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Marijuana The Forbidden Herb By: David M. Curtis Marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit drug in the United States. Let's face the facts This drug is as common as the Big Mac. I started smoking pot when I was 14 years old, and I am 33 years old now, and I do NOT use drugs alcohol or tobacco at all anymore. I AM FREE!!!! Some people on the internet have a movement called FREE THE WEED, I am writing to tell you that today I AM FREE FROM THE WEED!!!! Can I tell my story and my reason for quitting and how I feel both before and after? You are welcome to disagree with my decision to stop using pot, but you can not disagree with what I felt and experienced. All of this is real, and is not up for debate. I used marijuana for many years. Last time I was using it I was burning through $175 worth of the stickiest greenest strongest smelling pot anywhere, about every 3-4 days. I lived in an area that provided the best available green bud, in the country. So I was living the pot smokers dream! I smoked more pot than cigarettes. My brother is 36 years old, he went to college for 5 years as an agricultural scientist with one purpose in mind. He wanted to be able to grow the best pot in the world. He is a total hippie. He is one of the smartest most knowledgeable hippies I ever met, and I love him, after all he is my brother. He is very well read and highly educated. His whole life revolves around rock concerts and getting high. In fact he is personal friends with many rock bands. I have known a lot of pot heads but have seldom met ones as dedicated as my brother and I are, or in my case used to be. I sometimes wonder what life would have been like for us if we never got exposed to marijuana. I will never know! Today I see pot through totally different eyes, how did that become possible? Well the fact that my eyes are no longer blood shot red has helped me to see things much more clearly! I can see now marijuana has hurt my life in more ways than I could possibly have seen while I was using it. I used to think I was pretty smart or "cool" while I was high. I thought I was as wise as Solomon, when in reality I was a fool. My marijuana addiction led me to make the dumbest decisions I have ever made! In fact the majority of my really dumb mistakes were connected in some way to marijuana. I lied, I stole, I hurt the people that were closest to me, I pretty much did it all. I really do feel remorseful that I ever used marijuana, or did all those really dumb things. Some have to hit the bottom before they turn their life around. I had to hit below the bottom, I was too stubborn and in love with my sins to do it any other way. It was only the grace of God that helped me dig my way out of the self destruction  I had piled over my life. Truthfully I was just moments away from suicide before I finally turned around, and asked God for help, and gave everything to the Lord. Why did I use? I could not tell you at the time, but I can now. I was empty and hurt largely because I came from a broken home in which my parents took care of my brother and I physically in separate homes. They might as well of divorced us both when they divorced each other. At least they emotionally divorced me on that day, and left me to myself from that time forward. Marijuana helped me to cover up the way I really felt inside. It offered me a new circle of friends, who gave me a sense of family. It made me so I did not have to face the reality of how hurt I was. I could escape from all the garbage I had lived through. It did not always seem that this was the reason, after all it was FUN right? It was SOCIAL right? So while having FUN with LOTS of friends, it was hard for me to see that everything I just shared was the real reason I used drugs. That is the point of being drunk or stoned right? It helps you live in an alternate universe. It helps you to escape reality. I am not saying I was hallucinating. rather the euphoria masked my true feelings, and made me feel artificially happy. When I finally did quit smoking pot, my life long friends suddenly lost interest in me. My own brother stopped talking to me for 14 years, thankfully we are friends again and I have a new life now, and am glad that this all changed for me. The reason I am sharing this is to say these "friends" that at the time felt like "family," were not friends at all, they were DRUG ADDICTS. Drug addicts have an unspoken creed. I will get you high this time, if you get me high next time. The moment you take a stand and say I am not going to get you, me or anyone else high ever again, is the day everything changes. These friendships can seem at the time to be very real and all about the people, but the truth is its all about the drugs. The drug addict’s life is a lie, and it is a delusion. You lie to your self about how you feel with artificial happiness; you lie to yourself about how your drug addict friends feel about you. Marijuana Drug Addicts are SPECIAL because it is not addictive in the same sense that tobacco or heroin is. So the biggest self delusion a pot smoker has is that he is NOT a drug addict. Whether Marijuana is LEGAL or ILLEGAL does not matter to me. I am neutral about it, because I know kids are going to use it either way. I know from experience that making it illegal does not keep anyone from using it. I am not convinced that people should go to jail for using marijuna. What I am 100% against these days is USING IT ALL TOGETHER. Should a pot smoker go to jail? Probably not! Should a pot smoker keep smoking pot? No question about it, Definitely NOT! I am not proposing that we should legislate that decision; rather we should EDUCATE people so they can make the right decisions. What if America channeled the money we are now spending on the "war on drugs" and started spending it towards education. I am not talking about a bunch of fluff entertainment ads, rather real life education about how drugs effect people. Mine is just one of thousands of stories, yea millions of stories. The pen is mightier than the sword. Truth is more powerful than the fear of prison. In my opinion that money would be more wisely and effectively spent on national campaigns to educate youth.  