Rocky Mountain High

In legalizing recreational marijuana use, Colorado and Washington state are engaged in a foolish experiment that will have terrible repercussions. (Colorado's law has been called "a springboard for other states.") I know the repercussions of this all too well, having been a drinker and drug user before I was saved. I began drinking at age 16 and it had a fearful effect on my youth, reinforcing and amplifying a teenager's innate sense of lawlessness and indestructibility. Stationed in Vietnam in the Army in 1970-71, I became a marijuana user. After I was discharged, I was immersed in the hippy rock & roll drug culture, joining a large percentage of my generation on the Beatles' very stupid Magical Mystery Tour. Liquor is a powerful, transformational drug, but marijuana changed my thinking more than liquor. It is a psychoactive drug with hallucinogenic properties. It is not an innocent play thing. It can mess with the depths of a man's soul. Not everyone has bad experiences with the drug, but a lot do. It affects people differently, but depression, intense anxiety, and paranoid fear are common side effects, and acute psychosis is not infrequent. It has often been labeled a "gateway" drug, and it was definitely that for me. It removed inhibitions and led to the use of other drugs. The American Medical Association has warned that "cannabis is a dangerous drug and as such is a public health concern. ... Heavy cannabis use in adolescence causes persistent impairments in neuro-cognitive performance and IQ, and use is associated with increased rates of anxiety, mood, and psychotic-thought disorders." The nation is already filled with people who are addicted to liquor and drugs. What folly to encourage even more of this. Public polls show that there has been a dramatic increase in support for the legalization of marijuana in recent years, but this is not driven by properly informed wisdom. It is driven by the influence of the pop culture, the entertainment industry, an educational system devoted to moral relativism, a society that celebrates scofflaws, and the gross lack of wisdom typically reflected in mainstream media reporting. "The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall. ... It is as sport to a fool to do mischief: but a man of understanding hath wisdom. ... The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise. ... A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident. ... A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool" (Proverbs 10:8, 23; 12:15; 14:16; 17:10).

(Friday Church News Notes, January 10, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

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