Is America going to pot?

Since California legalized the use of medical marijuana in 1996, 12 other states have followed in its footsteps.  Some lawmakers in the state of Illinois are now hoping to be added to that number.  Although it passed a law in the 1970s legalizing medical marijuana, the law was ignored and never enforced, but that may soon change, if some members of the Illinois House get their way.  An Illinois House committee recently voted to bring the issue before the whole Illinois House for a vote.

I’m sure the advocates for the legalization of marijuana are wringing their hands in glee, hoping for another victory.  Those who back the idea of legalization often use the Netherlands as their prime example of how things should be in the United States.  What they often forget to mention is that the sell and use of cannabis in the Netherlands which is sold in the coffee shops there is technically illegal, the law is just not enforced.  They also conveniently don’t mention that in recent years, problems have arisen in the Netherlands with the sell and use of cannabis that have caused the government to rethink their policies and a large number of the cannabis coffee shops have been closed down while the government decides how to make changes they deem necessary.

There have been problems with drug tourism when potheads coming in from other countries get high and harass some of the local citizens.  These drug tourists have also been attempting to smuggle their stash of drugs out of the Netherlands into countries where it is illegal.  So much for the utopia that pot smokers want us to believe the Netherlands are.

Germany, where smoking cannabis is popular, has seen an increase in problems caused by marijuana.  With the Netherlands bordering on Germany, it is easy for potheads (who are mostly younger) to cross the border into the Netherlands to get high.  Experts who monitor drug use in Germany say cannabis users are starting at increasingly younger ages.  It was estimated in 2006 that  approximately 400,000 Germans were psychologically addicted to the drug or are heavy users.   A greater number of young people who use marijuana are experiencing heart palpitations, sudden sweating, and anxiety/panic attacks.  There have also been a larger number of marijuana smokers visiting drug clinics complaining of being burned out or severely depressed.

Modern day cannabis has been cultivated to yield contents of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the ingredient that gives it its kick, up to 20-25% whereas marijuana plants back in the hippie days rarely had more than 10% THC content.  In Bremen, Germany, the Brain Research Institute has shown in its studies that cannabis use during puberty can lead to long-term damage like lack of motivation and disturbances in memory.  Research at the Central Institute of Mental Health, also in Germany, has revealed that smoking pot can cause schizophrenia.

And if there’s still any doubt about the harmful effects of using marijuana, the Oct. 1, 2008 issue of the journal Sleep revealed a clear link between insomnia and the use of cannabis or alcohol and harder drugs in teens and young adults.  This insomnia tied to cannabis use also showed an increase in depression and suicidal tendencies in these teens and young adults.

Some states, like California and Arizona, that have legalized medical marijuana have experienced an increase in criminal offenses involving the drug in recent years.  They have also witnessed their national parks being used by Mexican drug cartels as pot farms.  The legalization of medical marijuana is just a stepping stone to legalize all marijuana use, and ultimately, all illegal drugs.  It encourages a mentality among potheads that says, “If patients can use marijuana for their problems, I should be able to legally use it too.”  Thus legalization of medical marijuana drives the demand for the typical use of marijuana, to get stoned, which often leads to demand for harder drugs.  And it’s this heightened desire and demand in the U.S. that has furiously fueled the Mexican drug war.

In the end, arguments in favor of marijuana legalization such as its regulation would reduce sales or usage, or that it would dry up the underground market, or that drug arrests are racist, or that information against using pot is wrong, or that drug enforcement is too costly, are all unreliable arguments.  Legalization of pot will not end the black market it fuels any more than the laws and regulations upholding our movie, music, and fashion industries have ended the billions of dollars in pirating and knock-offs of those lucrative industries. Should we legalize slavery again because human trafficking has shown dramatic increases and also generates a lot of money on the black market?

The tendency to use the failure of Prohibition against alcohol isn’t much of an argument either.  Once Prohibition ended, we inherited a whole host of other problems like drunk driving injuries and deaths, domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, underage drinking, and binge drinking.  Did legalization of prostitution really benefit Nevada as they claimed it would?  All it did was help crime rates increase in Las Vegas and helped increase human trafficking in the U.S.  Likewise, pot legalization will only do more harm.

The use of drugs to get high is simply, as I’ve said in a previous post, the sin of sorcery mentioned in the Bible.  They were used in ancient times by pagans who wanted to enter an altered state of consciousness to contact their devilish spirit guides or gods and are still used for the same reasons today.   It’s Satan’s subtle way of unleashing more of his evil angels to affect mankind’s decisions for his own evil purposes.  In my opinion, all this fuss about the benefits of legalizing pot isn’t worth the nickel bags that marijuana users were smoking when they thought it up.

