Marijuana: the Gateway Drug to Cookie Addiction?

OK, I am joking a bit here.  Please don't take this too seriously.  But, when I saw this story about the Girl Scout cookies being sold outside a San Francisco marijuana dispensary, it clicked with much of what I have been learning about addiction:

Girl Scout Does Brisk Business Selling Cookies Outside San Francisco Pot Club

Of course, we all know the stories about pot smoking and getting the 'munchies.'

But then, it sinks in: a Girl Scout outside a drug dealership?  When was the last time you saw a Girl Scout selling cookies outside a bar or a liquor store?

What was the mother thinking?

Danielle's mother Carol takes her two daughters to different places around San Francisco to sell cookies so that "they can learn about different environments," Mashable reported.

Ah, yes, sell cookies outside an upscale SF dispensary to learn about the world of pot smokers.  I get it now.  It is less about the cookies and more about 'teaching.'  We have some honesty here.

Well, not really.  You don't learn much about the effect from alcohol on people just by standing outside a liquor store... unless you are in the part of town where a good mother would not take her Girl Scout.  She will get to see the functional, safe, and relatively clean side of the matter.  She will likely see the 'nice' side of regular marijuana users (occasional users don't go to the trouble of paying for a prescription and joining a pot co-op, but usually get there pot from someone else who does, like bumming a puff off of someone at a party).

Mom won't take her daughter down into the seedier places in San Francisco.  At least, let's hope not.  She won't see what happens when you let your craving for intoxication take you too far.

She also won't take her daughter outside a Weight Watchers office or an Overeaters Anonymous meeting.  That would be 'insensitive,' right?  But, how in the world is she going to learn about those people?

I'm not dumping on cookies... we've had a life-long relationship.  There a point here: first, if you really want to learn about people, you have to be ready to go all the way.  You have to be ready to see both the good and the bad, otherwise you build up false ideas about them that can carry on well into adulthood.

But, the other point I wanted to make is about abuse mechanisms.  Many people in addiction these days will move from drugs to food.  This is a point raised in one of my latest reading self-assignments:

The Fix by Damian Thompson

I'm not quite done with it, and though I don't agree with his assessment of AA (being against religion and the Divine is all the fad in the UK these days, isn't it?), he does have a lot of excellent points our predispositions to losing control.  The physical reaction to sugar, and how this has been amplified with the advent of processed sugar in common foods, has created a whole new struggle for humanity.

Cookies can be just as powerful of an intoxicant as pot in terms of addiction, just as a heroin addicts will tell you that kicking cigarettes was harder than quitting opiates.  Besides, when you get 'high' off of food, you can be totally abstemious.  You have to eat.

Underneath all of this is that we have come to a place where our lives seem unlivable without what Mr. Thompson characterizes as a 'fix.'  We are so full of stress that we need a relaxation response even when most of our stresses are ongoing and not resolvable.

The industrial age has taken away from us the 'season.'  Sure, we have snow and sunshine, but that effects us less and less when it comes to labor and food and lifestyle.  Unlike the farmer, we don't have the seasonal 'down-times' between sowing and harvest.

So, we smoke pot because we 'need' to get high for a momentary break, and when that does not work, we can easily turn to high-sugar food.  If that does not work, then there is sex and porn.  Or, heroin.  Or, alcohol.  Or, shopping.

The 'gateway' is not so much the substance as the impulse to get high.  Marijuana is a 'gateway drug' because you only use it to get high, and yet it seems so natural and gentle.  It is not like cocaine or heroin, with their hard edges.  Marijuana can be 'romanced' in a way that hard drugs can't.

So can cookies.

 But, at least people can enjoy eating cookies.

Marijuana Legalization Fallacies and Other Stuff

Now, this is a 'political' video in actuality, but it does bring up important facts about marijuana effects:

MARIJUANA!! The Truth!

At the end, he is open to discussing legalization, but only so long as all the facts regarding its harmful effects on the human body and present social statistics are taken into account.  many of us do not buy the 'it is harmless' mantra, nor do we believe that many of the social problems associated with marijuana (and, for that matter, most intoxicants) will go away with a flick of the pen.

Here's a rule of thumb: the stronger the intoxicating effect of a substance, the more it will lead to abuse.  Marijuana's potency has tripled since the 1970s.

It is funny that many of the same people who see no problem with getting baked on marijuana DO see a problem with tobacco and sugar.  Now that I am starting to fight my own battle with sugar, I do see how someone could think that banning Twinkies would be a good idea.  But, wouldn't it just be more of the same?

