Destinations

After successful work in western China, Doug and Anna Boyle found themselves in Kazakhstan. Seeing a nation in need, God helped them to pioneer what has become one of the fastest growing Teen Challenge centres in all the world.

Seeing drug addiction stealing the lives of men and devastating families Doug and Anna founded Kazakhstan’s first Teen Challenge Center that began to provide residential care.

This year we celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Teen Challenge Kazakhstan. We have much to be thankful for: Broken lives restored, families together again, parents’ hopes renewed as one by one addicted men and women choose life instead of death. Over the past 10 years Kazakhstan has passed through difficult times but is now entering a time of unprecedented prosperity as we begin to reap the harvest of social, spiritual, economic and political reforms sown by our leaders.

I am convinced that Kazakhstan will go forward. However not everything in Kazakhstan is getting better and drug addiction is one of them. The streets of our cities are awash with narcotics and in spite of the authorities’ best efforts the situation is not improving.

“Why do people use drugs when they know well the dangers?” is a question I have often been asked during 30 years of working with addicts. I have heard many good answers from psychiatrists, psychologists, doctors, community leaders, friends and family. Most refer to some kind of painful experience or circumstance the addict has gone through, most often within family relationships. As a result many addicts’ families feel a sense of failure and guilt. Counselling reveals that many addicts carry deep hurts that need to be addressed. All of us are hurt by other peoples’ actions and most of these are by people we love and trust. Though many parents blame themselves for the addiction of their children, the truth is even the best parents make mistakes. But does that make them guilty for the negative lifestyle choices of their kids? You know there is a way for people to get free from these hurts without using drugs to take away the pain.

Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy suggests “Let us forgive each other–only then will we live in peace”. Psychiatrists and psychologists agree that a major reason people use drugs is to find peace from the anxiety after abuse and deep hurts have occurred in relationships. When someone hurts you, you can choose to become anxious, angry and bitter, or, you can forgive, relax, let it go and get on with your life. But forgiveness needs to be taught, it does not come naturally. When you don’t forgive people for the hurts they cause you, this pain lives in you and affects your relationships with others and eventually with yourself. Why should we allow other peoples’ mistakes to control us years after they hurt us? As Desmond Tutu said “Without forgiveness, there’s no future”. Practicing forgiveness gives us power over our future and releases us from the pain of the past. If as parents we have failed our kids in any way, perhaps it is that we have failed to teach them how to forgive. As Confucius advised more than two thousand years ago, “Forget injuries, never forget kindness”. All human beings have these kinds of experiences, not all become drug addicts. Family abuse and hurt may be a trigger but it is not the reason people use drugs.

So why do people use drugs? Let’s change the question a bit. Why do people drive cars when we know they are very dangerous? The United Nations lists death from motor accidents as the third largest killer on earth. Why do people use toothpaste? When I was working in China in 1991 toothpaste was almost unheard until Colgate began producing it. A newspaper article said that every year 65 million people in China begin using toothpaste for the first time! But for thousands of years they got by without it. Why do people smoke cigarettes? In the 19th century almost no one smoked but today tobacco is the narcotic world’s largest killer taking around 2 million lives each year and another 10 million becoming physically handicapped. Yet people continue to smoke and governments continue to allow the production and sale of tobacco. No normal person would argue that using narcotics brings any real benefit, yet the reason people use narcotics is the same reason we use anything. It is easy to look for deeper reasons because we see how destructive heroin is and yet we don’t apply the same standards to tobacco which kills many more people. Can you imagine sending someone to a psychiatrist because they smoke? And can you imagine that psychiatrist telling the smoker they smoke because of some trauma which they suffered within their family?

Why do people use heroin, cars, toothpaste, cigarettes or anything? Because it’s there! It is basic human weakness and a law of economics that makes our world go around. Supply creates demand. This takes me back to my opening point that narcotics are everywhere in our neighbourhoods.So, how can we reduce the current high levels of addiction? Only by reducing supply. In 1995 according to the UNDCP Afghanistan exported 500 metric tons of narcotics and by 2000 it had increased to 5,000 metric tons per year. With the fall of the Taliban the international community promised a reduction in narcotics exports and yet UNDCP say that in 2005 Afghanistan will export more narcotics than ever before. The result is that our children will continue to be the victims of addiction in large numbers for as long as the world continues to allow the production of opium on such a large scale. Only the great Powers can stop this wicked export and there seems no political will to do this, only talk.

The work of TCK and other rehab programs will continue to be very important for Kazakhstan and TCK remains committed to helping you and your families as you suffer a pain that only you can know. May God repay those who grow, export and sell opium for what they have done. May God have mercy on us and may He see the tears of weeping mothers, hear their cries and deliver us from this evil.

- Doug Boyle, 2005. Copy courtesy of Kazakhstan Teen Challenge