OPEN DRUG USE WOULD LEAD KIDS AWAY FROM GOD

To the editor,

Redford Givens, in his letter, wants the rest of us to believe that
the current war on drugs should be given up. "After 92 straight
years of failure," he states, "it is amazing that The Daily News
Journal still thinks there is any virtue in a lunatic drug crusade.
Rather than saving kids from dangerous drugs, drug
prohibition exposes everyone to a dangerous criminal black
market that functions in the shadows of Murfreesboro and
every other city in Tennessee."

To support his allegations he cites legalized drug use in
Switzerland, where addicts are supplied (by the government?) on the
cheap, deaths are reduced, etc., and the gist is he wants that here.
Imagine, the kids at school getting stoned between gym and the math
class. Does he honestly think their grades will improve?

But it was the Bible quote that bothered me the most. False prophets
do come as ravenous wolves, but when he quoted Matthew did he imply
that they were not men leading the body of Christ astray, but
government agents swooping down on someone with a joint?

I would like to show him a couple of other Bible verses, which he
clearly ignored. Galatians 5:19-21: "Now the works of the flesh are
manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,
revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have
also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall
not inherit the kingdom of God." Since a lot of these drug users
claim to talk to God while high, the word "witchcraft" comes to
mind. In this instance, it comes from the Greek word "pharmakiea,"
from which we get the word "pharmacy," and everyone knows
pharmacy means drug store.

So, by getting all the heroin, the crack, the weed, and the meth
legalized so the kiddies can get higher than a kite, does Mr. Givens
really mean he is indeed a "ravenous wolf" who intends to lead them
astray, even to the point of excluding them from the Kingdom of God?

Brian Macdonald

Middle Tennessee Boulevard