Supply is a problem, but the bigger problem is how we live.  I know I eat sugary treats because a) I eat when I am stressed, and b) my wife bakes cookies to relieve her stress.  No, I am not kidding: she bakes to deal with her problems, but won't eat the darn things.  I do, and it shows.

Perhaps I should not inject my own struggles into this post, but I think I would probably not have gotten so far into the sugar problem I have now if I had really seen the consequences... and done a better job of managing my own stress levels.

These are two things we don't do these days.  We do not teach one another to live lower-stress lives, and we are almost pathologically terrorized by reasonable exchanges of ideas.  Totalitarianism is all the rage right now, making it virtually impossible to discuss important issues.

But, we need to talk these things through.  We need to look at even the unpleasant facts, and stop insulting people we don't agree with even if we think we have every right to... because, in fact, we don't.  calling someone a 'bigot' or a 'fascist' or a 'commie' does nothing for the conversation except shut it off.

Getting back to stress: what we are taught these days is to dope up when we feel stressed.  We are not taught to stop doing what is stressing us out, and we certainly don't get a complete picture of what self-control really is.

So, we get a one-sided representation.  One group will say you can't control your sexual impulses, but you can control your thoughts about race.  Another group says you can control your sexual impulses, but you can't control your judgment of others.

In each case, there are demands for self-control, yet there are also losses of self-control which are excused.  It is high time that we get honest and look at these matters in a reasonable way.  we must stop looking at our fellow man as the enemy.

Response to a Comment: The Generosity of God

OK, so now a response to the third part of the earlier comment:

3) Then further confusion comes in because I know people 20 years in sobriety whom God has not "revealed Himself" to them as anything other than the God of the 12 Steps, and I know a Jew who had visitations and spiritual revelations almost identical as a Christian in AA - It is confusing to me why God would give this consolation to a Jew without really letting her know it was Himself: Jesus Christ. I then wonder if it is God at all! 

Well, I am not going to be the judge here, but I will say this: if it is not God Himself that is keeping her sober, then is it just a trick of the mind?  Perhaps is the mere fervent belief in God sufficient?

My take on this comes largely from the second post in response.  Here, I have cited that even the Scriptures themselves bear witness to the presence of God in what would otherwise be considered 'pagan' practices (I did not get into 2 Ki 3:27, since it is outside the scope here and is a bit more complicated).

The Three Wise Men (Mt 2) come to worship Christ ... and God manifested Himself to them even though nothing indicates that they left being anything more than Babylonian astrologers.  It does not say they became Jews, since they did not return to the Temple to offer sacrifices.

Our struggle is to see God as being truly generous.  We feel comforted somehow knowing that what we are doing is right, and this is reinforced when we see punishment poured out on those who do wrong.  

But, here is what Jesus said:

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.  After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard.  When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.  When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same.  And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’  They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’  When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’  When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage.  Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’  But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?  Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you.  Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’  So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Mt 20:1-14)

God has the right to do what He wants with people in recovery, period.  Whether He manifests Himself to them directly or not, that is up to Him.  For the rest of us, it is simply none of our business because we ought to know what it is we ourselves have experienced in the Church.

Or, do we?  How often do we forget about the miracles and signs that accompanied our own lives, and begin to wonder whether we are being tricked.  Sure, there are plenty of folks that can talk themselves out of the Church just as they talked themselves in to begin with.

I watched a classmate from seminary who went from Super-Duper-Orthodox to panning the Church and rejecting all religion in less than a decade.  I still care for him, and I think he has made a big mistake, but it is his decision to make and it does not affect my own Faith.

There are others who abuse the Faith, using it to beat down other people and condemn, even though our Lord Himself said He did not come to condemn the world, but to save it.  The world and the people in it judge and condemn themselves, so we don't really need to pile up more on them.  It is important to speak the truth and point out falsehood, but not to assume there is no hope.

I think that we ought to be glad when someone finds God, even if only in a small way.  Why?  Because, perhaps it is all they can handle.  Why put more on them than they can bear?  God says there are some who are 'greatest' in the Kingdom of Heaven, and some who are 'least.'  What is more important: getting in, or being first?

Perhaps God will allow for this smallest of revelations to suffice, just as we believe that those who have never heard the Gospel are not automatically condemned.  

Or, perhaps God will hold us accountable for not being better examples to others so that they might see Him in us, in which case the real problem is not with those who have only a partial revelation of God but those of us who have received a greater portion but hidden it under a bushel.

I don't pretend to speak for God on this matter.  I do know that no one comes to the Father except through the Son.  I also know that many we think should be last will be first, because only God knows and judges.

