See you there! August 26, Washington, DC, noon. "Redeem the Dream" march against racial profiling and police brutality, marking the 37th anniversary of the March on Washington, at the Lincoln Memorial. Convened by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the National Action Network, call (202) 58DREAM for information. WITCH WAY ON DRUGS? With its brutal excesses and reliance on snitches and finks as informants, I don't think it's far off-kilter to describe the modern-day drug war as oddly similar to the Salem witch trials. In fact, if words mean anything, the war on drugs is a witch-hunt in the most literal sense of the two terms - -- both "drug" and "witch." As the history books tell it, in the late 1600s the witches of Salem, Mass., became the exalted guests at a New England hemp party -- which is to say, as a point of clarification, that they swung from ropes composed of it, rather than smoked doobies rolled from it. Likewise, today there are those who argue for the same treatment for drug sellers and users. In Christian circles, this rallying cry to give dope peddlers the chair usually hinges on the same justification as hanging witches. Taking up this banner is Media House International Director Jay Rogers in a review of the 1994 book, "Politically Incorrect," by Pat Robertson's former right arm, Ralph Reed. "The moral Law of God requires only two punishments for lawbreakers," explains Rogers, "restitution or execution. A repeat violent offender would spend the rest of his life in servitude or would be executed," Rogers elaborates, arriving at this shocking conclusion: Convicted drug dealers who sold drugs to children would be executed for the crime of sorcery. ... Rogers hinges this bold call for blood on Scripture's condemnation of witchcraft. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," enjoins the Lord in the 22nd chapter of Exodus. As the Bible would have it, the life of a witch follows the Bob Dylan lyric: "Everybody must get stoned." Rogers has it sewed. It's cake. Toke a bong, and they'll stoke your pyre. But what's the connection? How does a death sentence for hocus-pocus apply to pill heads and junkies? Figuring 'pharmakeia' When I argued in my July 20 column, "One toke over the line, sweet Jesus?" that Christians should reconsider their support for the war on drugs on the basis that Scripture gives no justification for legal action against dope smokers and pill poppers, a flurry of e-mail erupted across my screen. While much of it was good, many were either hesitant or outright offended at the notion of legalizing drugs. "Only drug dealers want legalization," wrote one reader, Jim, adding, "Drugs are destroying this country inside and out." Then Jim offered this gem: "It was prophesized in Revelation, 'For by thy sorceries (pharmakeia) were all nations deceived.'" Backing his charge that legalization is bad news, Jim quoted the 18th Chapter of John's Apocalypse, making -- just as Rogers does -- a clear connection between witchcraft and drug use. Aboard the same ideological bus is evangelical end-times guru Jack Van Impe. Writing about the latest outbreak of fad drug use in his April 1997 Intelligence Briefing, Van Impe references the ninth and 18th chapters of Revelation, explaining the witchcraft-drugs connection when he notes, "The term 'sorceries' in these texts comes from the Greek term -- pharmakeia -- translated 'pharmacy' or 'drugs.'" Indeed, pharmakeia is the word from which our terms "pharmacy" and "pharmaceutical" are derived. As I point out in "One toke over the line, sweet Jesus?" there is little in Scripture directly condemning drugs, as such (mainly, God's word attacks drunkenness, insobriety and dissipation). Au contraire, say the proponents of the "pharmakeia factor," pinning drugs to Scripture's clear condemnation of witchcraft and sorcery. It's all Greek to me A little lexical history is in order: When the Hebrew Scriptures -- the Old Testament to us Christians -- found their way into the hands of the Greek translators some 250 years before Christ was born, they translated the Hebrew word for sorcery with "pharmakeia," having connotations to both witchcraft and drugs. As defined by the Liddell-Scott-Jones Lexicon of Classical Greek, pharmakeia is tied to "the use of any kind of drugs, potions, or spells," as well as "poisoning or witchcraft." The connection is easy to see. In many pagan societies mind-altering substances were used in religious ceremonies. Along with the Greeks' use of drugs, the ancient Celts used to "do" mistletoe -- and not for kissing; ditto for American Indians and their use of peyote. The point wasn't, however, to kick back and wig out on a batch of herb. Drug use was not recreational; it was ceremonial. To see one Greek example of the use of pharmakeia, consider the story of Jason and the Argonauts. In one passage, translated by Sir James George Frazer, the hero Jason goes to the sorceress Medea, who has the hots for him. Not wanting him to be harmed in his upcoming battles, she concocts a drug, a "pharmakon," for him if he'll marry her and take her to Greece. "When Jason swore to do so," Frazer's version goes, "she gave him a drug with which she bade him anoint his shield, spear, and body when he was about to yoke the bulls; for she said that, anointed with it, he could for a single day be harmed neither by fire nor by iron." The drug was magic. We're not talking hashish here. We're not talking LSD. We're talking oogie-boogie. Clearly, the word pharmakeia has much more to do with magic than muddleheadedness, witchcraft than wiffle pipes, sorcery than smack. Consider the following passage from Leviticus. Talking about ceremonial cleanliness and keeping the faith unadulterated by pagan practices, God instructs in chapter 19, You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not practice augury or witchcraft. You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the LORD. Do not profane your daughter by making her a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry and the land become full of wickedness. You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD. Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God. As one e-mailer tipped me, "Obviously, this is not about 'don't take aspirin.'" All these things are indicative of the religious practices of the Canaanites -- including temple prostitution, self-mutilation and divination -- whose land the Israelites were to occupy. God didn't want them whoring after the false gods of the natives. This is made all the more obvious when we look at the original Hebrew words from which the Greek translators were working. The Hebrew terms for witchcraft -- words like "kashaph," "qacam" and their derivatives -- refer to divination and spiritism; they have no drug-related connotations. Zip, zilch, nada, nil -- or "loh," as the Hebrew puts it. God's concern in these passages isn't with LSD blotters or hypodermic needles. He's concerned with false religion. It's just a lexical quirk that the Greek word is tainted with definitional baggage -- being connected to the perverse religious practices of the Greeks -- and is thus susceptible to manipulation in the current drug-war debate. While none of this is to suggest that getting plastered on dope is scriptural (I don't believe it is), neither is it correct to say it's a form of witchcraft, deserving the same sort of punishment. Defending bad ideas can be just about as entertaining as the circus; the gymnastics are terrific. It seems the mental contortion artists -- adroitly bending, stretching and flipping logic with the greatest of ease -- are especially talented when it comes to debating drugs. But in the end, it's all just playing games with the text to arrive at a predetermined end -- saying dope is naughty. This is using Scripture to support, rather than reform, your prejudices. And, at bottom, it's dishonest. Rather than allow cultural biases, gut instincts or basic distaste to cloud our judgment, as Christians we need to take the drug debate to the bar of Scripture, which -- while condemning drug abuse and insobriety -- provides no legal argument for pursuing a government-orchestrated war on drugs. ******************************************** To contrast the sensibilities posed at the Shadow Conventions below is a survey from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) web site on "the best way to fight illegal drugs." You must register to participate. http://www.drugsense.org/dncsurvey/ What is the most effective way to fight the war on drugs? 1-Require drug testing of anyone arrested for a federal crime 2-Support innovative drug courts which force drug users to get treatment or go to jail 3-Protect residents of public housing from violent criminals who use their homes as a base for the drug trade 4-Fight casual drug use by young people through education and public service announcements 5-Support the death penalty for drug kingpins Clueless? Braindead? Foolish? Uninformed? Pick your adjective but the DNC comes up a loser on all 5 suggestions in our view. ************************************ RESEARCHERS SAY POT MAKES DRIVERS SAFER, MORE CAUTIOUS A study funded by the British government has concluded that regular marijuana users drive more safely under the influence of cannabis. The study of 15 users, conducted by Britain's Transport Research Laboratory, found that the mellowing effects of marijuana made drivers more cautious and less likely to drive dangerously. While marijuana did effect drivers, it was less dangerous than driving while fatigued or drunk. Regular cannabis users were supplied with "Grade A" marijuana from the U.S. for the study. They took four weeks of tests on driving simulators to gauge their reaction time. When the study was announced in January, some believed it would prove that driving under the influence of drugs - dubbed "drug-driving" in Britain - is just as dangerous as drunk driving. Instead, the unexpected conclusion that mellow drivers are relatively safe drivers has been embarrassing to the government. Still, the numbers show that high drivers are a hazard on the road. In Britain, the number of people involved in fatal accidents found to have drugs in their blood jumped from three per cent in 1989 to 18 per cent last year. Officials there are posed to launch a roadside spot-check program to stop high drivers as well as a new television campaign that urges viewers to "never drive on drugs." Experts agree that driving while high is not as safe as driving while sober. But several studies have shown that high drivers seem to recognize that they are impaired and are therefore very cautious. "There are enough reports to suggest that people impaired by alcohol are aggressive and drive faster," said Dr. Harold Kalant, a professor of pharmacology at the university of Toronto and a researcher with the Addiction Research Foundation.
