Reverend James Disney Thompson on Why California Must Address Drug Deaths

Why Pope Francis and Catholics View Preventing Drug Addiction,Overdoses, and Poisonings as a High Priority”

Rev. James Disney Thompson, O.P.

Promoter of Justice & Peace for the Western Dominican Province

August 16, 2021 – California State Capitol, Sacramento

In the language of Tolkien’s fantasy The Lord of the Rings, we might think that the problems of our times reflect Mordor’s preparation for total war against all free peoples. The Hobbit Frodo discussed the looming threat of Mordor with the wizard Gandalf, and part of the conversation went like this: 

            “I wish it need not have happened in my time”, said Frodo.

            “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. And, already, Frodo, our time is beginning to look black.

 Or if we prefer an image from the Bible, in the book of Revelation, the Great Dragon with his mirror image the worldly Beast knows his time is short, and seeks to persecute and destroy all who object to the downward spiral of the world system. 

 Either image might capture the overwhelming sense of helplessness and hopelessness that we see in our cities. This gloom of doom is made visible in the squalor of tent cities. Less visibly, it manifests individually in the despair felt when loved ones get trapped in addictions, and the profound grief when such poisons as fentanyl take their lives. But the victory of engulfing evils is not inevitable. People of good will can unite, resist, and even turn things around. That is what we are about today. Decline can be reversed. Failed policies can be replaced with workable solutions. Movements can be initiated to bring about the truly human good.

 In 2018, Pope Francis addressed an international conference on “Drugs and Addictions: An Obstacle to Integral Human Development”. There Pope Francis used some very strong language about the social menace of those who gain from selling such things as fentanyl; he called them Traffickers of Death. Human trafficking is bad enough, but to poison people for money? Yes, such are Traffickers of Death. 

 But what exactly does “integral human development” mean? This means the freedom for the holistic growth of individuals into human maturity that combines personal, social, civic, and spiritual virtues leading to the freedom to become the best person we can. It is a path to personal excellence that we naturally admire when we meet it in others, but often don’t know how to achieve for ourselves. Nevertheless, Traffickers of Death ensure that many people never get the chance even to begin achieving any human excellences, let alone a fully integral human development.

 In that same address Pope Francis said something that exactly pins down what Mothers Against Drug Deaths and the California Peace Coalition seek to accomplish. He called for “greater coordination of anti-drug and anti-addiction policies – we do not need isolated policies: it is a human problem, it is a social problem, everything must be linked – by creating networks of solidarity and proximity towards those who are affected by these diseases”. He described “an urgent need to establish in the contemporary world a form of humanism that will bring the human person back to the centre of socio-economic-cultural discourse”. Amen to that! As the Bible says, “the love of money is the root of all evil”. Unless the human good is primary in a culture and in policies of governance, the common good cannot be achieved. 

 In Catholic spirituality we recognize that trials, disappointments, and even great evils in life can be turned to good purpose. We take Jesus’ command “Take up your cross and follow me” as central to our understanding of the world. We believe that God can turn even so great an evil as the crucifixion of Jesus to good purpose. And so great good can also arise from the present crisis. Even in the middle of great pain and tremendous trials, a little hope goes a long ways. A little faith, even as small as a mustard seed, can make great things happen, and a little love can give us the strength of will to exercise that faith and expand our hope to undo the curse of addiction and eradicate the indignity of homelessness with workable solutions. 

 So now let us lift up our minds to the God of All Consolation, and invoke his merciful assistance:

Gracious God, Father of All Mercies, 

bless this new initiative by Mothers Against Drug Deaths 

and the California Peace Coalition. 

We pray that You grant all involved the clarity to recognize the best steps

forward to alleviate addictions, reclaim aimless lives, 

and stop the plague on our society of the ready availability of the poison fentanyl.

And shown this way forward, 

grant us all the will to carry these actions through to happy completion

through Your bountiful, invisible grace.

We ask all this in hope, faith, love and human solidarity. Amen.