the tara bixby podcast 62. End the War on Drugs for Good With Christina Dent
Christina Dent is a politically conservative Christian, born and raised in Mississippi, who supported criminalizing drugs until she became a foster parent and saw the negative effects up close. She went on a journey to learn why drug-related harm wasn't decreasing and became convinced it's because the criminal justice system is the wrong tool for addressing drugs.
In 2017, she began hosting book discussions in her home state of Mississippi using Johann Hari's book "Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs." Those discussions grew to hundreds of people, which led to End It For Good becoming a nonprofit in 2019. Christina invites people to explore how addressing drugs and drug use as a complex health issue could dramatically reduce crime, overdose deaths, and the destabilization of families.
Christina founded End It For Good from the same passion that led her to foster care – helping children, families, and communities thrive. She isn't advocating drug use. She's advocating approaches to drugs that prioritize life and the opportunity to thrive.
Today, we're chatting about...
- What inspired Christina to do this work
- Drug use in prison
- Christina's thoughts on using the criminal justice system to address drugs
- The causes and effects of drug harm
- How we have forced drugs underground by criminalizing it
- What happens when you criminalize a substance
- Why we should stop looking for the perfect solution to reducing harm
- The reason so many people are dying from fentanyl
- What our number one goal should be
- Why alcohol is no better than any other illegal substance
- Why you don’t have to change political parties or leave your face to support the decriminalizing of drugs
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