This is the reason interview with Nick Gillespie. I'm Billy Binion, guest hosting for Nick.

Our guest this week is Christina Dent, whose organization, End It for Good, seeks to change the

approach to addiction from a criminal justice issue to a health-centered one. But Dent is not your typical

anti-drug war activist. She's an evangelical Christian who believes

legalizing drugs is the conservative thing to do, a position she adopted after an encounter

she had as a foster mom. Dend and I talked about her conservative religious upbringing, the

surprising history of the war on drugs, how the current approach to substance abuse fuels crime, misconceptions

about people struggling with addiction, and why prohibition is actually a progressive response.

She has also offered to send a copy of her recent memoir, Curious, free of charge, to anyone

interested in learning more, which you can request at curious at end it for good.com.

And now to the reason interview with Christina Dent.

Christina Dent, thank you for talking to Reason.

Thanks, Billy. It's really great to be here. Okay, so I want to start with the low-hanging

fruit. You are an evangelical Christian. Yep. You are conservative in both your politics and in your

theology. Yep. You believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God. Why is ending the drug war

your issue of choice then?

Yeah, that was a winding journey, not something I ever thought I would be working on, for sure.

I was born and raised in Mississippi. I've lived here my whole life, and yeah, all of those things are true.

And as part of that, the culture I grew up in was in the 80s and 90s, very much

kind of tough on drugs, tough on crime. That all sounded great to me. I could not fathom a world where

somebody wouldn't want that. I just couldn't even put that in my mind. And part of that culture

was this view of people who use drugs that was they are

...