To visit the Internet Church of Christ founded by Dr. Bob Benchoff, click here.

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Recreational

Drugs

--Sermon by Dr. Bob Benchoff, July 23, 2002

--Updated February 23, 2006 (see page bottom)

Recreational drugs do not simply cause fun; sometimes they cause fun for the user, sometimes they cause the user's organs to fail, and sometimes they cause injury and death to innocent bystanders.

You worked hard to learn to read, you endured a lot of suffering. You work hard, cleaning-up after yourself, getting ready for this or that. Doing what other people tell you to do.

After all that hard work you endured, would you want to throw away your hard work that you accomplished? Yes, you want to erase the suffering, but I'm not asking that.

The question is not about suffering, the question is about you,...the question is for you.

Do you want to throw away what you have already worked hard to accomplish? Would you want to go through that suffering and hard work again? You already did it once, and you rose a tiny bit. If you start over, you may be bored and frustrated and it may be worse the second time you go through it.

Do you want to be treated as though nothing good would ever come from you?...Of course not.

You don't even remember that one time you got up in the morning even though you felt like staying in bed, and it was hard, but you got dressed and you were nice to someone. Do you want to lose that freedom, so that you won't even be able to prepare and be nice to someone? Destructive people are punished, destructive people are imprisoned, destructive people are tortured.

Do you remember the time you did not poke yourself in the eye? Do you remember the time you worked hard to catch that baby as it was about to fall? Do you prefer to lose that ability?

If you do drugs, perhaps your mind will no longer function, or perhaps police and doctors will put you in a straight-jacket, or perhaps you will become a quadraplegic.

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A reasonable person does not cut out their own liver to experiment on it.

A reasonable person knows their body is not the same as their friend's body, so their bodies may react differently.

Years ago my friend said she tried marijuana once. She smoked part of a joint, passed-out, and a few days later awoke in a hospital: she had been in a coma.

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Medicinal drugs are developed to repair problems, such as anti-venom used as venom treatment. Recreational drugs do not share that good purpose, for the recreational drug thrill seeker.

Some medicinal repair drugs also have recreational drug effects. Medicinal drugs are developed to repair a specific problem or set of problems, working to reduce side effects.

Even so, it is difficult to get FDA approval for repair drugs because the FDA wants to be sure the repair drugs do not cause damage, or within limits.

Did an expert prescribe recreational drugs to you, such as to treat depression, or did they prescribe something to treat the cause (not the effect)? If your friend prescribes a recreational drug, do they even know the difference?

There are psychological answers also, whereas with recreational drugs being illegal, you likely don't even know if the drugs were tested on humans initially during the process, causing some people to die, so that you could have temporary fun if you got lucky.

Current illegality of drugs thwarts psychological and sociological justification. Beyond that, Jesus Christ wants you to focus on permanent happiness.

If you feel happy about anything temporary, how much greater is permanent happiness? A drug stupor is not permanent happiness. Properly raising a child in the teachings of Jesus Christ, and telling people about the blessings of Jesus Christ, and working toward good selflessly: these are toward permanent happiness in the Holy Spirit, ongoing joy in the Lord, and eternal bliss with God.

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Each recreational drug involves very many chemicals.

Any chemist knows it is very difficult to attain consistent cleanliness and purity, and that desired results require intelligence, experience, clarity of mind, and a thorough understanding of not only complex processing, but also interactions due to a wide range of variables.

If a chemist doing illegal activities has all the ingredients to make a drug, except one, will they give-up or will they still try to make a profit? Do you think a chemist doing illegal activities is thinking clearly, consistently, and rightly? Or do you think such a chemist for example might substitute oxalosuccinic acid for oxaloacetic acid?

Chemists making illegal drugs don't just run to the store for drug components, the DEA knows how illegal drugs are made and watches to see what components buyers purchase.

Just because something is made naturally and organically, that is no guarantee of consistently good qualities: black widow spider poison is natural and organic. Marijuana, for instance, varies greatly in constituent potency.

Illegal drugs can cause great people to become severely handicapped and a burden on society.

