DON’T BELIEVE THE LIES

 

DON’T BELIEVE THE LIES

The state of Delaware recently joined some twenty other states in the Union, including New Jersey, in legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.  This despite its proven negative physical and mental health effects.  Study after study indicate that recreational use of marijuana is unhealthy and potentially dangerous.  Too many governors and state legislators are ignoring them.  For whatever reason, they are listening to the promoters of marijuana who have a vested interest in profiting from the legal sale of pot.  Some pro-pot politicians have even spoken of the favorable effect on tax proceeds which will be gained by legalizing pot.  These lawmakers do not deserve to remain in office. 

The United States Department of Health and Human Services warns of the many risks from using marijuana: permanent non-reversible IQ loss – as much as 8 points in young people; increased levels of depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and psychotic episodes.  The Department warns that “Research shows that people who use marijuana are more likely to have relationship problems, worse educational outcomes, lower career achievement, and reduced life satisfaction.”  It is dangerous to pregnant women and their babies, has a negative effect on athletic performance, impedes drivers, and causes addiction in 1 in 10 adults and 1 in 6 users 18 years or younger.  An article in the June 2014 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, written by researchers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National In­stitutes of Health, states that marijuana use often leads to chronic bronchitis, fatal car wrecks, diminished lifetime achievement, and poor school performance.

One thing I have seen in people’s lives is that marijuana serves as a gateway drug.  Many start with marijuana and then get hooked on a more addictive drug.  Pot smokers are more likely to try other, more dangerous drugs.  Some pot smokers will also indulge in alcohol because it doubles or triples the effect of THC.  This is dangerous.  Besides the health risks, marijuana also causes significant negative personality change in some of its users, especially the young.  This I have also seen.   

Marijuana and the abuse of drugs kill the soul.  It is a serious sin because it is a rejection of God’s gift.  “The use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life.  Their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense.  Clandestine production of and trafficking in drugs are scandalous practices. They constitute direct co-operation in evil, since they encourage people to practices gravely contrary to the moral law” (Catechism #2291).  Even those who legally produce and sell marijuana for recreational purposes are committing sin.  The National Catholic Bioethics Center clearly diagnoses the moral disorder: “Part of the unethical character of drug abuse flows from the fact that we are treating something good, namely our personal, con­scious experience as if it were an evil to be avoided. Recreational drug users seek to escape or other­wise suppress their lived conscious experience, and instead pursue chemically-altered states of mind, or drug-induced pseudo-experi­ences. Any time we act in such a way that we treat some­thing ob­jectively good as if it were an evil by acting directly against it, we act in a disordered and immoral manner.”   

Parents need to be aggressive in protecting their children against drugs.  All of us should strongly resist efforts to further plunge our society into chaos by legalizing the recreational use of pot and other hallucinogens.  If you need more evidence of the evil effects on people’s lives of the regular use of marijuana, take a walk in Manhattan where the homeless congregate on the streets.  The pungent odor of marijuana is overwhelming.  May God deliver them, and us.