End It For Good

3 objections to reform: "Doesn't prison help some people?" "Isn't decriminalizing use better than legalizing the substance?" and "Haven't we gone far enough on drug policy reform?" We answer these objections on today's show. 

Catharine Cooper shares the powerful story of how criminalization of drugs - not the drugs themselves - changed the trajectory of her son's life. 

Christina and Mike answer the listener question, “What would the world look like if all drugs were legal, and why is that the world you want your kids to live in?”

End It For Good's Christina Dent joins the Now. See. Hear. podcast with Jack Criss for a special guest podcast, to discuss why the issue of how we approach drugs is so important, and what changed her mind on it. 

Chief Mike Ward has spent his career in law enforcement, but was frustrated at how little they could do to help so many of the people they came in contact with, particularly people struggling with drug addiction. So he did something they had never done before, and successfully changed the landscape of police response in their community.  

Timothy King is the author of "Addiction Nation: What the opioid crisis reveals about us." He shares the conversation that started him on the path to recovery, and what changed his mind about the Drug War.

Timothy McMahan King, author of the new book "Addiction Nation," explores the transformative power of grace, how Christians can respond to the war on drugs, and why our world may have looked very different had the drug war raged while William Wilberforce was alive. 

Bridgette Walton spent years using drugs, with multiple run-ins with the law. She shares her journey of hope - from a life in active addiction, through sobriety and relapse, and now in long-term recovery.

Dr. Scott MacDonald is the lead doctor at Crosstown Clinic in Vancouver, which provides prescription heroin to heroin-addicted people. "We see lives transformed on a daily basis," he says. How is this possible with an approach so counter-intuitive? He joins us on the podcast today. 

Fred & Pauline Rogers both spent time in prison. After they were released, they met, married, and have been on a mission to help other incarcerated people navigate re-entry and rebuild their lives, with a 0% recidivism rate.

A frequent reason for removing children from their parents' custody and putting them in foster care is "drugs." Kelly Williams is an attorney who has worked in all aspects of child custody and joins us to unpack why kids are removed, why that can happen unnecessarily, and how we can approach child custody and drugs in ways that help families heal.

This isn't the story of 1 woman on a mission. It's the story of a woman finding a movement waiting to be given a voice. Join us as we paint the picture of how End It For Good was born, why it's grown so quickly, and what we're aiming for as the movement builds. 

How does a country so enmeshed in drug prohibition actually change its laws? If you've ever thought, "This all sounds great, but a legal market will never happen," you need to know about the "crazy bucket." Join us today to explore how these ideas become reality.

In Mississippi, a minor can agree to become a Confidential Informant without their parents even knowing, much less consenting. Dr. Lt. James Nolan spent years as a drug enforcement officer, performing undercover work himself, and joins us to unpack what a CI is, the fear that is leveraged to get participants, and why these programs are so damaging to community trust and ultimately public safety. 

Journalist Alex Berenson released a new book titled "Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence." Dr. Sheila Vakharia PhD LMSW joins us to answer the question, "Does it cause those things?" Dr. Vakharia is a Researcher in the Office of Academic Engagement at the Drug Policy Alliance. 

Detective Howard Wooldridge spent years enforcing the War on Drugs. Today, he travels the country advocating for a legal, regulated market for all drugs. What changed his mind and why is he so passionate about reform?

Our reponse to articles published by Desiring God and the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission of the Southern Baptist Church on marijuana.

Dr. Alexander, who has spent 50 years studying addiction, joins us to talk about poverty of the spirit as a driver of addiction, and how recovery can happen in a thousand ways, helped along by people just like us.

Dr Bruce Alexander spearheaded Rat Park, a revolutionary experiment that proved the drivers of addiction are far different than what we've been taught. He then spent nearly 50 years researching the causes and solutions to addiction in Vancouver, the city with the highest concentration of drug-addicted people in Canada.  

Seth Still was born and raised in Mississippi, and now pastors a church in the Mississippi Delta where he sees some of the collateral damage from the Drug War in his church and community. Justice, mercy, becoming better listeners, and how people on the margins experience our churches are part of today's conversation.  

The herbal supplement Kratom has been banned in multiple states and now in several counties in Mississippi. As the Drug War tries to expand its targets to include Kratom, we explore why keeping it legal is important for public safety and for reducing any potential for harm from the substance itself. 

Not everyone who is dependent on a substance is addicted to it, and not everyone who wants to be sober should stop using all opioids. Dr. Singer, a senior fellow at the CATO Institute, clarifies why he believes research supports these statements and why it's crucial we understand these concepts if we want to curb our overdose epidemic. 

Dr. Jeffrey Singer, Senior Fellow at The Cato Institute, joins us to answer, “If we’re in an overdose crisis from prescription opioids, how would legalizing all drugs help us?” Dr. Singer explains why we’ve misunderstood what’s happening today, why that misunderstanding is causing more people to die, and what we can do to reverse the trend and save lives. 

Our cultural stereotype of "typical addict" is someone who is homeless, jobless, whose life is visibly broken. But who are the people behind that stigmatized label and how can we best help them? Liz Evans has spent her career learning and living out those answers.

Heroin-Assisted treatment, giving pure heroin to heroin-addicted people in a clinic alongside support services, is DECREASING addiction and death. Why is something so counter-intuitive working? Johann Hari walks us through the research on legalized heroin and recovery, and the vision for each of us using the voice we have to effect change, because "Courage calls to courage everywhere."