and offerings? Verse nine, you are under a curse, God says your whole nation, because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this the only place God says, test me. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit from before it is ripe, says the Lord Almighty, then verse 12, then all the nations will call you blessed, blessed, for yours will be a delightful land, says the Lord Almighty. In other words, God says here and many other passages. And as we look at, of course, how many times does God talk about this and that throughout Scripture? Money, possessions is probably one of the most that the most talked about topic throughout Scripture. Why it involves the capital of our heart to God, our relationship to the Lord, if our first love is money, if our first love, of course, the New Testament talks about that the love of money is the root of all evil. But if we look at our first love, if it's money, drugs, people, places, things, whatever it may be, our economics. Rob God, we are not turning our whole life over to Him. And of course, we all do. We all are broken. We all mess up. We all fall short of God's glory. Romans.3. But this translates into something even more dangerous, self destructive, as well as destructive to the whole community and unfortunately in the American society, if you are an international student, in our minds, coming here from from the United States, and you're, you're on the outside looking in here at America. And for those, of course, of you who are studying here in the United States, and you're saying, Yeah, I know where you're going with this when it comes to America and socioeconomics and race and ethnicity and drugs and addiction, unfortunately, we have some stereotypes that have come because of the research, because the evidence have come to pass, where we need to look at what is real, what is really going on. So at the cost of addiction, looking at the cost of addiction, looking at class systems, socioeconomics, employment, and also the loss to the economy in the United States, which is our point of reference, we look at and your reading material will then reference US examples and also numbers, percentages and how the loss due to addiction has happened here now as we look at people groups, the periodical Reason. Reason gives us some things to look at, from the American addiction centers on their website and the part. Vocation reason adopts libertarian perspective they write when talking about the intersection between economics and addiction. And the magazine argues that it
is poverty that has drawn such deep divisions in American society, condemning some drug users to a lifetime of shame and legal prosecution and bestowing sympathy and treatment on others, even beyond race. Reason, this magazine argues that women of color are often given much harder sentences for drug related crimes than men, largely due to such women having even lower income and education rates than their male counterparts. A separate finding by the New York Times reports that women who don't attend college are 30% more likely to be victims of sexual assault than women who attend college, and may thus be from a higher socioeconomic background. In other words, we look at gender people groups and also education, and all feeds into economics as it applies to addiction and also this suffering due to addiction, and unfortunately here in America, the black community has been victim, Of Of course, racism, but also prey to addiction, poverty and so on. Economics plays a big role in the addiction cycle. Why? Because if you don't have hope, if you are not, in fact, in a place where you can work or where you are able to take care of yourself, there is no hope the poverty culture. And also, if we were to reference Ruby Payne and she writes a book called a framework for poverty, and our understanding of frame, understanding a framework for poverty and understanding class systems, she helps to understand the class rules. And in the poverty culture, the class rules are that. And I may have referenced this in another session, but to reference it again, she writes, how, in the poverty culture, everybody shares everything also, there's no hope. So whatever money is made economically, it is spent within the day or two or the week as it is earned. How come? Because if I don't spend it now, if I don't get the reward that I feel I deserve, or the possessions I feel that I need and they need, I need to hoard or take care of, take care of me and the way I think I ought to, for example, buying whatever, as far as maybe, well, for example, DVDs, which, yeah, now, of course, that's an outdated becoming more and more outdated, maybe, just maybe streaming services and and buying the most premium of this, or the best of that in General. Right now I want what I want it now, because tomorrow I may not have it. Is the point. And so with addiction, whatever it is, often when the research shows that those in the poverty culture are caught, at times, in getting attached to things more readily, because without hope, there's also depression, there's anger, there's resentment, and there's also just a sense of giving up. And I feel so bad I want to medicate my sorrows and therefore not have what I need or get out of this, this, this cycle of self destruction, to get back on my feet with God's help and to get to giving God the first fruits, getting to of course, depending on God and not on a drug to take, to solve my issues, to solve my problems. And as you look further into this, as far as the economics and the cost of addiction, there was a study done back in 1985 and we could translate it here now, 34 years later, when it comes to inflation, when it comes to the same patterns, when it comes to the same effects. And the study was was a true breakthrough at the time. This
