Gary W. Summers
INTRODUCTION
The following statistics were provided by Tom Wacaster and are found in Studies in Ezekiel, published in 2012.
- 1 of 4 surveyed Americans of the age range 26-34 has already taken drugs.
- Minnesota Institute for Public Health and drug prevention resource center informs that 5,000 grown-ups in America take cocaine for the first time daily (1985).
- The statistics show that 22-25 million people have already taken cocaine at least one time. Different interrogation data tell that there are more than two million cocaine-takers in America nowadays….
- Cocaine is the reason for over the half of visits for emergency rooms where drug taking is concerned.
- Every year the number of cocaine addicts has been gradually growing for the recent time. For 1975 this number was 30,000. In 1986 it has grown to 300,000 and to 361,000 in 2000….
- 8.2% of high school pupils surveyed in 2001 told they had already taken cocaine.
- Men take cocaine twice as much as women take it. Special informal agencies for the office of National Drug Control Policy tell that the amount of constant cocaine addicts is over 3.6 million people.
- Juveniles from 18-25 is the group with which the using of cocaine is the most popular….
- About 300,000 babies were born in 1988 spoiled with cocaine (374).
Some readers may muse that these are interesting statistics, but the topic was supposed to deal with marijuana. Right. One more statistic makes all of the above rele-vant, however: “The amount of people who have taken marijuana before using cocaine is 90%” (374). Some people continue to waste time arguing over whether or not mari-juana is a gateway drug. The New York Times, for example, as recently as July 26-27, 2014, erroneously affirmed that marijuana is not a gateway drug; however, the statistics say otherwise. According to The O’Reilly Factor, a “Yale study shows adolescents who use pot are three times more likely to use hard drugs than kids who don’t” (July 18, 2014). These statistics provide an eloquent answer on the issue. Of course, 10% of cocaine addicts just plunged right in and skipped marijuana use altogether, but 90% of them had tried marijuana first and were enticed to use something stronger. Marijuana is reportedly very easy to obtain. If the writer of this article were so inclined (and he is not remotely interested!), he could have some “weed” for his personal use in a matter of hours. And that is in a state where (at the time of the writing of this manuscript) it is currently illegal—even for medicinal purposes. Florida will have the chance to vote on that very issue just one month from publication.
How harmless is marijuana? Is it just for a good time and no worse than alcohol? Couldn’t we use the tax revenues that come from the sale of the “product”? Shouldn’t people who are sick have access so that their pain and suffering could be alleviated? It looks as though our society will continue its breakdown by legalizing pot, but what are the arguments? What ought to be considered concerning this subject?
THE RATIONALE FOR LEGALIZING MARIJUANA
Proponents of smoking pot have been advocating its use since the 1960s—with Cheech and Chong glamorizing the practice in their 1978 film, Up in Smoke. At that time (1977-1979), Joseph A. Califano, Jr., became Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. He has since written at least two books in opposition to the use of drugs: High Society—How Substance Abuse Ravages America and What To Do About It, published in 2007, and How To Raise A Drug Free Kid—The Straight Dope for Parents, published in 2009. People were concerned about marijuana use fifty years ago, but Califano points out in How to Raise A Drug Free Kid that today’s pot is ten times more potent than the stuff the Hippies were using back in the 1960s (The O’Reilly Factor, 9-15-14). The push to legalize marijuana today is ten times (or more) greater than back then, also, because the media, by and large, has jumped on board to support it.
Medical Marijuana
Many in Florida want to legalize marijuana for “medicinal” purposes. At the fore-front of the fight is the law firm, Morgan and Morgan. On October 13, 2013, Spiritual Perspectives published the article, “Morgan and Morgan: For the Stoned People.” Be-low is an excerpt from it:
According to the Orlando Sentinel of September 26, 2013, attorney John Morgan is speaking out on behalf of medical marijuana. His main argument seems to be that the painkiller, OxyContin (whose active ingredient is oxycodone), is worse. According to him, it kills 16,000 people a year and makes addicts out of many more (B2). He claims that marijuana is “comparatively harmless and more effec-tive.”
