Category: News & Blogs

Two Stories of HOPE for Families Walking Through Addiction

In our last blog post we talked about natural recovery or “ageing out” of addiction without treatment. We love your replies and thought two of them in particular were so touching and could be helpful to other families in the thick of substance use disorder. Both are shared with permission.

From Jennifer, a mom walking with a 24-year-old son through five years of substance use disorder and multiple overdoses:

“Our story is short in the addiction world considering that from first awakening to our son’s struggles till now has only been 5 years but we have been through some very dark times including almost losing him on his second overdose that happened a mere two weeks out of his second trip to treatment.

This overdose resulted in a month and half in the hospital and months more of physical, occupational and speech therapy so he could learn how to walk, talk and do everything all over. I wish I could say that was it for him but it wasn’t.

I had heard of [natural recovery] when trying to educate myself…our slogan that we latched onto [from the family support group BALM] during the toughest of times was, “keep him alive to 25.” We are one year away and definitely living with much less fear.

He is still a daily cannabis user at age 24 but he buys only from a dispensary and limits when we ask him to due to family events, etc. This last year and half of “California sober” began without a trip to treatment or weekly meetings but just with his own choices to be healthier and stay alive.

I am waiting for more maturity on his part to want a substance free life but for now he has stopped using any hard drugs and nicotine…We have learned to accept that abstinence for him may be a long process, if ever, and we patiently support all work towards creating other tools of dealing with the emotional regulation in his daily life.

Thank you for all you are doing to educate our communities. We felt very alone during our journey and I try to be open and honest about our family’s journey with anyone that cares or finds themselves in the journey too.” – Jennifer M.

And from Ashley, a woman whose brother struggled with addiction for many years, starting when they were growing up:

“I definitely lived in the shadow of my brother’s addictions at times. He struggled with dyslexia, ADHD, bipolar…and addiction, first getting into drugs his freshman year of high school.

Having a family member with addiction becomes the center focus of the family, and everything rides on that. Just like a terminal illness, the rest of the family lives in the anxiety of pending upheaval. Will it be a police call or a friend who lets us know he’s in jail again, got in another fight, is in the hospital, or is dead?

[The reality of natural recovery] is a really good insight we tend to gloss over, but it IS possible! My brother struggled with addiction for years, and honestly still lives in many addictive behaviors.

Yet he shifted from the things that were harming him to things that help to regulate his bipolar and ADHD moods, and has the purpose and drive to show up for his kids.

We spent many, many years navigating what my parents could afford for any form of outpatient therapies, yet it was his decision to “clean up” for a girl that finally stuck. He put down alcohol and never picked it up again, after binge drinking and hitting rock bottom so many times I didn’t realize the ditch would go that deep!

I think a deeper part of “growing out” of it is maturing enough to find purpose and step into personal responsibility. I know of many people who never “cure” their addiction; they simply redirect it into things that aren’t as damaging, like their health and relationships, versus self-sabotaging with drugs.

[My brother] keeps himself regulated with marijuana and mushrooms…he is making his way, finding purpose in activism and humanitarian efforts, and is teachable. He continues to learn and grow, and I’m grateful for the positive relationship I have with him and his children.

I love what you do at End It For Good.” – Ashley

Both of these men went through numerous treatment programs, but neither of them was successful at improving their health until they found internal motivation to make different choices.

Both of them are much healthier and stable, with much better relationships, but neither is abstinent. These are really important tensions for us to wrestle with, because it forces us to consider the question “What is the goal of abstinence?” It’s not an end in itself. If we think a bit we believe most of us would agree that the reason we as a society have pushed so hard for people to be abstinent is because we want them to be alive, healthy, present for their relationships and able to function and contribute in the world.

Ashley’s brother has now spent years living in poverty-stricken communities across the world, serving in humanitarian efforts. He’s alive, healthy, present in his relationships, contributing in the world, and still using marijuana and mushrooms. Can we keep our eyes on the goal, and take our control a bit off the pathway he’s using to get there?

