Communities of faith must overcome mistaken stigmas that drug and alcohol dependency results from moral failure and willful misconduct. Churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, native spiritualities, among other faith systems must step up to the plate in preventing and treating addictive behaviors.Combining “the power of God, religion, and spirituality with the power of science and professional medicine to prevent and treat substance abuse and addiction,” is the remedy of Joseph A. Califano, Jr., president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, gleaning from its two-year study, So Help Me God: Substance Abuse, Religion and Spirituality: Why Priests and Psychiatrists Should Get Their Acts Together.Stigma has been identified as “the most entrenched obstacle for faith communities or spiritualities to overcome,” concludes P. Riccio in Prevention Pipeline, (7/8 '96, Breaking Down the Walls: Connecting Faith With Communities), published by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention of Rockville, MD.

Initial use of drugs or alcohol may be voluntary, however, consensus of addiction specialists today agree that use may all too readily lead to addiction, which is now defined as a chronic, relapsing disease that can be successfully treated. Heart disease and diabetes patients, conditions which may result from years of smoking or poor dietary choices, are encouraged and supported in their efforts to secure treatment, yet, drug and alcohol-dependent persons suffer in isolation daily, despite the good news that addictions are as successfully treated as other chronic diseases, such as asthma, diabetes, and hypertension, reports the National Institute of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, MD (Oct., '99).

Furthermore, a 200-page manual, Church, Drugs, and Drug Addiction, published in December by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, concludes that drugs are one of the main threats facing young
people, including children. “Prevention can be brought about by offering to potential victims of drugs the human values of love and life, illuminated by faith,” Pope John Paul II stated. Prevention, suppression, and rehabilitation
are strategies outlined in the Roman document.Other reasons churches, synagogues, Islamic centers and mosques, Hindu and Buddhist temples, among other communities of faith must overcome stigmas attached to substance or process addictions and get involved in this epidemic, reports the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Abuse: Challenges and Responses for Faith Leaders, include:

• For 6 out of 10 Americans, religious faith is the most important influence in their lives, and for 8 out of 10, religious beliefs provide comfort and support;
• People who actively participate in an organized religious or spiritual group have a great deal of respect for their leaders, who function as teachers, mentors, confidants, and advisors;
• Spirituality is an important part of recovery for many individuals with drug and alcohol problems;
• Ministries can actually prevent drug and alcohol use by reaching out to youth and getting them involved in positive activities. They can also provide a safe haven for children who are living with drug and alcohol problems at home; and
• Faiths can serve as catalysts for changing public perceptions about addiction and increasing awareness about the good news that recovery is possible.

Additional CASA research shows that:

• Teens who never attend religious services are twice as likely to drink, more than twice as likely to smoke, more than three times more likely to use marijuana and binge-drink, and almost four times more likely to use illicit drugs than teens who attend religious services at least weekly; and,
• Teens who do not consider religious beliefs important are almost three times more likely to drink, binge-drink, and smoke, almost four times more likely to use marijuana and seven times likelier to use illicit drugs than teens who believe that religion is important.

Other troubling frustrations for Califano and CASA show that while priests, ministers, and rabbis surveyed indicate that 94 percent of them consider substance abuse an important problem in their congregations, only 12.5 percent receive any training in addictions and only 36 percent noted that they preached a sermon on the issue more than once a year. Also perplexing for CASA is the medical profession’s failure to draw from spirituality, despite its importance in effective treatment of addictive behavior.

Enabling the stigma attached to substance abuse by concealing or evading the epidemic proportion only furthers fears and discomforts in talking about the problem, preventing faith communities from healing and their right to treatment and recovery.

Family, friends, and communities of faith, play vital roles in motivating individuals with drug and alcohol problems to enter treatment and maintain sobriety. The Vatican manual on substance abuse is a clarion call to overcome the stigma of addiction, and heralds the importance of spirituality in prevention and treatment. I have watched treatment work when one’s own fears and stigmas attached to substance abuse and addictive behaviors are faced. Everyone wins.

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