He may have a point about the dangers of the legal drug. According to the article, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta reported that “there were 16,651 opioid analgesic overdose deaths nationwide in 2010.” It is the chief cause of overdose deaths in the state of Florida. While addiction to painkillers (especially when leading to death) is certainly something that needs to be looked into, it does not justify the use of marijuana.
Morgan insists that the illegal drug is good for “ALS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, epilepsy, all sorts of chronic pain.” It may be, but has he shown that nothing else is available? Will no medication render the benefits marijuana does?
In other words, are these the only two options—OxyContin or marijuana? Is no one doing any research in this field? Legalizing marijuana for medical purposes sounds like the compassionate thing to do, and if it were carefully administered, we might agree to legalize it temporarily until more appropriate and affordable treatments were availa-ble. However, in cities where it is legal, just about anyone can get a prescription for it, and then it is resold on the street. What began as compassion proves to be nothing more than furnishing a helpful end run around the law. This is not speculation; in places where medicinal marijuana has been tried, the floodgates have been opened. Further-more, a report was published recently in the Orlando Sentinel (Powers) of a video of John Morgan addressing a crowd in a barroom. He called his opponents whores, re-ferred to his van as a “marijuana bus,” and anticipated smoking a lot of grass. Legaliz-ing medical marijuana is obviously just a pretext for many.
Legalizing Marijuana for Everyone
Colorado and the state of Washington voted to make marijuana legal last year, and now both states are several months into this “experiment.” The results of the legalization will be given shortly, but first, what arguments were made to persuade the population to vote in such an irresponsible manner?
- The tax revenues the state will receive will be a great bonus. Really? Is there any vice that has not been “sold” this way? Remember when states decided to go with lotteries? “Oh, what a bonanza this will be to our coffers! Since no one will be forced to buy lottery tickets, it will be entirely voluntary. Only those who want to play the lottery will be paying the taxes. How cool is that! The money can be used to fund education, and it will relieve current property owners.” So, how did that work out for us? Poor people got even poorer (since they buy the majority of the tickets), and no one knows what happened to all the tax money. Did anyone’s taxes ever go down? Can anyone point to what all the money collected went for? Do we not continue to hear how much schools are in dire need of money? When advocates of casino and riverboat gambling were trying to entice the public to legalize those forms of “entertainment,” they pledged that the community would ben-efit from the tax dollars that would accrue to the state. Whenever dry counties have urged voters to make them “wet,” they have called upon the same argument. Oh, yes, we collect a great deal of tax money on alcohol, but some experts claim that for every dollar taken in, five are spent in dealing with alcohol-related problems.
- The other main argument is, “Marijuana is no worse than alcohol.” Oh, there’s a comfort. How many Americans have been totally shielded from the results of a driv-er who had been drinking? Below are just a few instances.
- In the early 1980s, as children were dismissed for the day from school in Peoria, Illinois, they were walking home as usual. One road leading away from an ele-mentary school was a narrow two-lane road without sidewalks, but only parents of students would be driving cars at that time of day. One mother had picked up her child and was barreling toward her house when she struck and killed a girl who would forever remain eight years old. The woman was drunk—at 3:00 in the afternoon. Her daughter had to inform her she hit a child, and she replied, “Why didn’t the brat watch where she was going?”
- In the mid-90s a girl about to graduate from high school never did. She was on her way after school to pick up her class ring when she was struck and killed by a driver who had been drinking—during the day.
- About that same time, a member of the church moved from Maryland to this area to be near her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. She became a member here at South Seminole. One evening her family’s car was struck by a drunk driver. The husband and children survived, but her daughter did not. Our sister grieved this loss of her daughter ever afterward.
- In the original year of this One Day Lectureship (2005), this writer reported on an event that had just occurred.