But, I also know that Christ made a way through hades by His own death and resurrection, and I know that the Church prays for everyone to pass through to the Son.  My belief, based on the prayers and teachings of the Church, is that some people go through their conversion in the death process itself.  Nothing is final until the Last Judgment, and if those who are dead in this life can turn and accept life, then I do not see how the dead cannot also.  When Christ finally returns, then there is no more 'wiggle room.'

The more I contemplate the mercy and love of God, the more I see His compassion for the lost.  When I was new to the Faith, I had a very black-and-white approach to God.  Now, I realize that the Scriptures are far more subtle and profound, at once condemning the sin of man and yet seeking his salvation and conversion.

When it comes to AA and other 12 Step groups, we will see and hear many strange things.  The question is not whether God loves these people or not.  he does.  The real matter is whether we can love them as well.  This is our own challenge.

The other struggle is to keep working for what we were hired for and to not resent God for being generous with those who have not worked as much as we have.

Response to a Comment: Are we talking about the same God?

OK, here is Part 2 of my response that began yesterday.  This is what our fellow reader wrote:

2) I also struggle with God in AA being the same God of the bible and the same God of the Koran and the same God of the Hindu, and the same God/dess of the New Ager, or the same God of the Great Spirit of Native Americans, etc.

It is hard for me to pretend that the God of the bible is the same as the others. I don't know how to react to people in AA when they tell me that "oh, it's all the same!" I practiced many religtions before converting to Christianity in 2007. I can emphatically and authoritatively state that It's NOT the same. Yet, I know that God will keep them sober nevertheless.

I realize AA says "principles before personalities" - does that mean God is also putting principles before His own personality? That He has humbled Himself to the point of stripping off religion in the same way equality with God was not something He grasped at? (He has lowered Himself in order that He might raise us up past alcoholism?) To paraphrase Mel Webber: "God is even anonymous in AA".

Well, the answer here is more nuanced.

People, generally speaking, will never admit that they are out to find a 'fake god.'  Of course, in the Age of Post-Modernism where everyone gets to make up the 'truth' regardless of the fact that the reality of getting punched in the face is something you cannot decide is not the truth and still not end up with loose teeth and a black eye, there are some folks who think that they can make up their own truths.  In the end, where there is no one truth, then there is no truth at all.  You just end up with opinions and, ultimately, nihilism.

You'd be surprised that at least one Orthodox seminary subscribes to this concept.  The Dean is rather fervent about it, though he's smart enough not to utter such nonsense around bishops.  However, there are plenty of clergy who get there seminary formation with this kind of encoding.

What I am saying is that post-modernism is a problem not just in AA, but also in the Church.  You have to be careful with clergy: some are reactionaries, and others are post-modernists.  Neither are really Traditional (despite their protests otherwise), because the Church is neither ossified to conditions of centuries past, nor is it a make-it-up-as-you-go-along adventure for the hyper-intellectual.

So, getting back on track, God is God as He is.  He is best described in the Church in which He dwells.

Now, just as God used Balaam (Nu 22) and the Witch of Endor (1Sa 28), God can use other religions to reach people in need and to execute His purposes.  God is not an egomaniac who must have everything perfect in order to initiate His will.  You will see God working even in non-Orthodox environments precisely because these are all His people.

All of humanity belong to Him.

And, we can say that all of humanity truly hungers for Him.  Sure, someone may be burning incense to the image of a demon, but deep within all men is the Light of Christ, and each person ultimately seeks out union with the Creator.  Some get bad information, and so you end up with thousands of religions.

The person entering AA is NOT free to pick any god he desires.  The Big Book is pretty specific.  The fact that plenty of people in AA don't quite get that is perfectly understandable: the 12 Step community walks a tight-rope over a pit full of alligators.  It must balance the distinctly Christian origins of AA with the concept of an Anonymous God.

All religions seek to find God, and so we can honor and respect those people who are genuine seekers like us.  Perhaps we can even show them some compassion, since finding Him through their own religions is almost an impossibility.

I do believe that God acts through AA and the 12 Steps even when the addict is not Orthodox because God loves the non-Orthodox as much as He loves the Orthodox.  He blesses both in His generosity.  When it comes to morality, God certainly does not condemn those outside the Church:

When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all. (Ro 2:14-16)

The reason for an anonymous God in AA is because so many people have given Him false attributes: anger, resentment, hostility, judgment, aloofness... etc.  The recovering addict must learn about God not through labels but through experience.  

God becomes anonymous not to avoid the truth about Him, but the falsehoods we project on Him.  Through the Steps, we must trust Him not because of the words about Him, but that we simply have no other choice.  He must save us, because there is no other solution to the problem of fear.