If someone is experiencing less harm in their life, that’s a win. If the people around them are experiencing less harm, that’s a win. We hope that through these stories we can wrestle with the possibility that we often lose sight of the destination by focusing so much on the path someone takes to get there, and we might get far more people to the destination if we let people take a variety of paths instead of just one.

One size fits one: Do people really “age out” of addiction?

One of the most surprising facts we’ve learned about addiction is that most people who struggle with a substance use disorder will eventually leave addiction behind, even though they never go to treatment.

Yes, you read that right.

It’s called “spontaneous recovery,” “ageing out,” or “natural recovery.” This was the topic of a clip from our podcast episode with Stacey McKenna that gained more than 20K views in 48 hours on TikTok. It has gone on to become our most popular social media post ever.

If you’re not familiar with natural recovery, you can read more about it here from a scientific perspective and here in an analysis of data in layman’s terms. Our favorite, though, is this piece Stacey wrote about her own experience of natural recovery coupled with journalism on the broader topic.

Here’s a glimpse into her journey: “It was 22 October 2001 and, at almost 22 years old, I had begun to age out of methamphetamine. Over the next several years, I would gradually, and without treatment, abandon binge-drinking, cigarette-smoking and even occasional marijuana use. Though this is the path that’s most common among people who have tried or even become addicted to drugs, it’s the one least discussed.”

The data is clear that Stacey isn’t alone and that natural recovery is the primary way people exit addiction, but the comments on TikTok also give a peak into real-world experiences of other people who have found this path:

“I stopped drinking April 2018, became pregnant May 2018 and just stopped and never wanted it again after having our girl.”

“This reminds me of how I quit smoking. I was at work and my mom called me to tell me my Dad had Stage IV lung cancer. I walked home and threw a nearly full pack [in the] trash. And I’ve never had another one.”

“My second semester senior year of college, I was hanging on by a…thread. And every day I’d tell myself ‘you just have to graduate and it will be over’ and it was true, it ended immediately upon graduating. Environment change + rhythm of a full time job.”

“Eventually life became the euphoria… when you wake up literally high on life, there is no need to take anything.”

Changing roles and responsibilities, clarified priorities, and seasons of life are all triggers that lead many people (though certainly not all) to change their relationship with substances. Quite a few people commented that their natural recovery was prompted by physical changes as they aged. They hit their 30s, and their bodies just couldn’t take the substance use anymore.

Highlighting natural recovery in no way diminishes the potential harm of substance use. What we hope it does is help us as a society approach addiction more effectively. The goal shouldn’t be to force everyone into treatment. While treatment can be helpful for some people, the majority of people won’t finish the program , and many of the ones who do will relapse. Meanwhile, many people will recover with no treatment at all. So treatment is no guarantee of recovery, and recovery most often happens without treatment.

Why bring this all up? Because it changes our focus. Instead of singularly focusing on getting people to go to treatment, we can focus on helping people stay alive, stay healthy, stabilize their lives, and take positive steps forward. Those steps may include treatment, or they may be steps to embrace connection, relationships, and the roles and responsibilities of adulthood that help many people exit addiction without treatment.

There are as many individual pathways to recovery as there are individual people who struggle with addiction. One size fits one.

Two Wins in Two Weeks

Two BIG wins have happened nationally in the last two weeks!

The first BIG win was President Trump signing an Executive Order on April 18 that expedites access to psychedelic-assisted therapies such as ibogaine. This is fantastic news, especially in light of recent legislation in Texas and Mississippi to advance ibogaine research.

While the media splash from the executive order focused on ibogaine, in no small part due to the role podcaster Joe Rogan has played in elevating education about it, the order actually impacts numerous psychedelics, including psilocybin and MDMA.

For a fantastic conversation about the history of the nation’s first psilocybin program in Oregon, check out our latest podcast episode, Lessons From Treating 20,000 People with Legal Psychedelics, which just dropped today!

To learn even more about how psychedelics are used for therapeutic purposes, we recommend Michael Pollan’s book How to Change Your Mind or the Netflix adaptation by the same name.

