By the way, I was just thinking about this. “Drugs” in my own language refer to alcohol, nicotine or “illegal” drugs (hard and soft drugs alike) such as XTC, cocaine, khat, etc. We don’t use the word “drugs” for “medication”. So we tend to think of drugs as any mind altering or addictive substance but forget that medication basically isn’t necessarily much different and may even be made from the same substances as “real drugs” are. Even the definition of the word “narcotics” can differ in various languages or depend on the legal definition. So it gets even more complicated discussing the issue then. It’s like the American liberals vs. European liberals thing.

I’m often tempted to think in a harsh way about many criminals myself too. But I know it’s wrong. It’s tempting and easy to say hang ‘em, or execute them or put them behind bars for the rest of their lives, let em pay! And perhaps in some cases it would be a just thing to do for government. I think it’s their responsibility towards the victims of the criminals, otherwise the victims get punished. Then again one might wonder if there’s such a thing as “victim-less” crimes and if so should gov’t consider these to be crimes at all.

I think as Christians we shouldn’t forget we have our faults as well. We might all be addicted or have been addicted to something. We all have our weaknesses and we’ve all been born sinful and lost just like any other person so we’re not better. Many people who got involved in drugs did so as a way to escape. They made wrong choices in their lives. They had no prospects of a better future, they had no motivation or lacked a loving and responsible family to guide them. As Christians we shouldn’t be turning them in to the authorities but rather try to offer them help and give them a second chance - but it still is up to them to seize that opportunity of course.

There are many Christian organizations doing great work to help homosexuals, drug addicts, drug dealers, sex addicts, prostitutes to break free from their sin. We may add to that list those helping refugees from totalitarian regimes. I totally support what these people are doing, especially if they do so to testify to these people of Christ. After all, only He transforms people.

Sometimes it’s good to be reminded of this because often we focus on sin and the irrational government policies and then sometimes you wish you were in charge but you forget that we are called to love the sinner. Not the sin. But it’s so easy to forget about the distinction! I’m the kind of person that cares a lot about justice and order. The injustice I see from government and the way they promote sin sometimes just disgusts me. The behavior and choices of many people are repulsive. But on the other hand am I so much better? I guess not. Jesus forgave the prostitute and told her to sin no more rather than have her stoned, even though that would have been the “just” thing to do according to the Law.
So sometimes I guess we should be more compassionate and merciful. Not condoning the sin, no, but at the same time not forgetting Christ died for all including the homosexual, the rapist and the gang member. It’s easy to condemn and criticize but our focus should be on presenting the greatest alternative of all – Christ. After all we’re not here to govern but rather to reach out to the lost, as we once were lost ourselves. God help us all that may be our motivation.

Surely this subject sure is food for thinking.

Good night.

Heck you can go to a health store and legally buy certain herbs that will kill you in the wrong doze but you can’t chew a coca leaf.

What I said is more the way it should have been. It is a little late now when ten percent of the country is making a living on hard drugs. I do not know what you do with users of these drugs. I am inclined to say let them have the stuff at bargain basements rates overdose and die, but I know that is not a very Christian attitude. It would stop most crime because most of it is committed by addicts to get the money to buy drugs for their habit.

However, there is no easy answer. I agree that decriminalizing the soft drugs is not going to stop the hard drugs anymore now, it is too late, but it least it will stop the hypocrisy. You have government using pot arresting people and passing laws against people who use pot. Our last few presidents used pot and the next president might be a cocaine user. Half of our country has admitted to using pot in their life yet many of them want people who do the same thing they did or still do to be treated as felons. It is not rational.

Seriously though, I understand what you’re saying. I admit if I were given the power to rule even if just for one day I would most likely be a dictator. But a good one. Maybe it’s my temperament, or it is simply the fact that the central problem to any of these issues like drug abuse is mankind’s depravity and also mankind’s inability to rule themselves. Democracy isn’t perfect either. It looks more like demoncracy” sometimes. Actually the negative sides of my or anyone’s temperament may also be simply due to the fact that we’ve all been born sinful and imperfect.

Frankly, I think neither legalizing drugs or repressing the use of certain drugs is a real solution. Like I said, if the fundamental problem is the depravity of mankind and the fallibility of what you might call “man-made” government, then it follows that ultimately Christ is the solution. So what really can you do government-wise to keep people from abusing drugs? Nothing really I guess, otherwise me might soon be having a nanny state. Or a dictatorship under my benevolent rule.