Falsehood always seeks to limit the love of God.  Heresy is about the human limits places on the infinite.  God's love cannot be bound, though it certainly can be rejected.  False religions reject some aspect of God's love.

Some Orthodox, in spite of the contrary within our Faith, seek to do the same thing and create a home for heterodox opinions in the Church. We must be careful.  Not everything in a cassock and black hat is Orthodox.

Response to a Comment: 'Negativity' of Orthodox Prayers

 Since a reader asked me to respond via the public comments, I thought I would make a new post for others who may have the same issue(s).  Just remember that most of us here have all the same struggles (in fact, I have yet to get an inquiry from anyone that I have not heard before from someone else.  If you want to scandalize me, please try a lot harder.  ;) ), and so the solution to your issue may help many more who are fighting in silence.

That being said, here's the pertinent excerpt:

1) I am convert to Orthodoxy in 2012. I become affected negatively with many of the Orthodox prayers - they seem to lack real hope for me - they focus so much on my own unworthiness in the guise of humility that they almost talk me out of even approaching God! Whereas in AA, there is encouragement and absolutes: God would and could if He were sought. Perhaps this is part of the problem in religion which you spoke about? (granted I have a lot of baggage: I as an unwanted and invisible child, so, I need God to be approachable and loving and wanting to help!)

2) I also struggle with God in AA being the same God of the bible and the same God of the Koran and the same God of the Hindu, and the same God/dess of the New Ager, or the same God of the Great Spirit of Native Americans, etc.

It is hard for me to pretend that the God of the bible is the same as the others. I don't know how to react to people in AA when they tell me that "oh, it's all the same!" I practiced many religtions before converting to Christianity in 2007. I can emphatically and authoritatively state that It's NOT the same. Yet, I know that God will keep them sober nevertheless.

I realize AA says "principles before personalities" - does that mean God is also putting principles before His own personality? That He has humbled Himself to the point of stripping off religion in the same way equality with God was not something He grasped at? (He has lowered Himself in order that He might raise us up past alcoholism?) To paraphrase Mel Webber: "God is even anonymous in AA".

3) Then further confusion comes in because I know people 20 years in sobriety whom God has not "revealed Himself" to them as anything other than the God of the 12 Steps, and I know a Jew who had visitations and spiritual revelations almost identical as a Christian in AA - It is confusing to me why God would give this consolation to a Jew without really letting her know it was Himself: Jesus Christ. I then wonder if it is God at all! 

I'm going to take on Point #1 in this post, and then follow up with the next two in the coming days.  That will keep this post from getting too long.

So, let's think about Orthodox prayers.  Who are they written for?  The answer is 'everyone.'  They are, by design, rather 'difficult' in the sense that the toughest battle most people have is getting really repentant.

The sad fact of the matter is that most of us are adept at shutting off our consciences.  We minimize our problem, even when the problem is death and destruction.  Unlike the Prodigal Son, we try to make the pigpen work for us.  We redecorate it.

These prayers are intended to remind us that we are in a real mess, and that only God can get us out.  They bring us back to the realization of the pigpen, and help us return to ourselves.  We are all sinners in need of salvation.

Our callous hearts need to be 'softened' through the constant reminder of our sins and broken condition.We must see the pigpen, and us in it, as it really is and as we really are.  Only then will we come out, and soon we will find the father rushing to us.

The other side of this has to do with ego and the over-inflated sense of self that we can also develop.  This is the ego response that says, "My problems are so bad, I must be hopeless!"  This ego response develops when someone has problems and no God to turn to.

The prayers of the Church only make sense if one really believes that God can do anything, and that He really wants to save us.  So long as we have doubts about God's goodness or ability, then the prayers make us feel hopeless.

That sense of hopelessness comes from our lack of trust in God.  We are constantly demanding that God prove that He is kind and generous and powerful, because we harbor doubts.

We are left with a choice: dump these false beliefs and embrace God as He truly is, or continue to ask for signs and assurances.  Sure, in the beginning these assurances are important, but for how long should we hang on to our doubts?

A good father confessor knows when to offer assurances and when to 'push' us out from under the doubts.  An experienced sponsor can do the same.  There are times when we offer gentle words, and other times when we challenge and cajole.

The prayers of the Church assume two things: a) I am a complete, helpless mess, and b) God can and will save me if I admit it.

Christ Himself said, "Your faith has made you well."  What did He mean?  Did people cure themselves?  No.  Because they overcame their doubts and asked, He healed them.  If you don't first believe He will, then you will never ask.

When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”  (Matthew 9:28)

Why does Christ ask?  Why is it important?

