Last week, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics – a law enforcement agency funded by the taxpayers of Oklahoma – posted some typical propaganda on Facebook about the dangers marijuana. They did this because, you know, marijuana is a lethal, addictive drug that will lead to the destruction of the human race:
Wow! You're telling me marijuana can change the way the brain works? I think we finally know why so many people use marijuana!
Some Facebook commenters took OBN to task for posting the propaganda, and as a retort, dropped some biblical arguments they claim support legalization. Listen, there are many reasons why marijuana should be legal, but unless you're trying to convince a judge at the Oklahoma Home School Science Fair to change his or her mind, using the Bible as an excuse is weak. Whether you're for marijuana legalization or against it, what's written in a 2,000-year-old book really shouldn't matter all that when it comes to 21st century laws and regulations.
Unfortunately, Mark Woodward, the theocratic propaganda chief for OBN, doesn't share those thoughts. He responded to the Facebook commenters with a mini-Bible lesson:
Yes, Joshua, you can't cherry-pick scripture to find verses to fit your argument. Only Christian moralists and people working for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics are allowed to do that.
Check out this interview Mark Woodward gave to the Southwest Radio Ministries about the evils of marijuana!
My favorite part came at about the 14-minute when Mark Woodward, a man who thinks marijuana has ruined more lives than any other drugs, said this:
I think the Bible speaks very clearly about [marijuana]. There's a reason why the Bible warns about being of a sober minded and not being drunk because the enemy comes as we know to kill steal and destroy, and we are at our most vulnerable when we're not in a right state of mind and that's why the Bible – it doesn't say don't drink wine. It says do not become drunk, because when you become intoxicated, again, you're opening a door for the enemy to work and that is very concerning for what we're seeing in today's age...
Yeah, the Bible speaks clearly about marijuana even though it never mentions marijuana. Also, Mark thinks that one drag of a joint will make someone so impaired that they'll have couchlock and not be able to function. Apparently he's never heard of the terms "one hitter," "wake and bake" or "Welcome to Braum's, how may I help you?"
His bizarre rant continues:
As you know the Bible talks a lot about sorcery, the Hebrew word for sorcery is Pharma Kia which is where we get the term pharmacy from and pharmaceuticals... some of [sorcery] is witchcraft and I believe some others are possibly mind-altering types of chemicals and plants that were being used by the enemy to you know do a lot of the damage that we see throughout the Bible when it when I mention sorcery.
And I always go back to Isaiah 5:20 where it says "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil" We're seeing that in today's society. Things that used to be considered bad, are now being considered acceptable, and things that were normal back then are now considered bad today, and and we see that a lot with drugs and in so many other issues that are certainly been coming acceptable on the Bible warns that that day is coming...
Yep, if only we could go back to the good old days of the Bible! It sure does suck that things that were considered normal back then like slavery, rape, and religious freedom are now bad today. What I woulnd't give to live in those simpler, less free times.
Later in the interview, Woodward complains about how some people cherry pick things from scripture:
It really always bothers me when anybody distorts what scripture says and they always point to Genesis where it said God gave us all these seed bearing plants for our use. And so they say "Well marijuana is seed bearing God must want us to use it." They don't go on to the very next line that says "for you eat and to provide your food for you." He's talking about the the fruits and vegetable trees and others that are seed bearing for food purposes, so they stop and carry pick their scripture pieces.
Yep, don't you always hate it when people take something out of context and don't go onto the very next line. On that note, remember the OBN Facebook post that started all this? They quoted an NBC article about marijuana's effect on the brain:
Here's what pre and proceeded those quotes:
When they looked at all 482 volunteers, it did seem that the marijuana users had some shrinkage in two brain regions called the amygdala and the right ventral striatum. But when they compared marijuana users to their siblings, the differences disappeared. So it's possible that people who choose to use marijuana may already have the smaller regions.
It's not clear why, Goldman said. "It could be nutrition, it could be stress exposures, it could be a lot of different things," he said.
"The cannabis-exposed individuals were worse off," he wrote. "They tended to be poorer, less agreeable, more likely to use other drugs, and more likely to discount larger future rewards for the immediacy of smaller ones."
But whatever cannabis is doing to the brain, it's not evident on this particular type of MRI scan, he said.
Yeah, I agree with Mark Woodward on this one. I can't stand those assholes who cherry pick.
Anyway, it sucks that we have a theocrats like Mark Woodward aggressively spreading misinformation and propaganda on the taxpayers' dime. One way to combat it is to make marijuana legal. This fall, another group is starting a petition drive to get medicinal marijuana legislation placed on the Oklahoma ballot. If you want to put an end to a prohibition on a naturally occurring, seed bearing plant that the Christian God apparently said was "good," sign the petition, volunteer, donate, and most importantly, vote "yes" in 2016.
