“IF GOD MADE EVERYTHING, then why is it wrong to smoke marijuana?”
If pressed, how would you answer this question? At the time I wrote this chapter, my short video response to this question was one of my top social media videos ever. Clearly it hit a nerve.
When I was in high school, the most common answer from adults was that smoking was wrong because it was illegal. But now that marijuana is legal in many states (although not for students), does that make it okay? And honestly, aren’t there bigger problems for people to worry about, such as racism and climate change, than students smoking pot to feel good? What’s the big deal?
These are great questions that we need to think about. Yet before we delve into some of these details, let’s consider a deeper question: Why are people so powerfully drawn to drugs? Let me suggest that, at its heart, the issue is relational brokenness. According to some studies, your generation describes itself as the loneliest generation. Broken families. Distant fathers. Anxiety. Depression. My heart goes out to you and your generation who have to face difficult issues that God never intended you to deal with.
I understand why so many young people turn to drugs, hoping to find momentary relief from the painful reality of their daily lives. Yet I have also seen many young lives ruined, or permanently scarred, by drugs. I hope and trust you won’t buy the lie that drugs will fill the emptiness you’re feeling. Drugs may offer temporary relief, but they cannot, and will not, fill the deepest desires of your heart. Only relationships with God and other people can truly offer your life meaning.
A Christian View of Drugs and Alcohol
There are three important points for Christians to consider when thinking about drugs and alcohol.
Our Bodies Are a Gift from God
As a kid, I always looked forward to Wednesdays, which was the day the new comic books arrived at the local grocery store. As soon as the school bell rang, I would run to town and pick up a copy of the most recent The Amazing Spider-Man or Batman comic. As soon as I read it, I would put it in a protective bag so it was safe from potential damage. I still have most of these comics today, and many are quite valuable.
One day, a good friend of mine asked to borrow and read one of my comics. I reluctantly agreed, trusting he would treat it as carefully as I did. Yet when he returned the comic, he had creased the pages, pulled out the staples, and torn a few of the pages. I was horrified that he would treat something so valuable with such disrespect.
God has also entrusted us with something that does not belong to us—our bodies. For us to misuse our bodies is to bring harm to something that is not our own. Drinking, smoking, and taking drugs are not only illegal for students, but they are also wrong because they can so easily damage something that is God’s property (see 1 Corinthians 6:19-20) and, I might add, his masterpiece (see Ephesians 2:10).
Our Bodies Are Holy for God
To encourage Christians at Corinth not to use their bodies for immoral things, Paul reminds them that the Holy Spirit lives inside them (see 1 Corinthians 3:16-17). Rather than “living” in the Temple, God now lives in the bodies of believers. We should be holy, then, because God lives inside us! Since the Spirit of God dwells within us, shouldn’t we do everything we can to honor his presence?
Our Minds Are to Love God
As we have discussed many times in this book, our greatest commandment is to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love other people (see Mark 12:30). Yet we haven’t discussed what it means to love God with our minds. In part, it means we are not to be controlled by anything except the Holy Spirit. Anything that pollutes our minds, such as pornography or drugs, prevents us from being able to love God in the way we are designed to. If our mental abilities are under the control of anything besides God’s Spirit, we have forfeited God’s power in our lives.
Like a virus that invades a computer, drugs and alcohol can destroy the proper functioning of its host—you. When you give up control over your mind, you open yourself to deception and manipulation. Taking drugs steals your freedom. Rather than living in slavery to our passions, which includes drunkenness, Paul invites Christians to live by the Spirit, which brings self-control and the freedom to love others (see Galatians 5:16-23).
Types of Drugs
Marijuana
Once a hidden drug, marijuana has become one of the drugs of choice for your generation. The scientific name for the herb commonly called pot is Cannabis sativa. The plant from which marijuana is obtained is called hemp, which can be used to make fabric and rope and is used in some personal hygiene products, and the chemical THC can help relieve pain and nausea.
