Last week I went to see two people from one of my churches, who were in jail because of drug related charges. The father and son, 36 years old and 18 years old, are both remourseful and repentant.
It is very sad for them, for their families, and for our church family. While they had not come to church much in recent years, they are a part of us, and we love them, even though they have stumbled greatly. Since their arrest, they have reaffirmed their belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Praise the Lord for that sacred fact.
But they both remain locked up behind bars as I write this, two weeks after their arrest. Affected by their bad choices, they are two more statistics in a very sad chapter in American history. Drugs, mainly illegal ones, but also, to an extent legal ones, are destroying America, case by case. In our area, there is a terible outbreak of drug use with the drug crystal methamphetimene, which is a drug from the pits of hell.
Crystal Meth is certainly a drug that the devil has used to destroy people and nations. Methamphetamine, (also called crank), was first synthesised from amphetamine in Japan in 1919 by Akira Ogata (1887-1978). In 1932 Smith, Kline and French marketed Benzedrine, an over-the-counter bronchial dilator and inhaler with nearly one-third of a gram of methamphetamine to treat nasal congestion. By 1936, Benzedrine was the standard treatment for 39 disorders ranging from asthma to depression, but by the end of the decade abuse of the inhalers had reached such alarming proportions that methamphetamine was replaced by the weaker stimulant, propylhexedrine.
But then Crystal Meth was used by Nazi troops to stay awake and to fight longer and harder during World War II. Indeed, from 1942 onward, Adolf Hitler had regular "treatments" of methamphetamine, which surely severely affected his judgment, but limiting temporarily his need to sleep and eat. The drug is terribly addictive and prolonged use leterally rots away a person's body. But people have not learned through the years, even though many people lose their teeth and become walking cadavers with constant addictive use.
The Methamphetamine Problem is an epidemic of addiction that is sweeping this nation. The drug is called methamphetamine, an extremely potent form of “speed” that is ravaging our youth and young adults. Meth is the most addictive drug on the planet. Even just one dose can destroy the self control section of the brain. It is cheap and easy to make. Methamphetamine addiction is destroying homes and abandoning children by the thousands in communities just like yours all over America.
I saw a presentation by law enforcement recently that left me shuddering at the threat this drug is to our society. It is a living hell for the children, in a big way.
The addicted mother’s mind is racing. She doesn’t prepare meals because she is never hungry. She doesn’t put the children to bed because she is never tired. There are no clean clothes to wear and the bathtub is full of chemicals used to make meth.
As addiction deepens parents become abusive and violent. They abandon and abuse their children. Addicted parents leave the children locked in their bedroom for hours, even days, while they look for drugs and party. They expose their children to toxic chemicals while they ‘cook’ their dope. The addicted father's mind is just as jumbled, scrambled by crank, again and again.
Often, the methamphetamine residue coats the countertops and carpet. The ‘stash’ is left out where little one’s find it. Over 35% of the children removed from meth abusing homes test positive for drug exposure. Children raised in drug abusing homes are subjected to severe neglect and abuse. A first grade teacher noticed that one of her students smelled like dog food. “The child had been eating what the neighbors left out for their dog.” There are many pictures on the internet of the savage impact of methamphetamine on children and families under images of addiction.
Abused and drug endangered children grow up to be drug abusers themselves. They have seen first hand how to make a buy, fix a pipe and get high. They have seen their parents do it thousands of times. The cycle is endless and relentless.
Please pray against this hellish drug and the ones who make it and sell it. May they repent, and get right with God, and begin to build up this country, instead of tearing it down. Those who sell and use illegal drugs are, perhaps unknowingly, kinds of terrorists against the American way, because what they do is destroying the country from the inside out.
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