Going Green
Featured, Spirit in the Material World — By Stephen Simpson on October 27, 2009 at 12:00 am
Let’s get something out of the way: I don’t smoke weed. As a psychologist, I discourage recreational use of marijuana. Chronic use can result in permanent neurological changes that give you Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. And smoking a joint has about the same effect on your lungs as half a pack of cigarettes. I’m not a fan.
I just don’t understand why it’s illegal.
The next time you’re in a bookstore, grab a textbook on Abnormal Psychology. Flip to the section on the dangers of marijuana and do a page count. Then find the section on alcohol. It will be at least three times longer. The physical and mental health dangers related to alcohol far outnumber the risks related to marijuana. Alcohol is more addictive, as is nicotine. Booze and cigarettes kill far more people than cannabis. And, no, Virginia, it’s not a gateway drug. People who experiment with weed are no more likely to try narcotics than anyone else.
Though some states have legalized marijuana for medical use, the FDA is reluctant to embrace it and the medical community has been slow to refine it. Despite marijuana’s anti-emetic and analgesic properties, no one has isolated tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, in pill form. Pharmaceutical companies have been reluctant to embrace it for two ostensible reasons: (1) the stigma attached to marjiuana and (2) medical use isn’t legal nationwide. Marijuana’s status as a fringe medication becomes more confusing when we compare it to the most prescribed drug in the United States: Vicodin.
Vicodin is a combination of the opiate hydrocodone and acetaminophen, the active drug in Tylenol. Hydrocodone, unlike marijuana, is physically addicting. The tolerance also develops rapidly and, ironically, by prescription. A standard dose of Vicodin takes about twenty-four hours to leave the body. Physicians prescribe dosages every four to six hours. This is a recipe for increased tolerance. Within days, the body needs more hydrocodone to deliver an analgesic effect. The patient is still in pain, so she takes more, regardless of the instructions on the bottle. Now, in addition to more hydrocodone, the liver has to process more acetaminophen. Acetaminophen is the number one cause of liver damage in the United States. And don’t forget about the withdrawals once the pain goes away. When I weaned myself of Vicodin as I recovered from back surgery, I endured itching, aches, insomnia, night sweats, anxiety, irritability, and general orneriness. And I didn’t even go cold turkey. When one of my clients, a lifelong pothead who smokes three times a day, forgot her weed on vacation, she said, “I had a little trouble falling asleep, but my breathing got a lot better. I didn’t really notice otherwise.” Yet she was breaking the law, while I got strung out with the full approval of the FDA and the AMA. I can only imagine how much easier my recovery from surgery might have been on pot instead of doctor approved smack.
Marijuana remains illegal because it’s political suicide to advocate change. Any politician, Republican or Democrat, who champions the legalization of marijuana, even for medical use, will be labeled by the opposition as “pro-drug.” All an opponent has to say is, “My opponent wants to make it easier for our children to use drugs,” and the race is over. Marijuana’s potential as safer alternative to prescription opiates will never be realized as long as it remains a political cudgel.
We can change that.
Imagine if the most notoriously conservative coalition of voters asked for the federal legalization of marijuana for medical use. What if we petitioned the AMA for serious consideration of THC as an alternative painkiller? If evangelicals came out in favor of marijuana, the political heat would dissipate. And fewer people might suffer. We can start using our reputation as naysayers and curmudgeons to our advantage. Maybe we can clear the way for common sense to prevail. It’s easy to find the bad and the dangerous. Everything and everyone is fallen and can be put to evil. We’re good at discovering the downside. It’s time we learned how to reveal the goodness of creation in addition to warning the world about its fallenness.
6 Comments
I agree with you, but the problem is this, which I quote from your last paragraph:
“If evangelicals came out in favor of marijuana”
It will never happen. I love evangelicals. I am an evangelical. But any brave pastor who comes out in favor of legalized pot will lose his congregation, because of tradition. It will never happen.
There actually is a capsule called Marinol (dronabinol is the active ingredient which is a synonym for THC). It is used for anit-emetics in cancer patients and also to stimulate appetite for weight gain in elderly, cancer patients etc.. It is in the same narcotic schedule as Vicodin
Steve,
I hope you know I am a fan of your writing, but I have to take issue with a couple points of your article.
I agree that marijuana should be legalized (or at the least decriminalized) for many of the reasons you said. I’m just not convinced that this needs to be a high priority for Christians. Your main argument seems to be that Christians should push for legalization because marijuana shouldn’t be illegal in the first place. In this scenario, Christians become agents of libertarianism (a political philosophy to which I am sympathetic), rather than champions of the gospel. True, it would change our political reputation; but I wonder if Christians should make decisions based on political reputation.
I’m also not wild on the about-face this would be for socially-engaged Christians. We laugh at it now, but Prohibition was a progressive cause in its day because drunkenness was leading to physical abuse and the break-up of the family. Progressive Christians were on the forefront of that movement. While I trust your research on the dangers of alcohol vs. the dangers of marijuana, this 180-degree turn on potentially-impairing substances seems like the bigger P.R. problem for Christians.
If anything, your article makes a cogent case that Christians should take action on the over-prescription and misuse of legal medication. That is an issue of justice and mercy, and I appreciate you bringing those facts to light.
Thank you for bringing up the fact that medical marijuana, in a way, exists in a pill form. I have found this an important aspect of the argument that no one brings up.
The criminalization of grass is a strange story. As far as I understand, weed was legal and posh for a long time. It was a cheap high–and whiskey and beer companies were none too happy about this fact. So, these companies lobbied Congress and convinced the public that marijuana was only smoked by immigrants and lead to rape and murder by those same aliens. The reason that pot is not legal, as Stephen seems to argue, is not very scientific. I also know that alcohol causes many more deaths than marijuana. Alcohol can do more to mess with brain chemistry. Neither, it seems, are good for a person. So, do we want the government to take away anything that might be bad for us? We will have an even greater problem if pot is made legal? With our government in a growing debt, what else will it be tempted to legalize just for the tax revenue?
I think this is a local government issue. But, I don’t think it is a Christian issue. The Christian, the church and those around it, should promote full life. Weed may help a person relax, but I have heard too many stories of young men committed to mental hospitals again and again because they can’t get a job, can’t quit smoking, can’t live a full life outside of the Purple Haze. So, as much as I think that weed (or any harsh substance that alters a person mind away from reality and decreases their motivation) is not good for our society, I also do not want the federal government to hold my hand. Where this places the solution, I do not know.
I’ve been mulling over this very interesting article for a couple of days. It’s a tough one. And it may be irrelevant to me as a Canadian, as I believe it is legal for medicinal use in my country. Though I’m not even certain. I’ve never had to think about it before. But it’s worth considering, I believe.
I think it’s a very interesting proposition – that evangelicals ought to come out in favor of marijuana. When I first read it I was very inclined to agree with it. Since reading some other people’s comments, though, I’m coming to see their side too. As Michael suggests, it’s not a particularly Christian issue. But it does seem like a worthwhile cause. Why should the much more dangerous vicodin keep getting prescribed when we have a safer alternative? The situation seems absurd. We ought to do something about it.
The only solution I can come up with is that perhaps we ought to push for the legalization, as the author suggests, but not in the name of Jesus. It probably shouldn’t become a church Thing. Individuals in the church may move for it, but not under the authorization of any particular denomination. I don’t know if it’s right for the church per se to get mixed up in political concerns such as this.
I think Stephen makes an excellent first move, though, by explaining the situation and encouraging us to think about the issue. It’s a first time for me.
And when I say “we,” of course, I mean “you guys.”