jini

Greetings All...:*)

This is the long overdue CfC update. I wish there was more, but I am just catching up and hope to be back on the ball soon. With school finishing up, I homeschool our five children, some of my time should be freed up a bit.

God bless! Oh, GCW, thanks so much for contacting Full Gospel Assemblies Intl! Reverend Thompson told me a few weeks ago that the support he received definitely helped. I am hoping to contact him again soon to see how things have gone.

love and peace,
-jini



ChristiansForCannabis Update for Monday May 21st, 2001

Good Evening-

I hope this email finds everyone safe and sound and doing well.
While I have been behind a bit, I think I am catching up. For this
week anyway...:*)

In addition to the regular update of articles and headlines I wanted
to share a couple of the feedbacks I have received that I have yet to
find the time to post.

From: withheld () of , on 2001-04-26
Message: I am so happy to see that this site exists. Tears of joy.
Someone standing up for the victims of this cruel and unjustifiable
war. Thank you so much.

From: withheld of , Canada on 2001-05-09
Message: Jennifer L.G. Wallace, Editor ChristiansForCannabis.Com Your
story is almost word for word the same as mine--And I really thought
I was all alone. It all began with a tragedy. You can read it from my
site. After that God changed my relationship with Teens and some time
after that I began to seriously question the "facts" I still home
school and I also want to grow but I am afraid of jepordizing my
kids.

From: withheld of (), on 2001-05-04
Message: Greetings I remember yankin' on mom's dress in church when I
was 3yrs old."Mom! Is that God?" I said, pointing at the priest. I
got snickered at & shushed. Maybe someone said "No, he just likes to
think so." It was a serious question for me. It was frustrating. But
then, on my 4th birthday I remember being "filled with the Holy
Ghost" as I would describe it, tho I was alone & did not speak with
tounges at that time. Life began to slowly get more complex and
difficult, until I was the last in my family to stop going to church
when I was in 8th grade in '69. I switched from Catholic to public
school in 9th grade. I started out on the football team, but because
the coach was a jerk and because I wouldn't obey the clique
boundaries, I ended up hangin' w/ the greasers & hippies in Art and
Music where my true talents are. I'd tell 'em not to take drugs but
they'd laugh and continue to like me despite my preaching. After
while my curiousity outweighed my caution. I got high the 1st time I
smoked. I remember my 1st thought was 'Thank You Jesus!" and
then,"Why are'nt I gettin' this at church?, but then,"I'm probably
goin' to have to give this up sometime becuase its not something God
put inside of me when He made me." I guess I felt that I didn't want
any "thing" to become more a part of me than was standard factory
issue. Now I'm in my mid forties and have weaned myself down to 1 and
3/4 grams a week with 2 week abstinence periods about every month. I
haven't found any convincing biblical reasons to quit other than that
the sacrifice would pacisfy my peers. My wife's fear of drug war
fallout is at least minimally legitimate, but spiritual reasons seem
bogus. This stuff hits my "go button" and encourages me to start and
finish dishes, laundry, lawn chores, etc. And it relaxes me mentally
enough to "smell the roses". I notice that I tend to return evil for
evil less. Please pray me Godspeed in the pursuit of happiness so I
can add it to my Peace, Love, and Joy in the Holy Ghost. Thanks for
the forum,

From: withheld of () on 2001-05-15
Message: Hello, I am youth Pastor at a Vineyrad Church and was a
Deputy Press Secretary for Pat Buchanan's campaign. I have not smoked
or ingested Cannibus in many years though many of my extended family
regularly "smoke up." It seems to me there is an issue you must
address effectively in order to convince Christians and that issue is
sorcery. I have seen websites that advocate Christain use of
psychodelics.They attempted to deal with the fact that many
Christians see drug use as sorcery and any sort of intoxication as
drunkenness. Thus drugs would be prohibited by scripture and rightly
prohibited by civil magistrates. What say ye? I think Natural non
processed plants like Mushrooms and Marijuana, that have almost no
toxic risks, ought to be decriminalized and taxed. The money should
be used to hunt down and destroy those who sell and manufacture
hard drugs and other such addictive and dangerous poisons.
-------------------

Very soon I hope to begin catching up on responding to these. Given
the amount that they have moved and encouraged me, I will probably be
making it a priority for the next week or so now that I have somewhat
updated the site.

Also in the works is a call for submissions. No criteria has been
set and I am still working out the privacy issue which is an
important subject to address. Many have something to say but are not
at liberty to share. Yet if we don't speak up, we can be garanteed
to never be heard.

In closing, keep us in your prayers as we do you. As always, the
door is always open for comments, suggestions, and even criticisms.
God bless...:*)

love and peace,
-jini

ps - please be sure to check out Grace Notes in the Resources Section
on CfC if you have not done so already. I can not recommend it
highly enough. Also, I had a couple of suggested readings - Psalms
25 and Proverbs 30.


ChristiansForCannabis Updates - 05.21.2001

Articles:

Drug Courts – "Treatment Gap" or Treatment Trap?

The Beginning of Prohibition

Editorial: Family Research Council's "Victory" in Supreme Courts
Ruling on Medical Marijuana

Headlines:

US FL: OPED: Waiting To Inhale
In a free society, you shouldn't need arguments to make something
legal, but instead, demand good reasons to make it illegal. Congress
and the Supreme Court have both determined that marijuana has no
medical properties. Fair enough. But neither do gin, sex, tobacco or
chocolate, all of which can lead to excess and disaster. (cont'd)
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL) - Courtesy of DrugNews Digest, MAP Inc.