This year’s Power lectureship book (Southaven, Mississippi) was dedicated to Ethan Eric Bayless, whose life only extended to the age of 2½ years. His family’s car was rear-ended by a drunk driver who promptly fled the scene. His parents wrote the following after he died on December 2, 2004:
Ethan was a child that loved to explore places and things. Whether it was the dryer or the fridge, he was always exploring something. He was a sweet and sensitive child with a streak of mischief. We were always laughing at something he had done or said. Ethan always felt bad for people who were sick or hurt. He thought it was his job to make them feel better. We had some St. Jude children on our refrigerator, and every night he would pray, “Please help the kids on the refrigerator get better” (3).
His grandfather addressed the Mississippi House of Representatives Judiciary Committee A on February 15 of this year regarding the state’s DUI laws. They already knew that 35% of alcohol-related deaths in that state were from repeat offenders. He pleaded eloquently for them to take some action to avoid other tragedies (769-73).
Is the fact that alcohol is legal—and marijuana is no worse than alcohol—really the best argument for the legalization of pot? A recent study by the University of Colo-rado School of Medicine concluded: “People who drive under the influence of pot are far more likely to be involved in fatal vehicle accidents” (The O’Reilly Factor, July 29, 2014). In fact, the same source quoted by Tom Wacaster earlier also reports some statistics concerning marijuana use. Among them are these:
- Normal coordination reflexes, as driving, for example, are lessened for 41% after having taken 1 joint and for 63% after having taken 2 joints.
- The information received has revealed that people who are addicted to effective usage of marijuana lack the same amount of coordination as individuals who have taken too much alcohol.
- Among juveniles from 12 to 17 the average age of first marijuana usage is 14 years old.
These data make it clear that we can expect the same results from marijuana use as from alcohol. Consider the degree of harm which was cited in our lectureship book from 2005 (18).
In the book, Dying for a Drink, Anderson Spickard, M.D. (notice, not a preach-er, although he is an elder in the Presbyterian Church), Professor of Medicine and Director of the General Internal Medicine at Vanderbilt Medical Center, writes:
Is there a safe amount of alcohol which a person can drink? It is a question for which there is no known answer. The amount of alcohol which will lead any given individual into addiction is impossible to determine; there are too many variables (28). There are no safe amounts of alcohol (30).
Saying that pot is no worse than alcohol is like saying that the gas chamber is no worse than the electric chair. If there are no safe amounts of alcohol, cannot the same be said about pot? In fact, considering the dangers of alcohol actually serves to make a powerful argument against legalization. Neither the argument for increased tax reve-nues (which would not justify sinful behavior even if it fulfilled all of its promises) nor the “marijuana is no worse than alcohol” argument have any merit whatsoever.
REASONS FOR OPPOSING THE LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA
Taxes
Early stories about the tax revenues in Colorado were exuberant. One publica-tion proclaimed: “Six Months After Marijuana Legalization: Colorado Tax Revenue Sky-rockets as Crime Falls.” The person who wrote this story must have been sampling the product about which he was writing. If one types in on the Internet, “Marijuana tax reve-nues, Colorado,” one of the top ten stories will inform the reader: “In Colorado, tax revenue from recreational pot lower than expected.” The article by Kurtis Lee claims that, although the state of Colorado expected $33 million dollars for the sale of recre-ational marijuana, they had only received $12 million over the first six months of 2014.
Two reasons exist for this gigantic miscalculation. The first reason is that the taxes on medical marijuana are much cheaper than on recreational weed. How many who are authorized to purchase the medical version are getting enough for themselves and then reselling it to buyers who are paying no taxes on it at all? Even if the medici-nal user passes along the original tax along to a friend, it is only paid once—and at a much lower rate than for its recreational counterpart.