Kids only see that it is fun, and social. Kids are SMART, they have so much potential, but with out the TRUTH they can make foolish decisions. I I know that from years of personal experience.   The war on drugs is not something new that started in the last generation, actually it is nearly 100 years old now. In 1914 the US passed the Harrison Act, which first criminalized drugs, and started this war that could never be won. About $500 worth of heroin or cocaine in a source country brings in as much as $100,000 on the streets of an American city. We can not win a war against drugs merely through spending lots of money to punish those who sell and use them. The public has agreed with this for a very long time. Gallup reports in 1990 showed that only 4 per cent of Americans believed that ``arresting the people who use drugs'' is the best way for the government to allocate its resources.   The BILLIONS of  dollars now spent on fighting the war on drugs would do more through education than it possibly could through mere punishment. Most drug addicts who are forced to stay clean through lock down, are high on drugs with in the first 72 hours after they are released. In other words legal punishment is not a detourant against drug use. It just slows it down from time to time.   I grew up watching a television show called, "Leave it to Beaver." Whenever young Mr. Cleaver would make a mistake, Ward Cleaver would take him into the Den and explain through stories and examples how this was wrong. He did not just pull out the belt and start giving it to him. Reasoning with Beaver Cleaver had greater long lasting effects upon his decisions than raw punishment could. There is a time for the law to punish illicit drug use, but it should not be the main attack in the war on drugs, rather education should be! That is the method I am using in this article. I am using real life stories and examples combined with the facts in an effort to reason with you why marijuana is a very bad choice and over time is self destructive, showing how it does hurt you.   Marijuana use hurts you in every area of your life. The problem is that while you are using it, it is nearly impossible for you to see that this is happening. marijuana is very deceptive upon the mind and emotions about its actual effects. The truth is that marijuana is hurting you in all these areas, whether you have a clear enough mind to realize it or not. Financially Socially Emotionally Mentally Physically Spiritually   Weigh the pro's and the con's and I think you will see, marijuana takes more than it gives. If I handed you a $100 bill and you BURNED it wouldn't that be FOOLISH? Of course it would be. Every time you burn through $100 dollars of pot that is all you have done. You have turned that $100.00 into ashes. And some how you can deceive your FEELINGS into thinking this was a good investment. Look at the TRUTH you just paid MORE than the going rate for GOLD and have only ASHES to show for it!   I would say that is pretty dumb? What do you say? Only a DRUG ADDICT would do something that dumb!   YOU ARE SMARTER THAN THAT! I know you are. I believe in you. There are much better things to spend your money on, and there are healthier ways to handle your emotions, and there are MUCH BETTER FRIENDS out there. Trust me! I know.... I took a chance and found out all of this is true and so could you!   By the way today… You could NOT PAY me to use marijuana, I don’t want it! It used to be my whole life, but today I can honestly say, I AM FREE FROM THE WEED!!!! If I can do it, so can you! Even if marijuana was totally FREE and 100% LEGAL, and even if some quack doctor told me I needed to use it for medical reasons, I still would not smoke pot! The price in other ways is still too great. Besides there are safer alternatives both naturally and medicinally for all the things marijuana advocates prescribe it for medically.  Doctors prescribed smoking cigarettes in the 19th century for lung disease. We know that is quackery today. Smoking marijuana can CAUSE cancer; it is absolute quackery to prescribe it to people who have cancer or some other problem. SMOKING no matter what it  is, is NOT medicine. It does not take a scientist to figure that out. We will come back to this later in this article. Home The Four Angels Loose the Four Winds The 7 Trumpets are Still Yet to Sound Examining the Historic View of the 1335 Day Prophecy Examining the Historic View of the 1335 Day Prophecy Part II Examining End Time Theories of the 1335 Day Prophecy My End Time Scenario of the 1335 Day Prophecy When the Pope takes over Jerusalem The Destruction of Jerusalem "Melchizedek's" Identity Healing the Deadly Wound The Sleeping Virgins - Saved or Lost? Marijuana - The Forbidden Herb Do Pets Go to Heaven? Michael the Archangel Overcoming Cherished Sin What Nature Did Christ Take? Is the Bible Full of Mistakes? "Day for a Year" Principal Is Calvinism's View of Predestination Scriptural? Answering the Difficult Questions about Predestination The REAL Reason Judas Betrayed Jesus Falling in