Richard Hollerman

We should now ask question, how should we evaluate the modern phenomenon of drug use? How should we look upon them? In short, what can we learn about drugs and the use of drugs?

When I was younger, there were various drugs. But (we thought) that these would be limited to the larger cities, such as New York City, Chicago, and those like them. The Vietnamese war was heating up and those involved in the war hated their involvement. Even before this time, there would have been wine, and such intoxicants, but modern drugs didn’t happen until later.

But today we have been “invaded” by illegal drugs in our age. At one time there would have been one intoxicant, wine, that had much to do with drunkenness or inebriation. Of course, there were other drugs, but today we have multiple ways of getting “drunk” or changing our ability to think clearly. This would be the jeopardy of living in the midst of drugs and having this temptation around us.

Of course, this matter of drugs is found in ancient China and Egypt. The Greeks and the Egyptians used opium (we are told). India also used marijuana, and this was done by the Hindus. In South America (after it was populated) we have coda leaves and in Africa there were the khat leaves. Thus the stimulation that these forbidden substances go back for a long time.

During the “age of Exploration” we find that Europeans brought these substances back to Europe. For instance, we discover that Tobacco was brought to Europe in 1492 at the time of Cristopher Columbus. It caught on especially by the wealthy and aristocrat peoples.  Thus, smoking tobacco became a widespread symbol of wealth and status. By the seventeenth century, all sorts of people used this weed. (We might recall that the Anglicans and those like them were in control.)  I recall reading about James of Scotland and England (who gave his name to the King James Bible) and the book that he wrote on the evils of tobacco.

Then there were the Opium wars of the 1800s. China had been the source of opium for years but the British opposed this. The British had been importing this drug into China and this led to the Opium Wars. This led to the British control of Hong Kong. By the end of the eighteenth century, opium had become an addiction and had become a major problem in China.

In the Western Hemisphere, the Incas used Coca leaves and the Mayans (of Mexico) used mushrooms. In Asia, the Chinese used marijuana. In the Middle Ages, the use of drugs in Europe was associated with witchcraft and black magic. But the Catholic Church forbad the use of drugs. In the nineteenth century, Morphine came from Opium and cocaine was used for a medicine.

As we get closer to our own age, let us notice this. In the 1960s, marijuana and LSD use became popular by the countercultural movement. Cocaine use became rampant in the 1980s and 1990s.

From these beginnings and use, today we find drugs used in a variety of situations with dire results. Thalidomide drug use, with its evil results, became widespread in the 1960s. Numerous children lost their limbs through this drug and the mothers who employed it. So sad.

In the last few years, “fentanyl” has become increasingly in the news. We wonder about this. This is a drug that comes from an evil Communist nation called China. We are told that they have regularly shipped this deadly drug to the United States. From what we understand, the Mexican drug cartels (who have reaped trillions in this way) then import this to America and in this way perhaps 100,000 people are addicted and then they have died through overdose. The greedy Mexican drug cartels are responsible for these deaths. Only God can say how much damage this has caused.

Just this morning, we learned that of the ten leading causes of death, the top six come from the illegal use of fentanyl. The next four sources of this drug would be found in the United States, including such places as New York City, New Orleans, Chicago, and Baltimore. So we find that this drug use and fentanyl poisoning is around us.

But no one is forcing Americans (especially from the teens through the  forties) to buy this illegal drug. No one is forcing this many people to die through overdoses. This is what I can’t understand at all. These 100,000 deaths are voluntary. These deaths would be caused by poisoning of these young people. With a tenth a million dying in this way, we wonder. The young people are at fault. Their parents are at fault too for they should have warned their children of the danger—the extreme danger—of these illegal drugs. Thus, the deaths would be a form of self-death or executions.

No longer would this be opium, cocaine, marijuana, and such influences but fentanyl is deadly. There have been tens of thousands placed into coffins because of this and then they are buried “6 feet deep” in the ground by parents and others who are responsible (or partially responsible) for these many deaths. No longer would this be confined to China, Vietnam, Egypt, South America, and Mexico, but we now have these deaths and drug use in many other countries.

Drug use? Yes, this has come upon America, the “land of the free” and the land of “freedom.” But this has led many different oppressive drug invasions as well. How do we look at this? Many different factors play into this. China, Mexico, the drug cartels, and greedy drug producers are worthy of blame. The people who produce and sell and buy the drugs are also at fault. The parents who should teach their children aright are also at fault. The educational system, the entertainment factor, the parental involvement would also share in the blame.

What would God think of this is what we would ask. What do you think? How do you view fentanyl and how should we view it?