Posted on 04/21/2021 7:44:03 AM PDT by fwdude
Introduction
The ongoing push to legalize recreational marijuana in all fifty states is a very clever juke move on the part of the progressive left. It certainly looks like an expansion of personal liberty, but it doesn’t smell that way at all. Liberty smells like crisp mountain air, right next to a glacier-fed lake. Legalized pot smells like something sweet and sticky coming out of that particularly seedy basement apartment, with the only redeeming feature being the fact that it is strong enough to overcome the smell of urine on the landing.
Okay, I thought of another advantage. Since the demands of socialism appear to de rigueur these days, getting stoned out of your gourd will be a great advantage for those who want to be able to follow the economic arguments advanced by the socialists. So there’s also that.
I bring all this up because this week marks the release of my latest book, with the cover up there on the right. The title of the book is Devoured by Cannabis, and the subtitle is Weed, Liberty, and Legalization. To fill in the blanks for you, I am against weed, for liberty, and against legalization. I am also marking this post with the tag retractions, because there have been times in the past when I have written in a somewhat friendlier vein in favor of decriminalization, but have since changed my mind. The thing that caused me to change my mind was extended seasons of incessant prayer.
Sins and Crimes
Is it a sin to smoke pot? I argue in this book that it is, and that Christians should have nothing to do with it. But if it is a sin, should it also be a crime? There are plenty of sins that shouldn’t be crimes out there, activities that are clearly sinful, but we don’t want legislation against them with civil penalties applied. Covetousness is a sin, but who wants to establish the covetousness police? Lust is a sin, but who wants a Lust Patrol? Angry looks at the driver ahead of you is plainly sinful in the eyes of God, but no sane person wants a Department for Monitoring Deportment on the Interior of Motorized Vehicles (DMDIMV).
So even if getting stoned is a sin, does it follow that it should be against the law? The answer to that question is yes, but such a response does require an explanation., along with some qualifications.. That is what I argue for in this book, but only after establishing the biblical basis for identifying pot smoking as a sin. At the same time, the punishment should always fit the crime, and it has to be acknowledged that a good deal of our current war on drugs is frankly demented. Pot goes to some people’s heads, and power goes to other people’s. So that must be factored in as well.
So Anyways . . .
What are we to do in the meantime? It is unlikely—let us be frank—that anybody in authority is going to buy my book, and take any of my recommendations seriously. We should brace ourselves, therefore, for a continued push for the legalization of pot, and for harder drugs after that, and for everything that follows whenever an enervated people have determined that they want to live like the lotus-eaters.
So how should Christians live in the meantime?
One of the things that Christians must do is come to grips with the realization that Americans love their sin. We can see this plainly in the entirely different responses to states that have disregarded federal marijuana law, on the one hand, versus what would happen to any state that dared to disregard federal requirements with regard to abortion. On paper, it should be just as easy to do one as to do the other, right?
Right, on paper. But in our day, the police power of the civic order, whether federal, state, or municipal, is always at the ready when it comes to protecting our lusts. There is a residual federal law against marijuana, true enough, but states can disregard it with impunity. If you want to know where the real law is, then just look for where the real enforcement is. Then there is a SCOTUS-derived right to abortion, but states could not disregard that with impunity. This looks like a contradiction, and it is a contradiction on the surface, but there is also a deep consistency there.
The consistency is found in the fact that Americans love their sin, and if anything threatens their access to their lust, there is sure to be a creative legal argument that will come to the defense of that sin. That argument could be for or against enforcement of the law as written, but in our time (a time of diseased cultural disintegration), the enforcement will always be in order to protect and guard the right to the sin.
Abortion is the blood sacrament of a sinful and sinning people. Pot-smoking does not have as exalted a place in the liturgy of Chemosh, but it does have its place. It is the incense that does what incense is designed to do in every temple that offers blood sacrifice. All such temples are slaughterhouses, and so the incense is there to cover up the smell of the sacrificial victims. That, and to deaden the consciences of the priests and worshipers.
It is not possible for a nation to be as wicked as we have become without the consciences of millions being swollen, inflamed and on fire. We have people swanking around like they were paragons of vir . . . well, actually, nobody can be a paragon of virtue if there is no such thing as virtue. But they can be paragons of virtue-signaling, which has the advantage of having a lot less moral effort involved. And you do have do a lot of such signaling to keep that conscience of yours distracted.
This is what accounts for the frantic moralistic crusading of the climate johnnies. This is why we have such fierce denunciations of the slightest whiff of white supremacy—and by white supremacy, of course, I mean the continued belief that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. What color was Pythagoras, people? Do I have to spell it out? And this is why people who voted for someone who supports the dismemberment and sale of little black babies can feel morally superior to old Charleston slave traders, which is, of course, ridiculous on the face.
Like I said, anyone with a Biden sticker on their car is the moral inferior of Stonewall Jackson.
John Adams, On Point
I have quoted John Adams on this issue many times, and will no doubt have occasion to quote him again to the same effect. Our Constitution presupposes a moral and a religious people. It is wholly unfit, he said, for any other.
