The Differences Between Alcohol and Marijuana

There has long been a debate on whether alcohol or marijuana is 'safer' or 'healthier.'  This usually centers around the marijuana legalization debate.

Some will say that since alcohol is, in reality, a poison, it is by far more harmful than marijuana's psychoactive ingredient, THC.  Never mind the fact that marijuana smoke is loaded with toxins and has been linked to cancer and damaging DNA.

Marijuana also impairs judgement and motor skills, though it is fairly obvious that there are differences in how this is different from alcohol.  

What many people have pointed out, which bears repeating, is the reason why people smoke marijuana versus why people drink alcohol.  First of all, we don't really 'drink alcohol.'  We drink flavored water with alcohol in it.

Be it wine or beer or distilled spirits, there is an aesthetic to alcoholic beverages.  They come in literally thousands of distinct flavors, all with varying ranges of alcohol present.  In fact, alcohol concentration is not always the most critical factor in alcoholic beverage consumption.

Sure, I remember those days when I watched college students 'suffer' through shots of 'everclear' or tequila brought up from Mexico.  They hated the flavor, but wanted a cheap high.  We all know what that is about.  But, that is not the primary force behind alcoholic beverage sales.  People go on wine-tasting tours not to get high, but find a wine that they enjoy the flavor of.  

While I have not been to a marijuana expo in person, I've watched enough on video and talked to quite a number of avid users to know that people generally don't smoke marijuana with an eye on the flavor as much as the kick.  Smoking a joint with a low THC level is likely to result in disappointment.

That's because the primary purpose of smoking marijuana is to get high.

Yes, there is plenty of talk about the 'pleasures' of smoking pot, but it is almost strictly about the psychoactive effects.  When marijuana is sold, the dealer won't tell you about his bud's "floral notes with a hint of cinnamon."  He's going to tell you how fast and how long you will get high.

I've never heard a marijuana smoker say, "I'll just take a few puffs, because I don't want to get a buzz."  You smoke precisely because you want to get high.

This is where the problem lies: if people are drinking or smoking to get high, then there is a problem.

Sure, plenty of people drink wine or beer or spirits to get drunk.  Yet, you can also drink and not get drunk, or even a 'buzz.'  You can even 'party' and have a good time without getting 'high.'  It really is possible, and there are a lot of people who do.  It is quite possible for a non-abuser of alcohol to be quite happy with the flavor and quality of his drink without getting 'buzzed.'  If you drink regularly, then you can build up a tolerance which prevents moderate amounts from having any effect at all.

So, all the biblical references to wine that talk about merriment are not necessarily talking about drunkenness.  Rather, when drunkenness or being overcome with wine is mentioned, it is always bad.  Think of King David, Nabal, and Noah.

If life is so bad that you need to get high, then it is time not to smoke more pot or guzzle more beer, but examine why you can't get through your week without altering your consciousness.  Man is not designed to be healthy AND impaired.  If you are impaired, you are operating at less than optimal... like a Porsche with a 1,000 lbs. block of concrete in the passenger seat.  Why would you want to have decreased motor skills or lowered mental function.

The mere fact that a 'pot head' has to prove how functional he is ought to tell everyone that he is not.  His protestations are indicative of the problem.  Sober people don't run around telling everyone how sober they are, but those abusing alcohol and marijuana are very often trying to demonstrate their 'sobriety.'

Either that, or they are bragging about how stoned they are.

Impairment is impairment.  It means you are 'less than' who you really are.  If you must escape yourself, then there is a problem within.

Since marijuana users are really looking for impairment, I think that marijuana is quite a bit worse than alcoholic beverages.  That is because I believe that seeking impairment is a sign of dysfunction, which is another word for impairment.   

Life is full of so many blessings, which impairment naturally excludes us from.  If you have a life that is worth missing, perhaps it is time to make it better rather than hide from it.

Abandoning Ourselves to God

Faith comes when we are finally able to move away from what other people have to say about God and start relying more on what we know through direct experience about Him.

Sure, some may say that faith is more about believing what we don't have any evidence for, but that is not the sum total of faith.  If you read the Scriptures with care, you notice that God asks man to trust Him based on what He has already done.  The whole record is presented to us in order that we would believe based on the evidence presented.  We are supposed to use what other people say in order to start the path, but then we are supposed to experience God for ourselves.  There is no such thing as 'blind faith.'

We cannot yield ourselves to an unknown God, nor can we really be expected to throw ourselves into the arms of a God that we only know in a theoretical way.  We make our small beginnings based on what evidence we have been given by others, and then God responds.  He makes Himself known to us.

Once we have come into contact with Him, then our understanding of God changes.  Theology and dogma become less about what other people think about God and more about what we know to be true.  If theology and dogma remain 'academic,' then they are of no real use to us.  Theology must be personal because God Himself is a Person and therefore the relationship with Him is by definition 'personal.'

He deals with us in a direct manner, rather than through a veil of impersonal academics and theories.