But like many things that are part of God’s creation, marijuana can be abused. While there are ongoing debates about the effects of marijuana, there are some strong indicators that it has negative effects, especially for young people:
You might be thinking this is merely correlation and not causation. Fair enough. But these same kinds of studies were sufficient for the government to act against cigarettes because of the link to lung cancer. There are enough red flags to suggest that, like cigarettes, using marijuana is unwise, especially for students.
Alcohol
The Bible has quite a bit to say about alcohol. The Bible does not condemn the use of alcohol but its misuse. In fact, in proper circumstances, alcohol is not always a bad thing. In his letter to Timothy, Paul encouraged him to take some wine for the benefit of his stomach (see 1 Timothy 5:23). Jesus turned water into wine in his first miracle (see John 2). Many scholars have noted that the wine in Jesus’ day was much weaker than today’s product. Yet alcohol is treated very seriously in Scripture because people could—and did—abuse it.
An innocent drink can open the door to abuse later. Alcohol also impairs judgment. King David got Uriah drunk in hopes that he would sleep with his wife, Bathsheba, to cover up that David had wrongly impregnated her while Uriah was at war. David understood a simple yet powerful truth: alcohol breaks down our ability to make sound judgments.
People do things when drunk they would not ordinarily do sober. This is why in cases of rape, violence, and theft among youth, there is often a link to alcohol.
Vaping
Vaping didn’t even exist when I wrote the first edition of this book. That means some of the research is still developing about its long-term effects. But consider a few early findings:
While research indicates that vaping may be less harmful than cigarettes, it is still not safe.
A Final Word
Have you noticed how beer companies advertise? Beaches. Mountains. Laughing. Beautiful people. They want you to associate alcohol with pleasure, excitement, and fun. They are not merely selling a product but a worldview. Tobacco companies cannot advertise in the same way, but they spend nearly nine billion dollars a year to hook you and your generation on their product.[8] Be wise and discerning.
How can you stand strong? Consider three steps:
[1] While long-standing research has shown that marijuana use harms memory, there is some evidence that at least some of the impairments reverse if the habit stops. See this recent study: Randi Melissa Schuster et al., “One Month of Cannabis Abstinence in Adolescents and Young Adults Is Associated with Improved Memory,” The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 79, no. 6 (October 30, 2018): 17m11977, https://www.psychiatrist.com/JCP/article/Pages/2018/v79/17m11977.aspx.
[2] The YouTube channel C0nc0rdance is created by a cell biologist who is an atheist. He discusses the negative effects of marijuana and responds to charges that he cherry-picks research. See https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPFnHiJx1P9UY05_F9sOu1g.
[3] See “Marijuana: Just the Facts,” Drugs & Health Blog, National Institute on Drug Abuse, May 6, 2019, https://teens.drugabuse.gov/blog/post/marijuana-just-facts.
[4] John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera, “Marijuana and Psychosis,” BreakPoint, December 31, 2019, https://www.breakpoint.org/marijuana-and-psychosis/.
[5] See “Tobacco, Nicotine, & Vaping (E-Cigarettes),” National Institute on Drug Abuse, June 25, 2021, https://teens.drugabuse.gov/drug-facts/tobacco-nicotine-vaping-e-cigarettes#topic-6.
[6] Michael Joseph Blaha, “5 Vaping Facts You Need to Know,” Johns Hopkins Medicine, accessed August 18, 2020, https://bit.ly/3g9vhvi.
[7] The NIDA Blog Team, “The Latest on Vaping-Related Illness and Deaths,” National Institute on Drug Abuse, April 6, 2020, https://teens.drugabuse.gov/blog/post/latest-vaping-related-illness-and-deaths.
[8] “Is Vaping Better than Smoking?,” American Heart Association, October 30, 2018, https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/quit-smoking-tobacco/is-vaping-safer-than-smoking.