comes from the narconon.org resource. I'll have, of course, online as part of your reading, and have you review it again, and this will be part of the quiz. But when the study came out called economic costs of alcohol and drug abuse and mental illness, 1985 the source says this, as far as what they found, they found this. And I read the study that was titled economic costs alcohol and drug abuse and mental illness 1985 and it was the result of an exhaustive analysis of the available economic and public health statistics with a goal of estimating the dollar value of the cost of drug abuse, alcohol abuse and mental illness in the in this country, in United States. And as we said before, with with drug abuse or addiction in general, whatever it is, affects the mind. It re it redirects the brain in one way or another, in terms of the pleasure centers so that we can get what we want, we want it now, and shut out, shut out other people, places and things and also responsibilities, because I got to have it. And so the study back in 1985 due to the exhaustive research, the answer they found was truly staggering, with a price tag of $218.1 billion for the losses of our economy in America suffered that year, 1985 as a result of substance abuse and mental illness. Drug use and alcohol abuse together accounted for 52% of the total, a figure that amounts to $113.41 billion with inflation factor in this figure adds up to 246.4 adds up to $246.55 billion and if you, of course, fast forward things into 2019, you just imagine how much more than this statistic. And that's the point. We've got a good, solid study from that, that era, and now looking at our era, now, how much more in the billions that we've lost here in America and whatever country you hail from, and doing ministry, understand that addiction has consequence, not only for the individual economically, but also for whole societies economically. In fact, Forbes magazine says this a more recent study where the vast majority, 82% here in the States, said their loved one experienced adverse financial effects due to their substance abuse disorder, which is not surprising, but it's sobering and important to look at this so as far as economically. But these specifics, they write here in Forbes, May, 65% said the person borrowed and asked for money from their loved ones. 48% of the addicts said he or she depleted their savings, and 11% cited a filing for bankruptcy. A person addicted to cocaine or heroin, for example, can spend over $10,000 a year to support the habit and rehab facilities can cost $30,000 a month, a month just for one person at a decent, well fortified rehab Center, which is why most often rehabilitation is not very long for a person going into the rehabilitation process, going to a rehab we say 30 days, 45 days. It doesn't really help long term, with the exception of going to the Salvation Army. Salvation Army, of course, is international. They have adult rehabilitation centers, and often that's a good six to eight month program, give or take. And often that it, of course, that's not always a guarantee either. It needs, we need, as the church, to rise up and become the community of recovery that will be there in all sides, to be actively, intentionally involved, to remove the stigma, so that we can then raise the economic value of restoration
and also rehabilitation. It does take a whole community. God created us in community economically. That makes sense. So for example, coming back to and of course, as we looked at economic costs in the 1985 era, we looked at some total costs of value here, and other costs. We also look at the cost of treatment. Finally, the cost of treatment, the research shows, based upon different forms of rehabilitation. Give you some examples, detoxification, where the and this is outpatient. In this example, outpatient detoxification range from $1,000 to $1,500 total. Most inpatient rehabilitation programs include detox and the cost of a program, and the exact cost of detox depends on whether it's a part of an inpatient program, inpatient rehab, where you have some inpatient rehabs, may cost around $6,000 for a 30 day program with some well known centers, high end centers, all the cost of $20,000 for a month for a 30 day program, for those requiring 60 days or 90 day programs, the total average cost could range anywhere from $12,000 To $60,000 US unbelievable, but not surprising when you consider at these rehab programs, you have doctors, psychiatrists, nurses, other personnel, other resources they need there on site, inpatient also to keep the lights on, pay the water bill and so on. Outpatient rehab is cheaper, but still, many cost $5,000 for a three month program. Some outpatient programs, such as the program at Hazleton Betty Ford costs $10,000 the price tag depends on how often the individual visits the center each week, and for how long? Quite honestly, if I'm sure, if every addict who was willing and intentional about going into rehab and being part of an outpatient program would be all year long, every week, every day, 52 weeks a year, which is not realistic, and who can afford it. In addition, and finally, you look at the cost of medications. The medications a type of treatment of medication. They write here, the addictioncenter.com which, of course, will be part of your reading. They write here the type of treatment and medications needed affects the price tag of rehab, and some people don't need medication for their addiction. Medications often, most often, treat alcohol and opiate addiction, and it can cost several 1000s of dollars a year, year long, methadone treatment for heroin users costs around $4,700 or more. In the long run, they write rehab is not nearly as expensive as drug and alcohol addiction. Alcohol and drug users are more likely to skip work, switch jobs more often than sober individuals, which has a negative impact on income, as we cited from the Forbes resource. And if the price of drugs, illegal problems, health issues and loss of productivity at work all add up over time. Another good illustration is here how an alcoholic who drinks a 12 pack a day consistently for one year, 12 pack of beer, I'm assuming is what they're referencing here, for a year, spends over $3,000 now, what can you do with $3,000 US, instead of opening up a 12 pack every single day. Give to missions, of course, pay the bills here. You know where this is heading. Economics matter with addiction. The price tags continue to go up and up and up, and the financial costs of addiction, finally, are only part of the equation. They don't include the personal costs on relationships and a
meaningful life. God said you are robbing me. You are taking from. What I want you to become and to be. Test me in this Malachi 3. Test me in this. Give the first fruits, the 10% all God is asking. You can get into preacher mode now, but the but the point is, is salient. What we get caught in and what we are addicted to has a cost, not only monetarily, but most of all, spiritually. And this is where, as we dig deeper into breaking this cycle, which in the next session or two, we're going to then tackle how, finally, now that we understand all the aspects, all the angles, of addiction from this, from the definition of it, the theology of it, to the community effect. Effects about it, to now, the economics of it now, to say, okay, what are the next steps in helping our brothers and sisters who are caught up in addiction, including ourselves again, all have fallen short of glory of God to overcome with the hope of Christ, to have better opportunities, or rather, to better ourselves, turning over the Lord and we're then Lord shows us how to forsake it and turn to him for life