The second BIG win was acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announcing last week that cannabis products that are regulated by a state medical marijuana program will be rescheduled to Schedule III (instead of Schedule I), along with all FDA-approved cannabis products.

Changing the scheduling of a drug impacts everything from research access to criminal penalties, from tax implications to banking options for businesses, and, of course, how consumers can legally access it. Schedule I is the most restrictive category. A move to Schedule III is a huge step in the right direction if we want functional markets and better research.

At End It For Good, we consider these to be wins for two reasons. First, any time we can move a popular substance toward legal markets, it removes cash and the incentive to commit crime from the underground market. Second, some drugs really do have therapeutic potential. If we want more people to get effective help for substance use disorder and other mental health crises, we need to have every effective tool available.

Cannabis isn’t the best tool for some people, but it’s helping others like Kelsey Parker regain their lives after addiction. Psychedelics can be dangerous for people with certain pre-existing conditions, but for others, like Ben Bush, they gave him his life and family back.

Our goal continues to be shifting away from a criminal justice response to drugs and addiction and towards a health-centered one. That means we’re not just focused on what to stop doing, we’re also focused on innovative tools that could help more people get healthy and thrive. We’re glad you’re here for that journey!

Answering Your Questions About Marijuana

We love reading your responses to our blogs. In our last one, we shared the story of Kelsey Parker’s recovery journey using legal medical marijuana, and how this option gave her a way to cut off the connection with the street dealer who also sold her meth.

In response, one reader said: “My old boss constantly said the only reason pot is a gateway drug is you have to see the same dealer that sells the others.” Keep those replies coming, we love hearing what you think!

We’ve got answers to some of our most commonly asked questions about marijuana below. But first, we just dropped some new merch, and we think you’ll love it. Every purchase supports the work we do, and we’d love for you to check it out.

Is marijuana a gateway drug?

I love addiction researcher and journalist Maia Szalavitz’s comparison to riding a bike. She makes the point that just because people who join motorcycle gangs ride bicycles first, that doesn’t mean that bike riding is a gateway to joining a motorcycle gang.

Similarly, it’s true that the vast majority of people who use riskier drugs used marijuana first, but that doesn’t mean marijuana made them try other drugs! It’s just highly unlikely that people will skip a low-risk option and go straight to something higher risk.

About 50% of American adults have used marijuana in their lifetime. Only 2% have used heroin. Correlation is not causation. Marijuana does not cause people to use other drugs.

Has marijuana legalization led to more youth using marijuana?

No. There have been many studies on this, with a 2024 study published in JAMA Psychiatry again finding that legalizing marijuana for adult use does not increase youth use.

Have more adults started using marijuana in states where it's legal?

Yes. As marijuana has been legalized for adult use, more adults are using it. That doesn’t mean legalization has failed. Policies always have tradeoffs. When we look at success, we can’t just look at rates of use. That’s one important data point, but there are many others, such as rates of arrest for marijuana offenses, crime related to the underground market, quality control of the product people are using, etc.

There are no perfect policies, and best practices in marijuana laws continue to evolve, particularly around potency.

Where do we go from here?

We continue to be convinced that allowing adults a broader range of legal options is far less harmful to the individual, their family, and the broader society than the crime, contamination, and incarceration that are part of criminalizing a popular substance like marijuana.

In the words of a sheriff who attended an End It For Good event years ago, “Marijuana is not a gateway drug, but the prosecution of it is a gateway to a destroyed life.”

There’s tension here, just like there is with any activity that can be destructive. As a society, we’ve made peace with the tensions of other higher-risk activities like driving cars, drinking alcohol, and swimming. We let people choose those risky activities while focusing on honest education and reducing risk.

There are no perfect solutions where no one gets hurt. But there are good options where fewer people do, and that’s the mindset we believe can dramatically reduce unnecessary harm related to drugs and addiction.

Why legal access to medical cannabis can make all the difference

Kelsey Parker stood at the podium in the Mississippi State Capitol rotunda in January and shared her story with reporters, legislators, and other advocates for recovery.