The second reason is that pot remains cheaper on the Black Market, which charges no taxes of any kind. The government misses out on 100% for those sales. “Well,” someone might decide, “they need to crack (no pun intended) down on that situ-ation,” but the problem is that in their haste to decriminalize everything, it is probably much easier to grow one’s own supply (not to mention supplying others). If Colorado must prohibit illegal growth, fraud, and distribution, it will cost the state millions, which will also cut into the tax profits. So much for the increased tax revenue argument!
The Dangers of Marijuana
These have been highlighted for decades. On February 25, 1996, some of the dangers of marijuana use were emphasized in an article published in Spiritual Perspec-tives, which was titled, “‘Along Comes Mary’ (Again).” Some introductory matters con-cerning the subject are explained below before getting to the effects.
Back in the mid-60’s the fad which developed among college students was “do-ing drugs.” This infatuation with mind-altering substances became a large part of the popular music scene with psychedelic lyrics (“I tripped on a cloud and fell eight miles high; I tore my mind on the jagged sky”) and colorful groups (Straw-berry Alarm Clock, who woke everyone up with “Incense and Peppermints”). The Association came along with “Along Comes Mary” (“now my empty cup is as sweet as the punch”)….
And, sadly, the use of marijuana has sharply increased during the past four years. Reader’s Digest February (1996) issue credited Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign (in part) with the sharp decline in young people’s use of the drug (73). According to the information presented in USA Weekend, the number of high school seniors smoking pot declined from 50% in 1979 to 22% in 1992; since that time the number has risen dramatically to 34.7% (5). Something is terribly wrong for the number of users to increase so rapidly in such a short period of time.
One reason for this change may be society’s de-emphasis of the subject. Read-er’s Digest cites several factors. “In 1989, 518 drug stories were aired on the evening news of the three major networks. By 1994, there were just 78. The number of PDFA spots is down 20 percent since 1990.” And many of those ads are aired at times when young people are not watching (75).
Furthermore, drugs seem to be more acceptable in the entertainment media. According to USA Weekend, approval of marijuana has been suggested on Roseanne, in movies such as How To Make An American Quilt, and once again in the realm of popular music. In fact, a recent CD titled Hempilation, was released specifically to earn money for marijuana decriminalization (5), a cause which even some misguided conservatives (and liberals such as former Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders) champion (74)….
Keep Off the Grass
Today’s adults who survived “hippie-hood” may not be too alarmed about this resurgent craze, but they should be because the primary psychoactive chemical (THC) of today’s marijuana has doubled in potency during the past ten years (USA 5). The ease of obtaining the drug should strike fear into most people.
Becoming commonplace are “Phillies blunts,” which are cigars which have been hollowed out and refilled with marijuana. “The nicotine helps increase the high” (4). But consider the following information carefully. Marijuana is currently this nation’s largest cash crop (6). Furthermore, many teens who were interviewed for the USA article said that the average time it would take them to find and buy pot was three minutes (6-7). A Seattle teenager confided to Reader’s Digest that “Weed is as common as school lunch” (72).
Effects
The effects of smoking marijuana are detrimental to both the individual and soci-ety. Let’s begin with the latter. Many who desire either to legalize or decriminalize marijuana have cited “the European model” as a system that works. According to the February Reader’s Digest, “Dutch adolescent marijuana use, for example, nearly tripled between 1984 and 1992, while the flow of drugs into bordering countries has grown. At the same time the Netherlands is ranked No. 1 in Europe for forcible assaults, up 65 percent since 1985” (74). Zurich, Switzerland, reaped similar unsavory rewards. “Today, Switzerland is left with Europe’s highest per capita rate of drug addiction and second highest rate of HIV infection” (75).
The personal effects on the individual user are well known. USA Weekend states them succinctly: “Marijuana reduces coordination; slows reflexes; interferes with the ability to measure distance, speed and time; and disrupts concentration in short term memory. A marijuana smoker is exposed to six times as many car-cinogens as a tobacco smoker” (5).