Spiritual healing requires us to believe.  If we do not believe, we cannot expect God to somehow overcome our will.  He will not force Himself on us.

So, the struggle to not despair when reading the prayers is in itself one of their benefits.  They push us to believe by stretching us into a place that is painful without God.  We must either retreat, or believe.

If we truly believe, like the oft-quoted Desert Fathers, then we would be reading even harsher prayers, believing that the more we repent, the more God will come and manifest Himself to us.  However, since most of us have a hard time believing like that, we have the relatively 'mild' prayers that occasionally move us to tears.  If you prayed like the Desert Fathers, you end up living on a crust of bread in a cave out in the desert.

Modern psychology goes against this grain.  It has to: there is no God in psychology.  If a psychologist pushes a person beyond the endurance of the will, then the lack of belief will bring a person to utter despair.  Psychology, therefore, must build up the ego to then bear the load of reality, since there is no God to turn to to carry the weight of the world's cares.

Orthodox prayers are not 'ego builders.'  They do not offer self-assurances.  They do not offer self-motivation.  In fact, they offer the opposite.  That is because we need to stop relying on ourselves and our own egos.

If we are not careful, we can end up looking like this:

Orthodox Prayers are not Stuart Smalley approved.

AA and the 12 Steps are also not, fundamentally, self-motivational.  AA literature doesn't have to 'punch as hard' because the assumption is that, if you are reading it, you are already most of the way there when it comes to being honest with how bad things are.  Otherwise, you certainly would not want to go through the hassle of working the Steps.

When most 'normies' I know have tried to work the Steps, they almost invariably drop out because, "It is too hard."  Most of them discover that their annoyances are preferable to the real pain that bubbles up when they wrestle with their consciences.

But, there are also a lot of people who, after many years of sobriety, will tell you that just being in AA and reading 12 Step literature is not enough.  They know they need to grow, but AA is largely designed for dealing with the newcomer.  They want to grow.

For those of us in the Orthodox Church who came from 12 Step backgrounds, that's exactly why we can in.  We saw that the Church pushes us harder than AA or NA or OA, and that's exactly what we were looking for.

We asked for the tough prayers because we are hungry for God, and we understand that we need a lot of help to get out from under the ego-umbrella that we put up to 'shield' us from the world, when in fact we are blocking out the Sunshine of the Spirit.

I apologize this response is long, and there are several other points you raised.  But, I do hope this helps.

Stealing Flowers... and smoking them?

When it comes to stupidity, addiction is a great initiator.  I've heard stories about everything from smoking rope to drinking Sterno to eating shoe polish.  But, this really had me laughing: 

High on Hydrangeas: Is Garden Flower the Next Cannabis?

Small problem: cyanide poisoning.  Those flowers get their purplish-blue petals from a toxin. 

You would already have to be stoned to make this sound like a good idea, but we all know what addiction does to one's judgment.

Dabbing

I saw a message on Facebook this morning about 'dabbing,' and realized that I had probably not written anything on it.  If you are wondering what 'dabbing' is, it is just another fancy way of ingesting THC from cannabis.  It uses a highly concentrated form of 'hashish,' and is also known as 'Butane Hash Oil.' 

If you want to know a little bit more about it, then look no further than this video from our friends at the Vice Channel.

Dabbing is for pot smokers who really want to avoid smoking marijuana as much as possible, going for the maximum high rather than any other potential æsthetic pleasure.  It is like drinking pure grain alcohol rather than a beer because you are seeking a fast high.

If you are addicted to THC (or some other substance you can't get your hands on at the moment and looking for a second) and looking for a buzz to get you through your day, then this is your obvious choice.  Of course, as the documentary will tell you, there are some real dangers.

Aside from the toxicological features of THC abuse, there is the wonderfully dangerous way that BHO is made.  Like meth labs, BHO makers tend to blow themselves up.  After all, they are working with butane, heat, and addled brains.  What could be safer?

Because it is a 'vaporization' process rather than incinerating a whole bunch of plant matter, lots of people like it because you can 'dab' at mom's house and not fill the place with clouds of acrid smoke.  One can be perfectly 'considerate' and bake your brain at the same time.

With legalization set to overtake much of the USA, you can expect to hear more about dabbing BHO along with the more primitive means of ingestion.  However, the dangerous part about dabbing is the immediately high concentration of THC one gets on the first hit.  It is like 'crack' for potheads.

It is not going away.  Even as America ages, the Baby Boom generation largely supports lax drug laws, perhaps now only because it shuts the 'kids' up about their crappy, shallow lives.  We need drugs to make dialectical materialism work.

Like this album cover suggests, marijuana is just another path to hell and death: