MEDICAL FIELD AGAINST LEGALIZED MARIJUANA

Even with my busy schedule, I usually make the monthly meetings for
the Campbellsville-Taylor County Anti-Drug Coalition held at Taylor
Regional Hospital. It matters. Removing illegal drugs from the
community will help us reach many goals. We want health, prosperity
and hope for our community, not despair, hopelessness and poverty.

I laughed to myself when I read the recent letter from Colorado
stating that marijuana could and would be used in a responsible way by
responsible adults if made legal. I just don't believe that. I grew up
in the 60s and 70s. I watched nickel and dime bags being passed around
at concerts and festivals as the police just watched. I helped friends
get home safely after they had indulged themselves in smoking the
weed. And then I read that "responsible adults" would handle it properly.

I have also noticed that the medical field consistently stands against
legalizing the general use of marijuana. The medical field presently
uses a synthetic cannabis in some treatments. These treatments are
developed and supervised by scientists, pharmacists and medical
doctors who have the training, expertise and experience to use a
synthetic cannabis in a way that aids their patients. The medical
field is using narcotics (both natural and synthetic) in a similar
way, to aid their patients. I doubt that most citizens (regardless of
how responsible we might be) have the knowledge and skill to use
marijuana in a way that does not diminish our mental capacity or even
diminish our health.

These are just my personal observations; however, I would like to
address one statement made by the citizen of Colorado when he stated
that the Bible, even the first page of the Bible, supported the human
consumption of marijuana because it bore seeds which caused
reproduction. This conclusion is flawed because he makes a leap in
logic that just cannot be justified.

The scripture is my area of expertise, with three earned graduate
degrees in Bible and theology. The reader from Colorado has a simple
argument: God gave all plants that bore seeds and reproduced to humans
for consumption. I disagree. If every plant that reproduced itself was
given by God for us to consume, then there is an automatic conclusion
. that would mean every plant. This would include coca from which we
produce cocaine, peyote cactus and Psilocybe mushroom each from which
we produce hallucinogens, none of which have a positive medical use.

If the reader from Colorado is correct in his interpretation of the
Bible, then God also intends for us to ingest poison ivy, poison oak
and any other poisonous plant. According to Google.com, there are 5.5
million listings for poisonous plants, plants listed as toxic to
humans (I don't see a reason to include the multiple names of plants
God created that would kill humans). I'm just not convinced God
intended for these plants to be eaten, smoked or their resins to be
injected. As a matter of fact, Genesis Chapter 2 actually says that
those plants that are "good for food" are the only ones given by God
to humanity to consume.

I think common sense would conclude that plants which produce health
and life are given by God for human consumption. Plants which would
alter the state of mind, cause other harm or even death were not given
by God for human consumption. God is not in the business of harming
the very people He loves. It seems like a no-brainer to me.

Dr. Ted Beam, Senior Pastor

Campbellsville First UMC

Campbellsville