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Recreational drugs clearly have limitations and associated problems.

Jesus Christ said a little wine is good for the soul. Today's drugs are far more intense than a little wine.

Drugs do have benefits, but if you use recreational drugs you need to ask yourself, do you do it for you or do you do it for other people? And we are not talking about peer pressure.

We are talking about your personal decision about self-serving self-gratification or about selfless acts of kindness. Passing a joint to a friend does not fit the selfless kindness area as well as the hard working certified chemists and licensed medical doctors pushing themselves to perform correctly and to perform good and proper biophysiology in line with established norms set forth and agreed by experts and the majority per our United States Declaration and Constitution.

Before prescribing powerful psychoactive drugs, doctors look-up patient records or use other established methods to see if there could be counterindications and adverse reactions.

Prescription drugs often say something such as "Do not exceed one tablet every 8 hours." When is the last time you saw a bag of white powder with such a warning?

I would like to see things going-on that are good for the soul. Therefore, I would like to see the drug issue handled better by government. When dealing with drugs, warning labels, prescriptions, and other current precautions are not sufficient safegards.

The question as to why an individual person is allergic to a particular drug needs to be answered for each person or group of people if applicable.

Also, if the person is not allergic, the question as to how that person will be affected by the drug needs to be reasonably thoroughly answered.

Also, the control of bootleg drugs needs to be properly handled.

Finally standardization can be accomplished. We are approaching standardization now, yet there is much selfless work to be done first.

It is important to better tap the potential of the mind, that we might dare benefit the soul. It is important to work together to make great strides to achieve great success, happiness, and prosperity for all.

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Update from ICCDBB Affiliate ANC News February 23, 2006:

Religion and controlled substances: O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal, known as UDV, is Christian, originating with Amazon rainforest [missionaries], now with a US branch of about 130 members in the Santa Fe area in NE New Mexico. In Church communion practice is used hallucinogenic hoasca tea made from plants unique to the Amazon that contain dimethyltryptamine, which is considered a mind-altering drug under the controlled-substances law. The case began in 1999, when U.S. Customs intercepted a shipment of hoasca. The sect sued to block the government from interfering with the shipments. Federal courts sided with the UDV, based on the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and rejected the claim that "compelling interest" in uniform enforcement of anti-drug law applied, since as Chief Justice John Roberts noted that federal law has an exception for the use of peyote by "hundreds of thousands" of the Native American Church, so it's members can use peyote [legally]. USA Today reports or editorializes: "The court rejected arguments by the Justice Department that the communion ritual undermines federal anti-drug law." (:ANC & various sources). Church(es), religion(s), and similar under US law is(are) [unConstitutionally / Article 7] virtually not recognized unless so incorporated. Many people for instance, have claimed to be using marijuana and/or other drugs for religious purposes, but without having substantiated via incorporation records, their words may have been treated as opinion or other, rather than factual. Responsibility is a concern. While incorporation indicates greater responsibility, the fact remains that drugs entail a risk. Churches or other groups that administer drugs, or even foods, are responsible accordingly. For instance, toddlers and fish bones don't mix, just as disparate people and drugs may not mix on a personal and case by case basis, so since Federal court decided religious drugs are not under law, religions considering drugs might do well to investigate personally, such as in 1 Corinthians 11.17 through 11.32 (:ANC). February 22, 2006.

US Supreme Court "unanimously" agreed "hallucinogenic" [recreational drugs] are allowed in "religious ceremonies" (:WSJ)(Note added 2/23/06: ANC investigation indicated not "Supreme Court" but another federal court). While wine can help the soul, strong drug properties need to be more thoroughly considered among experts of all fields, as one unit, handled similar to FDA or utility management. Minutes ago ICCDBB received another note of praise, including the comment "I had trouble with some drugs for a while but reading your website about recreational drugs has seriously changed me and now I know I love Jesus more and more every day and he helps me to not do them anymore" [name withheld] (:ANC). February 21, 2006.

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To visit the Internet Church of Christ founded by Dr. Bob Benchoff, click here.