Love with Jesus Jesus Christ the same Yesterday Today and Forever The Pharisee's Accuse Jesus of Breaking the Sabbath Was Jesus Black or White? Baptism for the Dead? How to have a Living Faith                   Do you think Smoking Pot Relaxes You? Think Again! Within a few minutes after inhaling marijuana smoke, an individual’s heart begins beating more rapidly, the bronchial passages relax and become enlarged, and blood vessels in the eyes expand, making the eyes look red. The heart rate, normally 70 to 80 beats per minute, may increase by 20 to 50 beats per minute or, in some cases, even double. This effect can be greater if other drugs are taken with marijuana             Marijuana has the potential to promote cancer of the lungs and other parts of the respiratory tract because marijuana smoke contains 50 percent to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke.             Getting high causes the brain cells to release dopamine, hence the name "dope" is often given this drug which causes a euphoria "high."           Coming down from marijuana can cause depression            Teenagers on drugs can experience a dramatized or amplified version of events in their life far beyond reality, that FEEL very real to them! Occasionally, marijuana use produces anxiety, fear, and even distrust.               Someone who smokes marijuana regularly may have many of the same respiratory problems that tobacco smokers do, such as daily cough and phlegm production.             Marijuana's damage to short-term memory seems to occur because THC alters the way in which information is processed by the hippocampus, a brain area responsible for memory formation.               In one study, researchers compared marijuana smoking and nonsmoking 12th-graders' scores on standardized tests of verbal and mathematical skills. Although all of the students had scored equally well in 4th grade, those who were heavy marijuana smokers, i.e., those who used marijuana seven or more times per week, scored significantly lower in 12th grade than nonsmokers.         '       Another study of 129 college students found that among heavy users of marijuana critical skills related to attention, memory, and learning were significantly impaired, even after they had not used the drug for at least 24 hours.             Did you know that marijuana use is also associated with delinquent behaviors? A study of teen marijuana use and behavior in 2002 concluded that the more pot teens used, the higher the rates of serious fighting at school or work. There was a strong correlation between marijuana use and attempts to steal, attacks on others, group against group fighting and handgun possession. (National Survey on Drug Use and Health report, January 9, 2004). - Illicit teen drug use as of 2003. * 8th grade -- 30.3% * 10th grade -- 44.9% * 12th grade -- 52.8% - Underage drug abuse and drinking costs the United States more than $58 billion dollars annually, enough for a new state of the art computer for every student. 1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. Today this verse means more than it did when it was written. Today children are involved in things that even adults should never be exposed to. The subject of drugs, tobacco and alcohol with young people is more common than when I was a child. Yet when I was a child I knew an 8 year old who would smoke cigarettes and marijuana WITH his mother and two older brothers. Homes where the father and mother are obeyed and respected are very rare. This set of verses below seems to be a more common description for homes these days. 2 Timothy 3:1-6 1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Hollywood portraits husbands who make fun of their wives, and children who rebel against their parents, and sadly this is the more innocent side of TV and movies. The word "family: does not carry with it the same meaning and respect that it used to. Fornication, homosexuality, and adultery are becoming more acceptable by society.   OVER 1 in 4 kids which are ONLY 13 to 14 years old have used or are using drugs. Here is a reality check parents, that means that children that do NOT use drugs likely know the kids who do! I started using drugs when I was 14 years old! I was hanging out with 8 friends in front of a house, when someone pulled out a joint. I had never even heard of marijuana before that moment, and yet when it became my turn, I took my first "hit" off a joint. No one warned me about drugs. I was unprepared. All my friends were doing it! That was all it took to change my life forever.   My parents did not know for YEARS that I was using drugs, tobacco and alcohol on a regular basis. My parents never could have imagined that I was one of the statistics USING drugs. A parent that thinks it CANNOT be my kid in today's society is wearing rose colored glasses and is SELF DECEIVED. A good parent cannot afford to accept this type of ignorant attitude. Not any more! Kids are SMART, and they know how to smile and they know how to LIE and look innocent while they do. Instead of watching Law and Order or CSI, why not be as smart as those characters when it comes to your own kids, and take nothing for granted. Spend time with your kids. My parents did not know the truth about my life as a child because they spent more time with the television than they did with me. Getting away with everything was really easy to do, because my parents did not spend time with me. Be a real parent with your kids.   A loving relationship with your kids is the best defense against drugs and alcohol. If you have not done so, you may want to read the comments and facts posted in the right column.