–posted by Harry A. Gaylord–

Sources: Crime in Arizona Reports, State of Arizona, Dept. of Public Safety

California Department of Justice, Criminal Justice Statistics Center

Dutch Coffee Shops Close as Authorities Weed out Drug Tourists, Deutsche Welle, 29.04.2007

Netherlands: Efficiency of Drugs Policy Under Scrutiny, Global Legal Monitor, Law Library, Library of Congress, March 2, 2008

Soft Drugs With Hard Consequences, Deutsche Welle, 14.05.2006

Adolescent Insomnia Linked To Depression And Substance Abuse During Adolescence And Young Adulthood, ScienceDaily, October 5, 2008

Rehab is ok, but Christ’s salvation is better

Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin? Proverbs 20:9

Entertainment news in the Western Hemisphere seems to be chock full of the latest information on what celebrity has checked into rehab, going through rehab, or coming out of rehab.  It seems that we love to hear stories about people who struggle, but are willing to change their bad habits in order to become positive contributors to our society.  I think it’s great when a person can reform to kick their alcohol, drug, or other addictive habits to better themselves.  However, there is also a negative side to all of the focus on checking into rehab.

When a person emerges from rehab successfully, there may be a tendency for that person to think that now that they’ve kicked their habit, everything is fine.  They are given the false impression that they are now ”clean” when the exact opposite may be true.  Most rehab programs, especially the ones that celebrities enter into, do not get to the real reason why a person gives in to their destructive behavior.  They are not told that they inherited a sinful nature that craves evil things.  Nor are they told about Jesus Christ, who is the only one that can truly deliver them and make their hearts (souls) truly clean.  Their bad behavior is a spiritual problem and unless it is confronted by the power of the Holy Spirit, there is always the danger that relapses will occur.

Then there are celebrities who emerge from rehab who are fine for a brief moment, but then quickly go back to their evil habits.  In public they have to put on an act for the cameras as if they have really been cured, but in reality they may have only learned how to hide their habits better.  Behind closed doors, they are the same.  They also are in need of the healing and cleansing touch of the Lord Jesus Christ.

No one on this planet has the power to cleanse their own sinful heart.  Without Jesus Christ, those who come out of rehab are like whitewashed tombs who look good on the outside, but inside are full of death.  There is nothing but spiritual emptiness inside of them.  From a Biblical perspective the successful graduate of a rehab program may be worse off spiritually than when they entered because they could easily deceive themselves into thinking they don’t need God since they are cured.  I think Jesus said it best with these words:

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out.  And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished.  Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.  Luke 11:24-26

Altered minds, altered spirits: the drug trade

In the past few decades, there has been a push to legalize marijuana and to minimize the severity of using psychotropic drugs.  Of course, as with any other evil in our land, Hollywood and others with media access (including the porn industry) have been at the forefront of this movement.  Although there have been some movies about the dangers of drugs, there have also been many movies released making light of the use of illicit drugs and portraying drug users as being the life of the party.  Even with the U.S. government spending into the trillions of dollars in the war on drugs, they continue to be a persistent problem. 

Why does the use of drugs still persist?  Because the desire for drugs comes from the wickedness that is inherent in the hearts of mankind.  It is a reflection of a spiritual problem and man’s desire to resist God.  However, the demand for drugs also comes from, and is promoted by, the religion of witchcraft.  Whether we call it shamanism, sorcery, voodoo, ESP, psychic powers, astrology, wizardry, satanism, or witchcraft, it has for centuries been behind the use of mind-altering drugs.  Psychotropic drugs are used as part of their rituals so they can put themselves into altered states of consciousness (trances) to get in touch with the spirit realm.  They choose to be ignorant of the fact that the familiar spirits they are contacting for wisdom are none other than Satan and his evil angels.  But their so-called wisdom is foolishness in the eyes of the true and living God.

Satan and his angels transform themselves into angels of light.  Since practicers of witchcraft in their early stages deny his existence or God’s existence, they deceive themselves and open themselves up to be easily deceived by the devil.  And so they are willing victims, letting him lead them by the hand down the road to destruction.  Drug usage also leaves a person open for devils to possess them.  The person may be told by their familiar spirit that if they let him or her take control, they will experience more power than they ever imagined, thus the possession begins.

The New Testament reveals to us how intertwined the use of drugs are with witchcraft.  Wherever the words witchcraft or sorcery are used, it is the Greek word pharmakeia which means the use of or administering of drugs.  Shamans claim that when they administer the drugs as the spirit guide tells them,  healing results.  However, witches have also been known to poison and poisoning is also implied in the word pharmakeia.  We actually derive our English word “pharmaceutical” from this word.  Sorcerers, witches, and shamans were the original drug dealers.  They, in essence, had control of their people because they could use their drugs to alter their minds and display deceptive magical powers given to them by Satan.

So, you see, Satan is the god behind the illegal drug industry.  It has been rumored from time-to-time that those who run the drug cartels are involved in satanism and/or witchcraft.  Based on what the word of God says, it would not surprise me if this was proven to be true.  Nevertheless, for all the power these shamans may display, God’s power is much stronger.  Those who are in bondage to drugs and the spirits behind them can have their shackles of sin broken by the Lord Jesus Christ when they confess that he is Lord and believe in their hearts God raised him from the dead, accepting his death as the ultimate sacrifice for their sins.

“There shall not be found among you any one … that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.  For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.  Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.  For these [heathen] nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times [astrologers], and unto diviners [psychics]: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.” (Deuteronomy 18:10-14)

“And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?  To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” (Isaiah 8:19-20)

“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers [pharmakeia], and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8)

“For without [outside of God's kingdom] are dogs, and sorcerers [pharmakeia], and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” (Revelation 22:15)

“For this purpose the Son of God [Jesus Christ] was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8b)