Another danger of marijuana is that (as a “gateway” drug) it leads its devotees to experiment with drugs even more dangerous than it is, as some users admit: “Pot makes you lazy. I don’t like to do schoolwork,” a former 3.5 average student ad-mitted. “A lot of people move on to acid” (Reader’s Digest 71-72). Parents need to be aware of this revived threat against young people and caution them not to be deceived by it.
In the book, Getting Tough on Gateway Drugs, Robert L. DuPont, Jr., includes a chapter which he titled: “Marijuana: The Dumb High.” He points out what most people are now aware of: “Marijuana impairs or interferes with short-term mem-ory, slows the learning process, interferes with oral communication, and may trigger temporary confusion and delirium” (78). Marijuana can have detrimental physiological effects, such as slowing one’s reflexes from four to eight hours after experiencing a high (79).
This information was fresh in 1996, but much more has been learned since. On July 28, 2014, Kevin Sabet was interviewed on The O’Reilly Factor. Kevin is a cofound-er of a group that is named Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM). He is an assistant professor of psychiatry, and Director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida. He is also the author of numerous articles and monographs, as well as “Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana.” He pointed out that the public is not hear-ing a great deal of pertinent information. He stated that the American Medical Associ-ation (AMA), the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness all oppose the legali-zation of marijuana. How much is the American public hearing about their stances from the “mainstream” media?
The Unintended Consequences of Marijuana Use
Now that Colorado and Washington have voted to legalize Mary Jane, we oc-casionally hear that all is not well in Shangri-La. “According to a variety of reports, homeless people are flooding into Denver to use marijuana.” Homeless shelters reported that there was a surge in January (when the new law took effect allowing recreational use of the drug). The increase was from 50% to 75% per night (The O’Reilly Factor, July 19. 2014). That ought to make people wonder, “Say, how are homeless people going to be able to afford marijuana?” Hmm. They wouldn’t steal from others, would they?
Some interesting data came to light on the August 5, 2014 program of The O’Reilly Factor. Tina Griego, who now writes for the Washington Post, reported that the Black Market in Colorado was flourishing. In fact, in order to avoid the taxes on medical and recreational marijuana, people are buying more on the street than ever before, and their prices have increased tremendously. One person interviewed on this segment sells marijuana on the street. He made the observation: “People say money doesn’t grow on trees; they’re lying.” Also, many are coming from other states and purchasing it in Colorado because it is then lucrative to take it back home to sell.
In California and Colorado, a person can apply for a medical marijuana card. Some of those who possess such cards then resell marijuana to others for recreational use. An interesting phenomenon to observe is that where taxes on the recreational usage of the drug are high, the number of applications for medical cards rises. In other words, more and more people suddenly need marijuana for their health, but they are actually just reselling what they buy for a profit. It looks like marijuana fosters the entre-preneurial spirit after all, although it destroys it for the customers. Who could have fore-seen that all of these things would have happened? The answer is, “Nearly anyone with any sense.” Does no one play chess anymore and anticipate at least one move ahead?
The Most Serious Unintended Consequence
“Pot legalization is full of unintended consequences. It sends a signal to children that drug use is an acceptable part of life” (The O’Reilly Factor July 18, 2014). A new study by the Australian government says that the teenagers use pot daily are 60% less likely to graduate high school. “Also they are seven times more likely to attempt sui-cide” (The O’Reilly Factor Sept. 15, 2014). Anyone should have been able to see this one coming. When the legal age for drinking alcohol was 18, just about any high school junior or senior would be able to drink whatever alcohol they wanted—because they knew someone over 18 who would buy it for them. Did no one foresee that high school students would likely have access to pot once it was legalized?
On this same September 15th program, O’Reilly interviewed two men who were child and adolescent psychologists after making the point that the media has been un-derstating the damage that kids face when using pot. The first, Daniel Bober, D.O., affirmed that “long term marijuana use affects problem solving, memory, and IQ.” These are among a person’s most valuable assets. Is there any way to restore a fallen IQ? Is anything more crucial to daily survival than memory? And what happens to us when we lose the ability to think critically and solve problems? Bober then said:
In one study that was done in Colorado, what we found was that 75% of youth in a treatment center were getting their marijuana from adults with legal marijuana cards. So it’s become more accessible.
