This is, of course, a special day. Â That is true whether you are celebrating the resurrection of humanity’s Savior a couple thousand years ago, or enjoing a plant that humanity has celebrated for a couple thousand years. Or both. Â Can it really be a coincidence that Easter falls on 4/20 in the year that Colorado, Washington, and Uruguay all legalized cannabis?
These two things have more in common than one might think. After all, the existential epiphanies one encounters through a religious experience are not dissimilar to the existential epiphanies that can be enjoyed through the properties of cannabis, and both can help induce a state of both excitement and peace.
Of course, over the years, many humans who represent organized religion have tried to claim that being a good Christian is incompatible with drug use. And yet… Jesus drank wine.
As a kid, raised in the church, the son of a preacher who believed even ocassional use of alcohol was a sin, I asked about the fact that Jesus turned water into wine. I was told something to the effect that most water at that time was dangerous to drink due to contamination, so wine was necessary and safer, while today, we have modern purification processes and don’t need to drink wine. A gullible kid, I accepted that, until later in life, when I asked “Hey, wait a second. Couldn’t Jesus have turned water into clean water? Certainly he was as powerful as Brita! Â No, he must have chosen wine for a reason.” Â Even at his last supper, Christ drank wine with his apostles. Drug use was an important part of sharing and coming together as friends.
(On a side note, I think it’s also telling that Christ was extremely harsh on those who abused the financial system for their own self-interest, while he was much more likely to be friends with, and providing help to, the fringes of society — the exact opposite of our judiciary today.)
Throughout history, mild drug use has served to bring people together, to foster friendships, to stimulate creativity and dialogue, and to celebrate peaceful coexistence. These things are clearly not at all incompatible with being a good Christian.
Yes, there are those who abuse drugs, just as there are those who abuse religion. Both can have the power to be extremely dangerous when misused, and it makes sense that we don’t want the irresponsible ones to harm others. However, we should never condemn all those who use drugs because of the self-destructive behavior of a few, any more than we should condemn all those who believe in Christ because of the bigoted and violently hateful actions of some who proclaim themselves to be Christians.
Have a euphoric and safe Easter this 4/20.
Nice misuse analogy. You have one too, Pete.
Reminds me of the first time I ever got drunk. On wine coolers. At church camp. Of course my first alcohol ever was the communion wine after confirmation in 8th grade.
The bible is full of contradictions, but I still don’t see where it says the Christian thing to do is lock up people who use cannabis and deny people with a medical need from using it to help ease their pain and suffering.
Fuvk you commie basterds. Disrespectful to my lord and savior. It says right so in bible. Man shall not indulge in sinful pleasures. Marijuana was created by the nigger devil.therefor a sinful pleasure that needs to be eradicated like the Muslims & Jews & liberal Democrats naztis that think America is for everyone. This is the great promise land of Jesus for he has risen,take back America with Christian force. uphold DEA rule of law.
If you’re going to be an effective troll at least use actual arguments here on the couch. For example, you could mention that Portugal decriminalization efforts are flawed because Portugal didn’t track drug stats prior to its decriminalization so there’s no real way to assess it’s success, but lifetime use has increased for certain, and it’s overall drug problems rage on. You could also try and say that many towns including Amsterdam are closing some or even all drug coffee shops in what amounts to a failed experiment, and a Dutch government report in 2011 recommended reclassifying pot as a “hard” drug to increase restrictions.
Of course, the arguments above are bullsh*t, but that’s the point of being a troll.
“Ye sleeping buds, break
Open your green cerements, and wake
To fragrant blossoming for His sweet sake”
Happy Easter, Peter.
Happy Easter Mr Troll.
Your biblical mythology and propaganda are highly entertaining. Please feel free to comment on this site anytime.
You’re too fucking funny to tell to get lost.
You’d be surprised at the amount of historical revisionism religious leaders use to uphold abstinence. My favorite lie has to do with the wedding guests of Cana, who supposedly didn’t get “buzzed” while drinking the good wine. It never ceases to amaze me how the cultural defense of alcohol persists to this day. My theory is that since alcohol doubles as a beverage (an aspect that beer and wine snobs focus WAY too much on) and has septic properties, these characteristics provided an advantage to society over other drugs like psilocybin.
As usual, great post Pete! Happy Easter and 4/20!
speaking of the little people w/ funny hats… my last visit (5g dose) I was amazed at how clear thinking and conversation was while being absolutely geshtoneden. I could have talked to anybody (tho’ certainly preferred not to). There is no there in there being any similarity w/ alcohol. As I grow older I like my shrooms more and my booze less. In fact they’re more like easter than like booze!
at this 420 i would like to say thank the lord of the poppy for my friends here at drugwarrant. i thank you for fighting for us folks who dont have the ability to stand up for ourselves etc. i will embrace what pete said about having a euphoric 420 as several bags of glorious heroin are about to arrive to my person. i will think of you all as i ascend the miracle milky way if you will. i look forward to the day when i can visit you all at your respective legal 420 stores, speaking about cross promoting for the legal opium den i will be running. the future will be glorious because we cannot lose, our cause is unbeatable because freedom is unbeatable.
The following excerpt is taken from the Catholic Encyclopedia under the heading “Alter Wineâ€. Alter wine is kickass. Note that the Holy Roman Church takes strong exception to anyone watering down their booze:
Don’t sugarcoat it, Pete. He also manufactured and distributed the drug. At a wedding, no less — an event that I was always taught was supposed to be sacred. (And I’d also just note, an event at which children are frequently in attendance.) And what did he make the wine in? Properly-labeled, child-proof containers? Nope. He made it in jars used for holding water. Gosh, that doesn’t sound like a recipe for accidental poisoning, now does it? And this was no small-scale amateur operation, either. We’re talking about between 120 and 180 gallons of the good stuff:
Something tells me this wasn’t his first time making bootleg booze.
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Peace, love, and happiness to all.
9 Reasons Why Sanjay Gupta Changed His Mind About Marijuana
nice write-up on today’s hempcapades in Denver:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/20/us/denver-420-weekend/
happy easter all.