And in this inter-personal context, we can finally release from our fears and self-will to abandon ourselves to God.  To be sure, we are talking about a process that happens incrementally and over time.  Like a child learning to ride a bike, the training wheels of theology and the experiences of others help us in the beginning, but eventually need to come off.

We must practice living with God.  The training wheels then come off, and we are riding based on our own experience.  It is that inner experience of God that allows us to come to trust Him more and more, until we are able to utterly abandon ourselves to His care.

This does not happen all at once.  Nowhere does a saint appear out of thin air.  Saints are made, and they are tried by circumstances over and over again.  God tests them over and over again, so that they gradually come to the level that they rise to.

The same is true for us.  We must be tried again and again.  Sometimes, it seems like the lessons get repeated over and over, but that's usually because we need the practice.  Eventually, we will pass and move to the next one.  Then, that one gets repeated.  All of life becomes 'homework drills' just like the ones in math class.  We hated those, and so we will probably hate these.  That's because our self-confidence often outpaces our actual competence.

Over time, we learn more about God and ourselves, and this is where real faith comes into play.  This self-knowledge helps us to understand our limitations and abilities.  We learn what God expects of us and also what we cannot do on our own.  Beginners often want to abandon their responsibilities to God, but that's not how it works.  We must learn that God expects us to do our part: for example, we can't expect to know God if we don't spend time with Him.  If we don't stop and pray, we will never know Him.

In the beginning, we want other people to tell us what God wants or thinks.  We seek gurus and 'spiritual fathers' to act as our replacements for this relationship with God.  Sure, getting a nudge in the right direction is helpful.  However, if we come to rely on other people to ask as our connection to God, we will never grow.  We will never be able to yield ourselves to God if we keep Him behind other people.  We must step out and engage Him face-to-face.

There comes a point where we are pushed to trust God in a new way.  It happens in some small way, perhaps hardly noticeable or embarrassingly petty, yet it is important for us because it represents incremental progress.  Do not under-estimate these small experiences of faith, because they can can add up over time and move us towards ever-increasing faith.

In our day-to-day lives, we should aspire to these small 'abandonments' to God, where we trust Him to take care of those things that we are used to handling through self-will (usually without success, or at great cost).  It is through years of these small steps that we can cover a quite a bit of ground in our spiritual journey.

New Year's Resolution: Love More

If you decide to make a New Year's resolution, try this one: love more.

We often wish to lose weight or stop doing something we hate.  But really, if we would all love more, we would see immediate benefits far beyond dropping a dress size or getting some more stuff.

To love, we really need to be mindful of how much we are loved.  God loves us, and it is this love that we can share without end, so long as we are united with Him.

In the meantime, I hope your New Year's celebration does not end up looking like this:

Alcoholism Recovery Missionary Coming to US

Long-time readers of this blog know about the work of Floyd Frantz, the OCMC missionary in Romania, who has helped the Romanian Orthodox Church establish ministries for alcoholism treatment throughout the country.  Floyd has not only helped hundreds of alcoholics in Cluj, but has trained thousands of priests.

I just got this message from him, and it looks like he will be coming to the US for some fund- and awareness-raising.  here's what he wrote:

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!!

Hello Fr. George,

Greetings, and I hope that this finds you well and in good spirits these days.

Just a short note for now, I am trying to schedule a fund raising trip for March. If you have any ideas please do pass them along, I need all the help I can get with this. I hope to pass through your area [Los Angeles] around March 9th. (There may be some flexibility with this date.) I'll also be visiting with some other folks from L.A., but I still do not have a definite date for anything.

So, if your parish is interested in having Floyd come to speak, or you'd like to start supporting his ministry, please contact him at stdimitrie(this is where the 'at' goes)yahoo.com.

Can I Be Addicted to Rage?

Anger is dangerous for addicts.  The 'high' that we get from rage can be, in many ways, its own drug.  That's why some people can become 'addicted' to rage.  

I would say, 'yes and no.'  Clearly, anger does not present the same brain chemistry that substance addiction does, and I have not seen evidence that people who become angry often or violently have an 'addict brain' the way alcoholics, drug addicts, and porn addicts do when examined by an MRI.  But, one can also lose control over one's ability to control rage.

And, just like substance abuse, rage is a response to powerlessness in the face of a threat.  Watch an episode of 'COPS' and the #1 excuse criminals give for fighting with police is "I was scared."  Anger and rage are responses to terror.  They are not hopeful dispositions.

I think this is critical in understanding the difference: the substance abuser has a 'hope' in his drug, whereas the rager has no hope other than destruction of what he would otherwise 'use.'  This is also why Envy and Anger are close relatives: both are destructive tendencies, yet each has its unique calling.  Envy is aimed specifically at people, where as we can get angry at even abstract institutions and inanimate objects.

Envy can also be far more subtle than the fearsome bile of Rage.  We can often act in the most sinister a subtle of ways under Envy, whereas true Rage is impossible to conceal or understate.