For Kelsey, after more than 15 years of active addiction to a range of illicit drugs, and after many attempts at abstinence, she found a path to a healthy life through Mississippi’s medical marijuana program. Don’t stop reading yet!

I know that many people define recovery as complete abstinence, but we’re inviting you to think about the goal of recovery, not the tool used to get there.

If you heard Kelsey’s full story, I think your heart would break over the harm done to her in each season of her life. Abuse is never the survivor’s fault. She takes responsibility for the unhealthy choices she made during those years, but the day-to-day reality of her life was that every time she tried to quit drugs cold turkey, the anxiety and flashbacks to abuse would come roaring back, and she’d use again to keep them at bay.

It’s worth taking a moment to reflect on how unhelpful it is to tell people with Kelsey’s experience to “Just stop using drugs!” Kelsey couldn’t function well with the drugs, but she also couldn’t function well without them. It’s no wonder she describes how she felt at that time as “hopeless.”

Mississippi’s medical marijuana dispensaries opened their doors three years ago this month, and there are now over 67,000 registered patients in the state. Unfortunately, addiction is not a qualifying condition for the program. Fortunately for Kelsey, she had another medical condition that qualified her.

She began using cannabis from a legal dispensary, and was able to stop using all the other drugs that were causing so much harm in her life and family.

You may be thinking what I was thinking as I listened to her story: “If marijuana helped you stop using the other drugs, why didn’t you just buy it on the underground market years ago?!” I asked her about that.

Turns out, she did buy it during those years, but the same dealer that sold marijuana also sold meth, and it wasn’t until she was able to buy marijuana from a legal business that she could disentangle her life from the underground market.

I can’t overstate how important this reality is. The more we incentivize people to try out the illicit market by banning more and more drugs (which just pushes them underground), the more we expose them to the chaos, contamination, and crime that come with that market.

Kelsey has been able to rebuild her life using medical cannabis (cannabis and marijuana are the same thing). She’s happily married, goes to work every day, attends family gatherings, and is rebuilding her relationship with her kids. Isn’t this the goal of recovery – a healthy, thriving life?

Why do we spend so much time focusing on which tool someone uses, instead of aiming for a healthy, thriving life and helping them access a range of tools to get there?

People should never feel ashamed of making healthier choices. They should never feel less-than because the tool they used to restore their health is different from what we expect.

Our hope is that it becomes socially acceptable to use whatever recovery tool works, no matter how unconventional.

Kelsey’s story illustrates two key ideas we believe at End It For Good:

There are many tools for recovery and the focus should be on a healthy, thriving life, not the tool someone uses to get there.
Underground markets are deeply harmful to society in a host of ways. They incentivize crime, lack quality control of products, and have no consumer protections.

Medical marijuana isn’t the solution for every addiction, and legal markets don’t solve all problems. We’re looking for better solutions, not perfect ones (there are none), and I hope Kelsey’s story encourages you to think bigger and broader about recovery and reducing harm.

End It For Good had the honor of helping Kelsey get her recovery story published here, and a text she sent me the day it came out won’t leave my mind. She said, “You know I just never thought I was worthy or good enough or could be anything more than what I was!”

What we believe about recovery affects individuals like Kelsey. It has the power to give hope, save lives, and restore families. And the ripple effect benefits all of us.

Sports Betting and Drugs: A Case for Regulating Risky Behavior

Op-Ed by Christina Dent

As published 2/20/26 in The Northside Sun

Online sports betting is poised to become legal and regulated in Mississippi. Interestingly, the reasons given by many of our legislators for legalizing something that can be incredibly destructive are the same reasons many of us believe illicit drugs should be legalized and regulated.

The reasoning works like this: First, sports betting is happening all over Mississippi all the time, even though it’s illegal. This is true. The same is true of illicit drug use. We’ve spent over one hundred years trying to force people not to use certain drugs, and instead of winning that war, we have illicit drugs that are cheaper, more potent, and more easily accessible than ever. A few taps of a phone screen can get an illicit drug delivered to your door. Making an activity illegal does not stop people from engaging in it.