So I suppose you’re right then that it shouldn’t be up to gov’t but rather up to families and people themselves. But I don’t have have too much confidence in the latter either seeing the way things look today.

Right now, gangs that do drug dealing are illegal. But if you legalize drugs at this point, aren’t we then going to be having companies producing and selling drugs like you have people legally making big money on pornography with their porn companies? That scum is exploiting one of the most basic instincts of human beings and making fortunes on it, turning some of its clients - specifically targetting males - from more or less normal people into predators and rapists. So might they not do the same with drugs then? On the other hand, I suppose people don’t have the same desire for drugs as they have for sex so perhaps it might not turn out that way. Oh well, I guess with all the spam we are receiving from fake drug companies wanting to sell you their Viagra, it won’t take long to get used to them sending you cocaine advertisements.

I am rather skeptical whether legalizing drugs after all these years is going to decrease the availability of drugs like LSD, XTC, Crack or heroin though. To be honest I would prefer not to live in a society where more than half of the people are smoking shit, hashish, marihuana or whatever they call it. People can argue that alcohol is more dangerous than cannabis but from what I’ve seen, I’m not that impressed by that argument. A person in my family got involved in the whole cannibis stuff and I wouldn’t say it’s not harmful. Perhaps it’s not as harmful physically, but the societal consequences of its use also play a role. .

I do agree that without a war on drugs, terrorist organizations and the mafia wouldn’t be thriving on the illegal production and selling of drugs like cocaine in Colombia like they’re doing now.

The difference between many of those countries where they are chewing or smoking those drugs is that they have religious beliefs, family values or societal pressure which makes them less inclined to really abuse those drugs or use heavier drugs. For instance, they don’t really have these music subcultures like we have in the West that glorify the use of certain drugs. But at the same time I think we shouldn’t forget that most of those countries actually do have very severe penalties on drug abuse.

It’s true - we can never really repress, illegalize or ban all that may lead people to sin. Prostitution - the “oldest profession in the world” - has almost always been illegal yet you find it in just about every corner of the world. And even some countries where sodomy is illegal have a so-called “gay scene”! On the other hand, I wonder, should we now also legalize prostitution and gives the prostitutes legal recognition? Perhaps it’s just our view of the role of government and the concepts of “legal” and “illegal” that may make it seem like that would be irresponsible. I guess that again the true problem is the state of mankind which leads to things like prostitution to exist in the first place, regardless of whether it’s illegal or not.

Government never should have been given the right to control and tax the smoking or chewing of local weeds? Half the world smokes or chews some natural weed or bush to get some kind of mild buzz. Once government got involved it make it lucrative for criminals to refine the drugs, push them and make them deadly. Let the village elders and the parents set the local rules and if someone breaks them let them dole out the village discipline. What can be done in the big cities of the world? It is too late to do anything they will continue getting worse until the following verse is fulfilled.

Rev 16:19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

(1) stop making those idiot anti-smoking laws because
a. pot smokers mix their drugs with tobacco so it’s hypocritical legalizing pot yet trying to ban tobacco,
b. unlike pot and other drugs, tobacco does not affect one’s MENTAL state
c. drugs affecting one’s MENTAL state are worse because they will almost always affect the public

(2) citizens are free to use whatever drug they want in private as long as they do so in the knowledge that they will be held responsible for anything that might happen to themselves or others as a consequence - as long as their drug use affects only themselves, they have no one else to blame but their own selves

(3) parents will be held accountable for their children’s drug use and the problems that may arise as a consequence. That is to encourage parental responsibility and disciplining their children.

(4) drug users caught under the influence of any drug will be fined, sentenced or in the worst cases sentenced from serving lifetime in prison to death penalty for any crime resulting from the influence of whatever substance taken. Obviously we are again dealing with those drugs affecting one’s mental state here.

(5) representatives, officials, military personell and any other public servants caught under the influence of drugs while on duty will be discharged, fired and deprived of their functions and will be barred from ever returning to any public function - that is I believe nothing but a matter of discipline and setting an example. A government *by the people* requires that its own members live by the laws it sets first, otherwise they do bear the sword in vain!

(6) drug addicts shall have no right to government-sponsored treatment - their only treatment will be punishment if their drug use affects others. Question of discouraging drug abuse and justice to those affected by those who cannot excercise self-control.

(7) private companies, schools and organizations will set their own rules regarding the drugs they allow to be used and those they do not - of course within the legal framework provided by the country’s laws on drugs

(7) enforce the laws strictly