Season 4, Episode 19: Drug Money - When Legal Drugs Have Deadly Consequences The Unlovely Truth

For two years, twin brothers Chris and Jeff George along with their friend Derik Nolan, ran the largest pain clinic in the United States. They didn’t really care about alleviating people’s pain. They cared about the profits selling opioids could make. Florida’s laws didn’t address the fact that none of the men had any medical training to help addicts. They had no training in counseling to help addicts. They were in it because the money was big. Unfortunately, the addictions the drugs fueled were even bigger.
This week’s guest, Christina Dent, founded End It For Good out of her desire to invite others to listen to the voices directly impacted by our drug laws. She hopes that more people will explore the root causes of drug-related harm and consider a different approach. She is currently writing a book on the research and experiences that changed her mind about the best path forward to help people thrive, even in a world where harmful drugs exist.
Christiana and I had an incredible conversation, and what I learned made me think a lot about 1 Peter 5:8 from the CEV, which says:
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
Keeping ourselves sober in the sense of being clear minded applies to us all. The enemy of our souls is actively searching for ways to destroy us like the lions we see on the Discovery Channel. They don’t chase after the strongest gazelle in the herd. They want to find one who is weak, who is apart from the support of the herd, and isn’t able to notice the danger they are in until it’s too late. Addiction to ANYTHING can cloud our judgment and make us vulnerable to the evil that is in this world.
I say this a lot when I’m giving safety information to people - criminals are looking for the easiest targets they can find. They don’t want problems, they want to give YOU problems. We have to be watchful like Scripture says, and that’s hard to do when our senses are dulled and we allow ourselves to be distracted. And yes, I said “allowed” ourselves. We can learn to focus on what we really need to and block out all of the rest, like service dogs do. I’ve put a link to a video of dogs being trained to ignore loud noises, toys, and even snacks so they can protect the person they are going to be caring for. Maybe we need the same training to become the best service people we can be! Just for fun, I’ve also put in a link to a service dog in training who we all probably look like at one time or another.
If you were intrigued by this week’s episode, be sure to listen to this one: Season 1, Episode 18: Finding Tess
You can visit my website to access more episodes or read my blog posts. If you would like to contact me about booking me as a speaker, or ask about my consulting and investigative services, please email me at lori@theunlovelytruth.com.
Buy Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari
Buy In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Maté
Visit End It For Good and learn more about Christina
Watch Christina’s TEDx talk
Service dog training video
Service dog training fail
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