Second, legalizing online sports betting would allow us to regulate the market and enforce consumer protections. The same is true of illicit drug markets. It is a common mistake to think that the strongest form of regulation is a blanket ban. In reality, the banned market moves underground into a complete free-for-all where 15-year-olds can buy fentanyl. Just like legalizing online sports betting is the only way to regulate that industry, legalizing the market for drugs is the only way to regulate this one. The stakes are actually far higher for drugs because the vast majority of overdose deaths are caused by the lack of quality control in the underground market.

Third, legalizing online sports betting would allow us to tax it. At the risk of stating the obvious, you can’t tax something that’s illegal. The underground drug market is worth hundreds of billions of dollars yearly, but not a dime of that is collected as taxes. The only way we get tax dollars from sports betting is to legalize it. The only way we get tax dollars from the money spent on drugs is to make that transaction legal and regulated.

Fourth, the revenue from sports betting would be directed to a deeply broken PERS system to help the state meet its retirement promises to teachers, law enforcement, etc. The argument that legal sports betting will be a significant benefit to PERS has been so deeply ingrained in this policy discussion that I’ve heard it called “the PERS vote” rather than “the sports betting vote.” Moving drug markets into legal regulation would give us another significant new revenue stream that could be used to further shore up PERS or address one of the many other challenges Mississippi faces.

Fifth and most importantly for our comparison to drugs, leaders are making a distinction between the moral or spiritual concerns they have about sports betting and their belief that it should still be legal. It seems we recognize that personal and religious convictions shouldn’t necessarily dictate the law. Everyone knows that sports betting can be addictive. It can absolutely wreck lives, marriages, families, and futures. But instead of ending the conversation there, we’re weighing the cost of allowing adults to make their own choice about a risky activity against the benefits of regulation, revenue, and fixing PERS. Why not also consider legalizing another activity that can be addictive and destructive, but would be far less deadly and harmful if it were regulated, age-restricted, quality-controlled, and the tax revenue used for good?

Sports betting and drug use are not the same, and they need different regulations to best reduce the harm posed by their unique risks. But both are risky activities that many Mississippians engage in, and they need to be regulated and age-restricted from both public health and public safety standpoints. The wild west of underground markets only increases the risk on both fronts.

I personally am uncomfortable with legal sports betting and legal drugs. But good policy can be uncomfortable, especially when it involves activities about which we have strong moral, religious, or personal opinions. Right now, the only people winning from keeping the betting and drug markets underground are the people raking in cash with no accountability.

We have an opportunity to take both of these markets out of the hands of cartels and other bad actors breaking the law, and move them into the light of rules, regulations, age restrictions, and revenue generation. Regulating reality will move Mississippi forward.

Bombing boats is eroding rights, not stopping drugs.

Today, drugs are more available, higher potency, and harder than ever to determine whether a pill is regulated or contaminated.

In the last several months, the federal government has added a new twist to the current fight to keep drugs out of the US and away from our children. We’ve blown up several boats of suspected drug traffickers. That approach brings up a lot of concerns on a host of fronts, but even if it didn’t, no amount of interdiction or escalation of tactics will ever stop drugs.

In a recent End It For Good podcast episode with Sgt. Terry Blevins (ret.), he shares his experiences of working on both sides of the border in law enforcement and national security training, and one of his points is that consumer demand in the United States for drugs is what keeps them coming. Demand always drives supply.

As long as there’s money to be made, there is an endless supply of people willing to make it. And if we’re willing to allow the government to kill suspected drug traffickers offshore without a trial, how long will it be before we shift to killing them onshore without a trial?

Fundamental values and rights are being eroded in the name of saving people like my sons from drugs. It doesn’t work that way. It will never work.

President Trump knows that opening legal markets for adults to buy regulated drugs is the only way to win the war against trafficking.

The American people don’t need the erosion of our rights and values to keep us safe. We need the protection of our rights and an acknowledgement that the only way to win the drug war is to stop funding the cartels by banning legal markets for popular drugs, rewarding traffickers with billions of dollars.