There’s a lot of evidence that suggests that marijuana is a gateway to other drugs, and the younger they start, the worse it is.
Teens have a developing brain that’s particularly sensitive to the effects of marijuana, and [it] puts us all at risk when we put our children at risk.
The first point of the three made above was just made on the previous page, but this adds the percentage involved in the abuse of the system. The second criticism has been made over and over again, but we should not lose sight of it. The third one is sobering indeed: When marijuana is used—especially while the brain is developing, we are putting our whole society at risk. “We are dealing with a multi-generational prob-lem,” Nick Weiss, the other child and adolescent psychologist on this September 15th program summed it up. He also contributed additional information.
Certainly the harms of marijuana on the adolescent brain are being increasingly documented, and at the same time teens see it as less risky than ever.
I think the real shame is the risks haven’t been acknowledged…. Teens really do need to know about these risks.
O’Reilly observed, “The media wants it legalized.” He is probably correct. Proponents of legalization have been talking about it for fifty years, but it has only been within the past few years that the subject has gained any ground, and the main reason is that, as with homosexual marriage, the media are all for it.
Unintended Proof
About 30 years ago, Ann Landers, who ironically favored the legalization of pot In the ’90s, once received a letter from a student extolling the virtues of marijuana. She edited the letter and published it, but her readers besieged her to print the original with all its errors, which was written while high on the drug. Was the person as lucid as she fancied herself to be? Below is the original letter, which was published in our 2005 lec-tures. The reproduction is exactly as the young woman wrote it.
Your letter against pot last week was a joke. If you dryed up creeps want kids to believe you, who don’t you tell the truth? I like my hair long. It looks fine. I have yet to see a single letter in your column to tell the GOOD things about pot. Why is that? Because you are a bunch of fuddy-dudies who are scare us kids to death. Well, it won’t work. Most of us know more about pot than our parents and teach-ers put together. Getting turned on by Jesus is definately. I’m a 16 year-old girl who lives in a medium-size midwestern town. I have been smoking pot at least once a day for two years. It hasn’t hurt me at all. In fax it has done me a lot of good. Not only is pot-smoking fun but it has expanded my conscientiousness and opened my eyes to the beaties of the world and unquestionable. This proves the police are pigs.
Grass has not dulled my mind. It has sharpen it. My think is clearer than it ever was. I am more aware things I never noticed before. Objicts that used to look small look large, especially when I. When I smoke, I see mental imagines in color instead of black and white. I used to be too shy to speak up in a crowd. Now I am a brilliant conversationist. I get stoned but I am 100 percent lucid. I am express my inmost feelings brilliantly. Feet can be friends. When I finish this letter it will be a mastpiece.
If you fail to print it, I will know you are a Communist. In Russia they print only one side of the story. The side they want people to believe. I’ll be watch and waiting. —The Truth Will Win
This letter in defense of smoking marijuana and written while high on the drug makes as good a case against marijuana use as anything; it shows what so many have claimed. Short-term memory loss is obvious as thoughts are not even connected. Not only is oral communication affected; so (obviously) is written communication.
BIBLE TEACHING CONCERNING ALCOHOL, MARIJUANA, AND OTHER DRUGS
The Bible has not changed its position concerning alcohol or other drugs in order to blend in with modern times. Some may not be aware of the fact, but among those whom God lists who will partake in the Lake of Fire, the second death, are “sor-cerers” (Rev. 21:8). The Greek word here is pharmakeus, related to pharmakia and pharmakos. These three words appear a total of only five times in the New Testament, four of which are in Revelation. The root word refers to a drug, often given as part of a spell-giving potion. The English words, pharmacy and pharmaceutical, come from these Greek words. Those who practiced sorcery or were magicians in those days dabbled in the occult, which was clearly condemned in the Old Testament in numerous passages. It would be just as wrong today to use astrology, horoscopes, tarot cards, séances, crystal balls, palm readers, et al., as it was in those days.