US: A Shift In Policy On Marijuana Research
Despite last week's Supreme Court ruling that federal law does not
permit even the medical use of marijuana, the government quietly has
begun to back research into whether the nation's most popular illegal
drug could help patients with AIDS, cancer and other diseases.
(cont'd)
Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL)

US CO: Column: Irrationality Fuels National Pot Paranoia
As Michael Massing relates in his fascinating book The Fix, facets of
the federal government's current marijuana policy can actually be
traced to a summer evening in Atlanta in the 1980s, when a suburban
couple came home and discovered their 13-year-old daughter smoking
marijuana in their backyard.

This couple started a grass-roots political campaign that eventually
stretched far beyond Atlanta -- a campaign whose central premise
could be described as "Marijuana is turning America's teenagers into
depressed sociopaths who hate their parents."

That teenagers seem to exhibit such characteristics with about equal
frequency whether or not they happen to smoke marijuana is the kind
of detail that anti-drug crusaders tend to ignore. (cont'd)
Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News (CO) - Courtesy of DrugNews
Digest, Map Inc.








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bonghits4christ

When I was a member here last year under a different name, I remember the spiritual aspects forum had hardly any posts compared to other sections in cheap talk. The only person I remembered was 'Priest'. Anyway I went to the grand canyon during the summer last year, and while I was passing through Northern Arizona, I had this mini vision after I took a hit of some hydro. God was clearly showing me a crowd of people. They were all rising up against the laws that have been put on us by babylon. I knew that I had to be a part of this movement. Whether I had a big part or not was not clear. I see the evolution of this unfolding, I am meeting more spiritual Christians who toke it, and with the site cfc, its totally encouraging. Even though this is the beginning, we should be happy that cfc and all others are setting up the foundation for the uprising.

stavia hippie

this is cool, really. i am not a religous person, i am a spiritual person however. i believe in god and i thank him a lot for everything. i am going to check that site out and see what cfc is all about..
peace,

awalkinthegrass

Well, to keep an incredibly long story short, I was born again while high on marijuana. I've been a true believer ever since.

I've been high many times, but this one single time was unique. There's never been anything like it before or since. The experience went outside my head... things on the outside were happening in a synchronicity and harmony that were obviously being screenplayed by some higher power. Of course, it was a synchronicity with my head and the outside, so of course only I could see it, but conventional science couldn't have explained it... let's just put it that way. I wasn't hallucinating... things were just happening constantly. I was high for about ten hours. And no, the weed was not laced.

I had been searching desperately for an answer as to whether or not God existed, how, and if he was going to reveal himself to me before I gave up the search. I had been teetering on the edge of Christianity for months prior. All of this coincided at a time when I was hopelessly addicted to the plant. I really was abusing it. I was trying to quit, but couldn't.

At any rate. That last time I got high, so many secrets were revealed, by the time it was over, I had no choice but to believe. And yes, the entire experience centered around Christ. After the experience, I didn't touch it for six months. When I went back to it, my entire regard for it had changed dramatically. I could go back to it, but it didn't have the hold on my soul that it had once had.

-Paul

bonghits4christ

Awalkinthegrass: I used to abuse marijuana as well. I was addicted. But ever since I rededicated my life to Christ, I'm content whether I have herb or not. Your last post reminded me a lot of what I went through trying to search for him. That's why I have this theory about herb now. Before I was living for Christ, it seemed like herb was a stronghold on my life. Now it is a teacher, helping me see things from not only a new perspective, but from God's perspective. I'm glad we are on the same level awalkinthegrass!

awalkinthegrass

Oh, sure. I'll go back to grass. I'll use it a lot. But there's a difference between when marijuana has a hold on your life and when it's just used. You see, I look at abuse not entirely from a physical point of view, but also from a spiritual point of view.

I define a purely physical abuse as when its use becomes so impulsive and frequent that it is causing health disturbances and interfering with other important things in life.

I define spiritual abuse when the use is causing haunting feelings of guilt, shame, and fear.

Often the two go hand in hand. Sometimes, the spiritual fallout is physical-based... the user feels guilt and fear, and they can point to things in their life that are crumbling: money is disappearing, their health is deteriorating, etc. Or they can only point to more spiritual aspects... everything in life seems to be doing fine, but they know they can't pass on a joint even if part of them wants to, they're losing interest in anything but marijuana, or they experience anxiety when they can't get a hold of any.

Trust me. I've been there.

I've really, really been there.

And are the chemicals in marijuana to blame for any of this? I don't think so. I think it's just a natural human weakness to abuse... whether it's food, sex, television, Beanie Babies, or newsgroups on the Internet.

Yet it is still funny, how some people seem to have just been born to smoke weed. You see these perfectly well-adjusted people who smoke it all day long and function well (sometimes superbly, like a championship skater or snowboarder, to take only a few stereotyped examples) and enjoy their lives. They feel no guilt, they rejoice in their pastime with other friends or when alone, yet they can abandon it during the times they're vacationing with non-using family and friends and still have a great time. Even though a lot of weed is being consumed by such people, I do not call that abuse. If they're not feeling guilty; if they're getting all the important things in life done; if they're not hurting anyone... then it's not abuse. And that's the mindset where I believe I am and where I have always believed I was born to be. Because MY feelings of guilt were simply derived from a lack of understanding of the drug and myself. I had been poisoned by the anti-drug campaigns and my self-esteem and self-knowledge was low. Christ fixed all that.

-Paul

bonghits4christ

Right on awalkinthegrass! I agree 100 percent with everything you said on that last post.