Not only are legal markets the only way to stop trafficking, they’re the only way to set age restrictions on purchasing and to ensure that even the drugs that minors get their hands on are regulated products instead of fentanyl-laced pills from a clandestine press.

Bombing boats does nothing to stop drugs or keep our kids safe.

Legal, regulated drug markets will do that much more effectively.

Is Human Respect the Key to Fixing Drug Policy?

Christina recently had the chance to talk with Jim Babka, Social Strategist for the Foundation for Harmony and Prosperity (FHP). Jim has spent decades thinking deeply about how we relate to one another in society and how principles – not just policies – shape the way we live.

At the center of FHP’s work is a concept they call the Natural Principle of Human Respect. It’s simple, but powerful: whenever someone experiences coercion, theft, or violence, their happiness, harmony, and prosperity will decline – always. It’s a cause-and-effect relationship, like gravity. Drop an object, and it falls. Use coercion against someone, and their well-being decreases.

That principle leads us to some intriguing questions:

What kind of world could we create if we organized our lives, our communities, and even our policies around human respect?
Could we apply this principle to our cultural and political response to drugs and addiction and dramatically reduce harm?

Listen to the episode

Trust as the Default

Jim pointed out that most of us already live by the Natural Principle of Human Respect, even if we’ve never thought about it or heard it explained. For instance, when we go to a restaurant, we don’t demand to meet the chef and interview them to make sure they won’t poison us. We assume that the people preparing our food are practicing human respect – they mean us no harm. That baseline trust makes daily life possible.

Now imagine extending that same trust more broadly – by allowing people to pursue their own happiness, as long as they don’t harm others in the process. FHP believes that respecting others’ choices, even when they differ from our own, can unlock innovations and opportunities we can’t yet see. As Jim put it, coercion often chokes ideas in the cradle. It keeps potential breakthroughs – whether in technology, medicine, or social connection – from ever coming to life.

From Relationship to “The Conflict Machine”

Instead of choosing relationship, Jim said, most people in our culture often default to politics – what he calls the “conflict machine.” When a problem arises, we don’t ask how communities or individuals might address it. We ask government employees to step in, and that typically results in coercion. Someone pays higher taxes, someone faces new restrictions, and someone sees their freedom curtailed. In the process, neighbors start to see one another as enemies.

We experienced this escalation during the pandemic, when even family dinners could splinter over political or policy differences. Instead of building stronger communities, government coercion leaves us more divided and less trusting.

But human respect points us in a different direction: toward voluntary cooperation, real relationships, and solutions built together. Jim gave the example of Habitat for Humanity – where homeowners, volunteers, and neighbors work side by side. That’s not just problem-solving. It’s community-building.

Human Respect and Drug Policy

So how does this connect to drug policy?

Jim grew up in a world where the message was simple: drugs are bad, ban them all. He has never used illegal drugs, and he’s not promoting drug use. He agrees with End It For Good’s position that drugs should be legal, for the same reason we believe that it should. It reduces harm. Pragmatically, we can see that playing out all around us in underground markets, contaminated substances, and destabilized families. When we criminalize drug possession, we turn a health issue into an armed conflict. But Jim believes the core reason all of this happens is because government coercion like this violates the Natural Principle of Human Respect.

Take psychedelics, for example. Today, there’s promising evidence that they could help veterans and others struggling with PTSD. But decades of government prohibition shut down research that might have saved many lives in the last several decades. Instead of respecting people’s freedom to explore potential healing, prohibition brought about coercion through arrests, incarceration, and punishment. That’s not just lost research. It’s lost lives, lost relationships, lost potential.

And prohibition hasn’t just blocked science. It’s contributed to nearly a million overdose deaths in recent decades because the prohibited products people use are not quality-controlled. They’re contaminated. Every one of those deaths represents a person of potential, someone whose gifts and future contributions were cut short. Respect would look like creating policies that give adults more choices and remove barriers to research.