The child of God is still supposed to be sober and vigilant because we have the same enemy, Satan, still seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). Does it seem advisable to spend our waking hours in a fog or a stupor? Who is the one that usually engages in questionable behavior? Is it not the one whose defenses are low due to alcohol or marijuana? How often are there charges of rape against a man by a woman whose testimony is suspect because they had both been drinking? Juries have very little objective evidence by which to decide a case where two human beings were both inebriated at the time of the alleged assault—and both have different versions of what occurred. Jesus gave the following warning:
“But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come upon you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:34-36).
How difficult it would be to watch while getting high on some substance! Since the Word of God never changes, the same principles that were presented in 2005 on this subject are once again set forth for serious consideration.
- Don’t allow yourself to be enticed by your senses (Pro. 23:31).
- Don’t follow a multitude to do evil (Exo. 23:2) or be conformed to this world (Rom. 12:1-2).
- Treat the physical body as a good steward would, since it belongs to God (1 Cor. 6: 19-20).
- “Just say no.” “Abstinence works every time it’s tried.” No one ever needs to give up an addiction if an addiction never has a chance to take hold. Paul states: “…I will not be brought under the power of any” (1 Cor. 6:12). A marginal note reads “or anything.” In other words, anything that might be of an addictive nature is something we should stay away from to be certain that we forego all future problems with that substance.
- Fill life with things that are positive and non-addictive, such as good works (Titus 2: 11-14).
- Fellowship that which is good rather than things that are associated with evil (1 Cor. 15:33).
- Know God thoroughly by a continual study of His Word (Psa. 119:11, 105). He is holy and wants His followers to be the same (1 Peter 1:14-16). His command-ments—even under the Old Covenant—were for His people’s good (Deut. 10:12-13). He wants the salvation of all (2 Peter 3:9) and knows that addictions are harmful and will keep us from Him; therefore, He forbids them. We must, as we often sing, trust Him and obey Him in all things (Mat. 7:21-27; Heb. 5:9).
ENDNOTES
Clarke, B.J. “Dedication.” Why Should I Believe the Bible? Southaven, MS: POWER
Publications, 2005.
DuPont, Robert L. Getting Tough on Gateway Drugs. Arlington, VA: American
Psychiatric Pub., 1985.
Lee, Kurtis. “In Colorado, Tax Revenue from Recreational Pot Lower than Expected.”
See the Internet under the heading, “Marijuana Tax Revenues, Colorado.”
Levine, Daniel R. “Drugs Are Back—Big Time.” Reader’s Digest Feb. 1996: 71-76.
Powers, Scott. “Medical-Marijuana Opponents Blast Morgan’s Profane Barroom
Speech.” Orlando Sentinel 3 Sept. 2014: B3.
Bill O’Reilly, The O’Reilly Factor, July 28, 2014.
Bill O’Reilly, The O’Reilly Factor, July 29, 2014.
Bill O’Reilly, The O’Reilly Factor, August 5, 2014.
Bill O’Reilly, The O’Reilly Factor, September 15, 2014.
Spickard, Anderson, M.D. and Barbara R. Thompson. Dying for a Drink. Dallas, TX:
Word Publishing, 1985.
Summers, Gary W. “‘Along Comes Mary’ (Again).” Spiritual Perspectives. 25 Feb.
1996 2013: 1-3.
Summers, Gary W. “Morgan and Morgan: For the Stoned People.” Spiritual Per-
spectives. 13 Oct. 2013: 3.
USA Weekend. Feb. 16-18, 1996: 5-7.
Wacaster, Tom. “Chapters 31-32: Fall of Asshur, and Lamentation Over Egypt.”
Schertz, TX: Schertz Church of Christ, 2012. [Tom’s data came from <URL:http//
detoxland.com/drug-statistics.htm>.]