John Clayton
The title of this discussion was a question asked by a very agitated
lady at a lectureship. It followed a lengthy and heated discussion
I had been engaged in with a young man who was advocating the
use of marijuana as a recreational drug. It turned out that the
young man was this lady's grandson, and his use of pot had caused
enormous pain to her and her entire family. She was angry with
God for creating something that could cause so much pain to her
and those she loved. I responded to her with an explanation that
involved the idea that things we think are useless are not always
as useless as we think, and that misuse was the issue. Since
that discussion I have found out that marijuana is one of the
most useful plants in the creation.
The plant that the drug called THC comes from is called hemp.
The stalk of hemp has long stringy fibers which make it ideal
for fabric, and in fact the first use of hemp was apparently for
rope. Hemp clothing feels like burlap. It is tough, poses no
environmental threat, and can be woven in a large number of different
ways, making hemp clothing that feels like linen or like canvas.
The woody core of the hemp plant is an ideal material to make
fiber board, paper, and other construction products with! Leaders
of the Navajo Nation are forming a corporation called Arizona
City of Sawmill to commercially produce fiberboard. The seeds
of the hemp plant can be used to produce an industrial oil which
has a variety of uses including a diesel fuel. The seed casing
can be ground into a flour which is 25% protein, and the oil itself
has eight essential proteins and is low in saturated fats. In
addition to the stalk and seeds the leaves can be turned into
alcohol for fuel, making the plant 100% useful. Whether the active
drug ingredient THC helps nausea in cancer patients or has other
medical uses is still being debated, but unlike tobacco which
has very limited use the hemp plant has an incredible number of
uses.
Over the years we have seen people sniff glue, mainline peanut
butter, and breath gasoline fumes. Mans' ability to think up
ways to abuse his body is incredible. To accuse God of making
an error in creating substances that can be misused would leave
God with nothing to create. The hemp plant has the potential
for incredible good. What we need to do is to convince people
to treat their bodies with respect and care since it is the temple
of God (1 Corinthians 3:16ff). The abuse will not end until people
depend on the Lord and His way of life for the things that really
have meaning in life.
This article taken from: Does God Exist?, Sept/Oct 1997.
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