Laws as Coercion

Many of us don’t think of laws as coercion. We may think of them as teaching tools to signal what society believes is right or wrong. But as Jim mentioned, every law is enforced at the end of a gun. The word “enforcement” itself implies force. Whether through fines, jail time, or ultimately armed officers, laws always come down to coercion.

That doesn’t mean laws have no place. But it should make us pause before reaching for legislation as our first solution. Do we really want to use force to address issues of personal choice or health? Or could we rely more on persuasion, relationship, and community?

Choosing Respect

At the end of the day, the Natural Principle of Human Respect invites us to imagine a better way – not just for drug policy, but for how we treat one another in society. What would it look like if we trusted more, coerced less, and made space for people to pursue their own paths, as long as they don’t harm others? When it’s someone close to us, we tend to have compassion. We see the complexity. We recognize their humanity and needs. But when it’s someone we don’t know, it’s so easy to use force. Respect shouldn’t vanish in public policy.

We can look at drug policy and see the cost of coercion everywhere – lost research, lost lives, broken families. Most of us use the Natural Principle of Human Respect in our daily lives as our default. We recognize that force and coercion don’t tend to work well in relationships or on the job. But the Foundation for Harmony & Prosperity invites us to consider if this is more than a personal ethic. Could it also be a framework for rethinking policies that touch millions of lives and lead to a society marked by more harmony and prosperity? Jim Babka believes the answer is yes. The Foundation for Harmony and Prosperity and its founder, Chris Rufer, are working every day to invite more people to consider this principle. They’re convinced it holds the key to more happiness for more people worldwide. Have they convinced you?

Connect with the Foundation for Harmony and Prosperity

Four doses of HOPE

The last few weeks have been so heavy, with many appalling events, and no matter what side of the political aisle you’re on, it’s felt overwhelming.

Hope can feel elusive when the darkness presses in, so we want to share some of the people and places where HOPE is alive.

Four doses of hope…

Johnnie and Stephanie Turner, who lead Doll’s House Mission Home, in Brookhaven, Mississippi, left their careers 14 years ago to lead this transitional living home for women rebuilding their lives after addiction, incarceration, trafficking, or other devastating experiences.

Christina had the opportunity to visit them and see this work firsthand with MS State Representative Becky Currie two weeks ago (below). Behind them you can see new buildings going up!

At least 20 times during the two hours we were there, Mr. Johnnie brought the conversation back to the necessity of getting to the “why?” of someone’s addiction. It’s not the drugs, it’s the pain those drugs are trying to numb. Johnnie & Stephanie have dedicated their lives to helping women heal from their why.

Susan Ellison (below) came to the Overdose Awareness Vigil on the steps of the Mississippi Capitol on August 31. Although she shares a last name with Kylan Ellison, who’s in the picture she’s holding, they’re not related.

Susan never met Kylan, but she teaches a Bible study at a women’s prison where Kylan’s mother is incarcerated and mentors her through an organization called THE NET. Kylan passed away from an overdose on February 5, 2024. His mother was not allowed to attend her son’s funeral, but she is desperate to keep Kylan from being forgotten. Susan attended the vigil in place of Kylan’s mom, adding his name to the list of loved ones being remembered.

While Christina was in Michigan speaking at several conferences, she was introduced to Stanley (an EMT and trauma nurse who founded Street Outreach Teams), Andy (a harm reduction team leader), and Anna (an epidemiologist). Seeing their passion and compassion for the dignity and value of every person, even in the nitty-gritty of people on the street struggling with complex medical and mental health challenges, was so inspiring.

Also in Michigan, Christina met so many law enforcement officers (a few of them are below) who are shifting the way they police and incorporating harm reduction, diversion programs, and mental health connection points. They all agree that law enforcement tends to resist change, but they want to do what helps their communities most. The data shows that when they implement programs from their nonprofit partner Face Addiction Now, their communities are safer and healthier, and their officers have the satisfaction of truly helping people struggling with addiction.

The takeaway?

If you need more hope in your life, look for what’s happening locally and get involved.

Half of these folks are volunteers and have other day jobs. Not one of them is measuring success by whether or not they change the world. They’re using the time, resources, passion, and skills they have and applying them locally to individuals and families.

We’re bombarded every day with news that can paralyze us. For several years Christina has had a note stuck to her computer monitor that says, “What would I do if I wasn’t afraid?”

Fear is paralyzing. Hope is catalyzing.

Look for good work happening around you and jump in. If you lack time but have resources, just about every nonprofit out there is feeling the financial impact of the chaotic times we’re living in and would love your support, including us!

To paraphrase our new friend Andy in Michigan: Scroll less. Serve more. Connect locally, right where you are.

All of us can be an instrument of healing and peace.

Your thoughts on 7-OH

Last week we asked for your thoughts on the new drug called 7-OH. Responses came in within minutes, and represented a wide range of perspectives.

Here’s a sampling of the responses we got, and our thoughts on your questions and concerns.

But first, if you missed last week’s blog, click below so you’re caught up.

Catch me up!

“I actually got to a point where cannabis wasn’t helping me with my pain from my Iraq injury and 70H has been a lifesaver for me. I got addicted to opiates after coming back from Iraq and getting off was a very miserable and dangerous experience. So I have to be careful about using opiates now for pain. 70H really filled that void for me when I have days that I have bad flareups. I don’t take it every day because I do know that it can be habit forming, But I have not had any side effects from it whatsoever. I know multiple people who are using 70H and all of them are using it for medicinal purposes. I’m sure there are some that are using it recreationally but I don’t know anybody like that.”

“It has impacted my family with my brother in law addicted to it. I classify it as HEROIN. Being Recovered from heroin myself the withdrawals are greater with 7-0.”

“I enjoyed your write up on 7-OH this morning. I went and did some digging and a lot of academics are doing the early work that could pave the way to formal clinical trials in humans. It’s early, but could be promising, so long as DEA doesn’t reschedule as class 1. It really does make research extremely difficult.”

“I know alot of my coworkers in the caregiver industry are using kratom to help them with pain and they don’t use illegal narcotics anymore because they swear by kratom. I haven’t tried it but I think it shouldn’t be banned. It should be studied more and made safe for the public to use. People are in pain. They need help.”

“Don’t believe it should be banned, but should be regulated. It would be less dangerous than Rx opioids.”

“Thank you for this article. I had no idea what Kratom was or 7-OH. Thank you for enlightening me.”

Those responses represent the wide range of perspectives sent to us. Our support for legal regulation of 7-OH addresses every concern raised.

First, for pain patients like the Iraq war veteran, it’s giving him relief with no negative side effects.

Second, loved ones are less likely to get contaminated 7-OH if it’s regulated, and they’re more likely to be able to move past the addiction if they aren’t in prison or shackled with a criminal record because of it.

Third, withdrawals from many drugs can be excruciating, which is why age restrictions on purchasing and honest education about the risks are paramount. Legally regulated sales are the best way to ensure these happen.

Fourth, if the DEA moves 7-OH to Schedule 1, it will make research on it nearly impossible. Don’t we want to know more about something that could be a tool for pain management, opioid addiction, and who knows what else?

Fifth, the word “safety” often comes up when people talk about banning a drug. The problem is, banning throws safety out the window. Legal regulation is what gives us safety options like age gates, potency, purity, labeling, testing, and packaging requirements.

The last response might be our favorite. The writer had no idea what kratom or 7-OH was, and they’ve been reading our letters and now they do. The first step to positive change is understanding the challenges in front of us.

If a drug is potentially harmful, we should want some control over it. That’s what regulation in a legal market offers. 7-OH needs to be regulated, not banned.

If you ban it, be prepared for the wild west where any concoction is sold by anyone to anyone. This is how 15-year-olds get their hands on fentanyl. Bans don’t solve the problem. They increase the risk.

Now that you’ve had a little time to think on it, we’d love to hear more thoughts. What should we do with 7-OH? What resonates with you about our perspective, and where do you think we’re wrong?