Suicide and Pot

Some folks are rolling this out as a 'positive' side of marijuana use:

Study: Suicide Rates Fell In States Where Medical Marijuana Is Legal

At first, it sounds like marijuana is the cure for depression and the new miracle drug of the century.  The fact of the matter is that one would expect that, with an increase in drug or alcohol use, there would be a decrease in the suicide rate... at least, the fast kind of suicide.

Addicts certainly do kill themselves the quick way.  But, addiction itself is a slow-motion death.  Drug use is all about escaping the pain or reality, just like suicide.  And, like suicide, it never deals with the real problem.

Drug use and suicide both offer 'numb'... the latter supposedly as a permanent numb.  Most Christians would take issue with that, but that's a story for a different day.

Addiction is a type of death in that it is a move towards desensitization.  Even though addiction offers incredible highs, the highs have their appeal largely in being able to turn off all other inputs.  The high is an escape from the annoyances and suffering of the present.  It is a type of death, a death to the world that is unpleasant and uncomfortable.

When someone turns to marijuana, they are turning to the lesser of two evils.  As I have written before, people do not smoke pot because they enjoy the taste.  They smoke it strictly to get high.  They smoke it to escape.  In essence they are smoking it to die just a little.

Being high is a 'lesser' form of life, because in the high we are tuned out from our real world and lost in the haze of our stoned minds.

Eve was tempted by the serpent, and she ate the 'forbidden fruit' which man had been warned by God not to eat lest he die.  When they ate the fruit, they did not appear to die.  Eve remained alive and gave the fruit to Adam.  Then their eyes were opened, but they seemed very much alive.  Instead, they began to die. 

This gradual death is what drug abuse and other addictions are all about.

So, the moral of this story is that the lowering of suicide rates is deceptive.  We are merely exchanging one kind for another.