You cannot build a free republic out of drug addicts. You cannot maintain one with a citizenry of fornicating potheads. You cannot do it with sex slaves. You cannot march into a free and prosperous future when all you can think about is the dopamine hit from your next porn click.
Why is the state spending all this effort to forge these liberty chains for us? It is because they don’t want a free republic of free men and free women. Docile subjects in a haze are more to their liking.
My hope is that this book will do something to help clear the haze.
Trump never said he was the best example or someone people should emulate. His most important statement was "...if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive" Nobody paid much attention, because they were focussed on his failings and not their own.
Earth Day (April 22) is also Lenin’s birthday
It was a Wednesday that year.
Intended primarily, I would imagine, to generate large crowds of smelly hippies for the TV cameras that the Soviets could represent as “The youth of the capitalist running dogs shaking-off their chains and celebrating the birth of Comrade Lenin”.
Drug warrior jackboot lickers are congenitally incapable of figuring out the difference between what people do with their bodies (their business) and what they do to others (the business of the public). Booze should be legal, drunk driving shouldn’t be. Same with things that some people who misuse cannabis engage in.
Bust people for crimes, but the people who have trouble with drugs (or guns) being available to whoever wants them are no better than the chicoms.
I mean, there was a lot of drinking going on during the construction of America. Where did these guys meet a lot of the time?
Conservatives: "FREEEEEEEEEDOOOOOOOOM! Unless it's someone growing a plant in their backyard or smoking it in their living room or anything else I don't like."
—”weed can cause psychotic breaks”
Our son the teacher says they see it in the classrooms!!!
But just think of all the tax money coming in from legal and taxed marijuana!!! They overlook the medical, social, education,... costs. BUT,BUT, BUT they will vote for me when it passes!
McCance-Katz taught at Yale and Brown universities and held senior posts for state substance abuse agencies before joining HHS under the Obama administration as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration chief medical officer.
She pointed out that hospitalizations more than doubled for serious mental health disorders among 18- to 25-year-olds nationally from 2012 to 2018. She cited a study in July that shows a 77% increase in suicide deaths from 2010 to 2015 among Colorado 10- to 19-year-olds with marijuana in their systems.
The data on cannabis-induced psychosis, she said, demands the government both speak out and manage fears. Among people who use marijuana, 10% to 20% will develop a marijuana use disorder and “be at risk for these other kinds of mental and physical adverse events,” she said.
“That’s not the majority, that’s the minority of people who use marijuana, but here’s the problem: We don’t know who they are a priori (in advance),” McCance-Katz said. “We do not want to exaggerate the risks.”
As a citizen of one of those towns on the Western Slope of Colorado, I can say with all honesty that your post-apocalyptic description is a bit much. I can also say that issues with homelessness and local economies goes far beyond cannabis. Perception of the problem and reality, in this case, are two entirely different things.
The laws that setup legalization in Colorado do not include these age groups or allow them to purchase marijuana.
What is so special about weed? Alcohol is legal, but you don’t see the govt going around promoting its usage. Weed should be treated the same way. The penalties for driving loaded should be the same as alcohol. No advertising. Not even street signs on the hophead storefronts.
It is not a boon to society.
Good for potato chip manufacturers, though. Especially the sour cream and green onion flavored one.
—”The laws that setup legalization in Colorado do not include these age groups or allow them to purchase marijuana.”
“Well, I, uh, don’t think it’s quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip-up, sir.”
The point being that the article attempts to demonize legal cannabis. What you are discussing is legal cannabis. This is not a result of legal cannabis. That is the black market, which only gets stronger when prohibition exists, and I daresay the illegal street corner dealer WILL NOT be checking your kids ID when they purchase from him.
—” I daresay the illegal street corner dealer WILL NOT be checking your kids ID when they purchase from him.”
I daresay the illegal street corner dealer WILL NOT be charging all the taxes when they purchase from him.
At the same time, the state-approved dealers will be flogging a similar product on local billboards/print/tv.
Difficult to differentiate between the two; except for the price.
The defunded coppers are going to force the market to state control? Right?
The state never wins this game; see 18th Amendment.
As opposed to the legal market getting even stronger for a product that is proven destructive, until all of society is awash in it?
The USSR had shortages of everything but Vodka...a drunk populace was unlikely to rebel...the same with a doped up/drug addled society.
“Most of all, MAGA means restoring virtue among the people. There are a lot of people who missed Trump’s main message.”
So why did Trump green-light the legalization by states at this campaign rally =>
https://youtube.com/watch?v=WZ3ZkcuxiXY (1m:11s segment)
PS => Listen to the crowd reaction when he makes this statement.
PS => Were you stoned when you listened to that?
He defended the Tenth Amendment. That’s good, isn’t it?
Been using cannabis daily since February 2015 for medical/behavioral reasons with great success. I went from being unemployable to working 2 jobs for last 2+ years.
Every aspect of my life; physically, spiritually & emotionally has been improved since I began using cannabis. I do not believe using it = sin.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.