Fear is always about a loss of control, and it is the loss of control that is central to addiction.  The difference I think has to do with the restoration of hope.  The true addict must release one hope in favor of another, whereas the envious rager needs only embrace a hope.  Letting go, anyone who has tried can tell you, is really hard.

This is why, in my opinion, that Anger Management therapy can often be conducted without a spiritual program.  The challenge is far less daunting.   The rager need only embrace the idea that he can have hope of not going to jail again if he stops acting out, and so this hope becomes impulse control he needs.  The trick is to catch the thinking before the onset of the emotion, or at least early enough in its cycle to divert it.

Addiction is far more complex and resistant.  This is why psychology alone can't cure it or even really treat it at all.  Psychology is only effective in treating the contributing personality or emotional disorders that arise from or contribute to addiction, but addiction requiers a spiritual treatment in order to make this shift in 'hopes.'

SA Group Update

Well, we now have a phone number and access code for a conference call for our SA Phone-In Group.

Sessions will begin January 6, 10:00 pm Eastern (US) Standard Time.

The plan is that Fr. Agapios will facilitate the group, and meetings will follow the SA White Book.  It is strongly recommended that all participants have the White Book and start reading it.

Eventually, the group can choose a Secretary and a rotating Leader as it progresses.  Fr. Agapios has committed to staying with it as long as is necessary.

It is important to remember that real names will not be used, nothing will be recorded, and you will have complete privacy.  Those who have send in emails cannot, by this system, be identified by their numbers or access codes, because they are all the same and there is no 'Caller ID' feature.

It is heartening to see so many requests for the number.  This means that we are meeting a need in our community, and that so many of you see hope in recovery.  It is possible, so long as we all remember that we cannot do it alone.  Recovery requires God and our brethren.

Perhaps at a later time we can also look at having an AA/NA group, and possibly an OA group as well.  But, right now, this is a good start.

As a side note, I am thinking of putting on a one-day retreat in the Los Angeles -area to discuss internet pornography and addiction.  If it comes together, I will post information about it on the blog.

In the meantime, if you or a loved one is struggling with pornography, send me an email with Fr. Agapios # in the subject line.  The address is on the right side bar of the blog.  For those who already have sent in your request, you will soon receive the necessary information.  If you do not have it by the end of today, then please resend your request.

The Morning After

In addiction, regret is our constant companion.  We are always sorrowful about things that we have done, both intoxicated (or acting out) and sober, the memories of which follow us around for a lifetime.

Sometimes, we have to literally step over the wreckage of the immediate past, strewn over the ground as a physical manifestation of our inner disorder.  Our failures and indulgences seem to scream out at us from every inch of the world.

As sobriety comes, that chaos begins to decrease.  And, with it, the wreckage begins to subside.  No more broken bottles littering the floor, no more sensations of shame for what we did the night before.  In fact, waking up without a crushing hangover is, for many, a tremendous gift in and of itself!

It can feel strange some mornings to get out of bed and have no questions about how we got there or whether we will be able to survive the rest of the day.  Sanity and health can be disorienting to those used to be sick and insane.  Sometimes, we 'relapse' a little by indulging in a panic attack or a bit of amateur dramatics just to duplicate the old failures that at once tortured and comforted us.

It takes time to get used to being happy.  Therefore, if we feel a bit strange getting through the annual Christmas with less hostility and shame, discomfort and acting out, then this morning might feel a bit dizzying.  It is OK.  This is what it feels to be alive and rather normal.  Normal people celebrate festivities with friends and family, then get up the next day with perhaps a sink full of dishes, but not much more beyond that.

I'm not saying that normal life is something for addicts.  If normal life worked, then there would be no addicts.  For some people, the normal life is just something for others.  For the addict, normal life has some small shared territories, or even things that are replicated, but we never really are natural participants in it.  When the addiction overtakes us, we are changed in a way that means we cannot go back to the care-free lifestyle of a 'normie.'

Our existence is one that exists above the normal life.  I am not saying that we look down on addicts, but rather that our life in sobriety draws us ever heaven-ward.  We are people focused on God rather than the daily pursuits of our non-addict friends.  Thus, events like holidays become more about God and less about human concerns.  And, so, without all the additional attention and fuss, we find that we are better able to get through those same human interactions that once befuddled us because we no longer care as much for them as we do for God.

We encounter others in light of God's love rather than our fears and desires.  We are less stressed, and more in possession of our faculties.  We don't lose control.  There is thus no wreckage.  We go to bed in peace, and wake up the same.

For those of us that has a less than successful day, do not lose hope.  Sobriety takes time to get used to.  Changes will continue to occur, and sometimes all the chaos will be there even though no relapse happened.  It is OK.  Be patient.  God will make the changes that we cannot make.

If we stay on the path, every morning after can be a cause for joy and hope.  And that is because every morning after, both good and bad, is a gift from God.  It is an opportunity.