Craig,

Brother, it is really amazing to me how God had worked through you over the years. It is also fascinating that we’ve shared life in Christ in very similar ways. Our lives parallel in ways that you surely do not know. However, when I was sent to plant a church in SoCal in 2012, our small crew enlisted the help of The Porn Kills Tour, to help launch our church, in Lancaster, CA. I earned an MDiv in Pastoral Counseling, and have worked with 100’s maybe even 1000’s of Christians, at this point, within the realms of addiction and sexual sin. I have been in recovery since 1997. I am also a disabled veteran of the US Army, which is why I got involved in the legalization of marijuana.

For years, I railed against the “legalize it” crowd, in particular, because what I was seeing in clients and in the circles I was privy to, were people who really just wanted to get high, and didn’t have much regard for humanity as a whole. The movement was fairly self seeking, from what I saw. But, then I came across Charlotte’s Web, and the work of Matt & Paige Figi, almost 15 years ago now, and decided to revisit all of my pharmacology studies and the secular work I did with Dr. Darrel Inaba in San Francisco. I knew and still know way too many veterans who are being treated for various types of pains and ailments through morphine derivatives, and was seeing a lot of brothers and sisters in arms getting help from CBD extracts and various strains of marijuana. I decided that I had to be more intellectually honest, if I was really called to honor Jesus Christ. Blind following and blind faith were never my calling, when The Lord apprehended me.

In short, I became an advocate for medicinal marijuana, and then began to look more broadly at cannabis in general. Over the past 5 years, I was in Florida working with veterans and who were engaged on the legal/political front, alongside a woman affectionately known as “Mama Lutz” to help veterans access cannabis. I recently accepted a calling to a small church back in Cali, and we are now back living in Merced, as of April, 2019. I am introducing some “new ideas” about marijuana and cannabis at a local level and increasing the dialogue in conversations regarding Christianity and the local church. I am stoked to see that you are moving into this arena and am looking forward to see where The Lord takes you and what He does in all of this. I haven’t yet been as bold publicly, as I haven’t had many allies and ministry can get a little sticky. But, I am not dishonest about my position and am encouraged by this site already. It seems that what God has given me, He has also given you, and you’ve, for whatever reason, had the unction to take it to the masses. As both a clinician and pastor, I’ve walked a tightrope for far too long, and am now embracing the freedom that God has for me to be more open about where I stand and what I believe about Jesus Christ in this realm. I hope that we get to speak to one another about this one day, and that perhaps we’ll be a blessing to one another. Thanks for answering the call and point up the conversation, brother. Grace & peace to you.