Job suffered torment and pain for many years, but you don't hear of him taking pain killers or smoking herbs to lessen the pain...no, he sat there and praised God for every "storm" that came his way....He remained faithful throughout all his trials and never had complained about pain and misery.
I'm sorry but I really don't buy this. I don't think God wants us to suffer. If you sprained your wrist would you choose to not set it and endure the pain? If you were sick would you not take antibiotics to cure it? I am a Christian but I am not a Christian Scientist - I believe in the power of medicine to heal and I don't think God sees it as a sin. The fact is that I have been prescribed cannabis as a medicine by my doctor. Cannabis not only gives me an appetite (I would barely be able to eat one meal a day without it), but it also cures my pain AND stops my small intestine from swelling up so much that my entire gastrointestinal tract is blocked off. This has happened to me twice and I have been told by my doctors that it is the equivalent pain of childbirth, not to mention that I could die from it if not treated with steroids to reduce the inflammation. I need to eat to live and I make no apologies for taking a medicine that
My only other options besides drug treatment would be surgery - to have 12 cm of my small intestine removed. This would require me to have at least 2 months off work. Eventually I will probably have the surgery, but the truth is I honestly cannot afford it. I know, I know, I'm Canadian and wed have free (****ty) healthcare, but I mean that I can't afford to miss the time from work. I have bills and loans to pay.
People have been using medicines and drugs to treat many ailments for airs. In 1800s and colonial times they used brandy and liquor to treat pain (even for major surgeries). The more refined our medical science become the better we are able to treat pain and injury. In the first and second World Wars morphine was used to treat basically everything, to huge deriment (morphine and opiates in general are extremely physically addictive).
Let me just put something out there:
Everyone who has replied has been American, except for thefightinglamb, who I guess is Swedish. I have no idea what the laws are in Sweden, so this is mostly addressed to the yanks, but I know that cannabis is illegal in the United States. Don't you think that it's possible that you guys have a limited perspective based on your historical and cultural circumstances? Cannabis is illegal now, sure, but it wasn't the case prior to 1906 (at the earliest). Before that, farmers were required by law to grow cannabis as it is such a useful crop (not for medicinal purposes, but in many fabrics, paper, etc). Cannabis was mostly banned at the same time your country banned alcohol under the prohibition. Let me remind you that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin all grew cannabis and encouraged its production. The first ever American paper mill was started by Ben Franklin and the paper was made exclusively from cannabis. The difference is that alcohol was made legal again and cannabis was kept illegal. The reason marijuana was kept illegal and alcohol was brought back was not that they suspected that marijuana was any worse for you than alcohol - it was due to extreme pressure from the American timber magnate William Hearst, who used his sway to keep marijuana illegal for his own personal profit, as hemp-derived paper is exorbitantly less expensive to produce than paper made from timber. This is essentially analogous to large pharmaceutical companies banning the production and sale of cheaper (but chemically identical) no-name medicines just so they can churn out a greater profit.
The government is not God, it's composed of ordinary human beings just like you and me. Many laws are arbitrary and all laws change over time. The only unchanging principles we should follow in life (IMO) are those given to us by God. Youngartist, you say that the Bible tells you to abide by the laws of the land, but what if you had raised in the Third Reich or in an apartheid South Africa? Better yet, what if you had been born in the good ol' USA just a few decades ago? Would you have endorsed the racist policies of segregation and apartheid simply because they were law? I hope not, because though segregation was legal and endorsed by the state, it is
wrong and morally bankrupt. In my opinion the only immorality comes from disobedience of God, not disobedience to the government.
As Christians I am sure you have all read or studied the Bible and so I'm certain you are aware that the Bible has undergone many modifications in its history and (sadly) has been used as a tool or political power and persuasion to gain control over the masses. The statement to abide by the law of land is propaganda that was useful to gain power over the ignorant and uneducated masses of Biblical (and even all pre-industrial, to an extent) societies, because the lacked the sufficient knowledge/power/rights to question whether or not the laws their Kings, Emperors and politicians created were ethical.
thefightinglamb -
I am sorry to hear about your friend. Marijuana has not impeded me though, at least in an academic sense. I have a 3.8 GPA and am nearly done my first university degree. Though I am not majoring in philosophy (I didn't know that it was possible to major in a faculty in high school?) I have completed several post-secondary courses in philosophy. Nothing as exhaustive as a full-blown philosophy degree but I am most likely more read in the field than you if you only studied it in high school (I truly mean no offense by this, and correct me if I am wrong). I think that if you were to talk to me you would definitely not describe me as "not being all there". I don't go to school or work stoned (obviously this is a stupid idea). Believe me, I know the pain and torment that drug use can bring as I've seen many people struggle with physical addictions to things like cocaine and psychological addictions to things like MDMA. These sort of addictions cripple one's willpower and prevent one from being able to make moral decisions as all priorities beyond getting high come second place. I am not physically addicted to cannabis (this is impossible) and I am not psychologically addicted to it in that my desire to use it does not stem from a desire to tune out or to get high, but a desire to live pain-free. In a way, yes, you could describe me as dependent on cannabis as I use it to treat chronic pain and give me an appetite, but is this really worse than a diabetic being "dependent" on their insulin or a depressed person being "dependent" on MAOI's or SSRI's? I don't think so, and I don't think it's too much for me to want to live with the same quality of life as a healthy person, especially when this is a possibility for me through a combination of medications.
My opinions on this matter are clearly in opposition to many of yours but I think this is a productive conversation and I just want to say that I am not trying to antagonize anyone here or start a flame war.
