Home Outreach Leaders Articles for Outreach & Missions Is Jesus Enough for Drug Addicts?

Is Jesus Enough for Drug Addicts?

What we find, in our experience, is that Methadone is also used as a form of street currency for all sorts of transactions, from food to clothing. It is also stored up and used in a “oner” for a big blow out, or swapped for Heroin and/or other drugs. Basically, I know of very few people who have gotten clean through using Methadone. David Liddell, director of Scottish Drugs Forum, says:

“The continued high level of drug-related deaths in Scotland highlights the ongoing need to reduce fatalities especially among opiate (Heroin) users, who remain—by far—the group most likely to die from drug use in Scotland.” A Times newspaper investigation in 2010 concluded that addicts were pleading with the Government to help them get off drugs completely instead of just parking them on the Heroin substitute. One former addict, Rosie, told The Times that Methadone is “almost more of a poison than Heroin, there doesn’t ever seem to be an end to it.”

Many of our schemes are becoming a wasteland for the forgotten generation(s) of users. What was so graphically highlighted in the film Trainspotting in the 1990s continues to blight the lives of thousands up and down the land. So, what is the answer to our burgeoning drugs problem here in Scotland? Some say the best way to get over this problem is to contact a reputed rehab near me

Of course, it is only a life lived for the glory of God that can offer up any sort of hope or meaning to anybody, regardless of drug addiction or not. Of course, it is only a life handed over to the Lordship of Jesus Christ as Saviour that will result in true, ongoing spiritual and physical freedom from all forms of idolatry in our lives.

But is this enough? What is this, I hear you cry? Is this some sort of gospel plus theology? Is Jesus not enough for these people (indeed any people)? Yes, Jesus is enough. Yes, the gospel is the only power on this earth (or anywhere for that matter) capable of completely transforming any life, no matter how lowly. But addicts need a reason to get out of bed. They need a purpose.

Very often, they lack ambition. They lack dreams. They lack motivation. They lack sustained support and accountability. They lack true community. Yes, they need love and sympathy. But, they also need chastisement. They need to be pushed. They need to set goals. They need to meet a whole range of new people who do not know them or associate with them because of drugs. They need the community of God’s people. They need the church. They need daily, ongoing discipleship.