Michelle Russell - YEP!
on 04.17.2019

I have worked with Craig Gross for the last 15 years, and he asked me to comment on this new project

Motive

While I don’t believe that smoking, eating, absorbing (as in oil) cannabis is sinful in and of itself— I do believe the “desire” or the “drive” behind it can be. I think just like everything else we do; our hearts have to be right. I speak from the perspective of someone that enjoyed using alcohol to checkout from the pain in my life.  If we desire to “escape” to “get buzzed” to “checkout”, then I’d say we need to reexamine our hearts because I don’t think God wants us to avoid pain but rather just the opposite it— run right into it to get through it. Do I believe cannabis has the potential to help someone do that? To perhaps quiet the mind and allow to hear more clearly a voice that is not their own— yes, but again, it can be tricky. If your desire or your drive is to rid yourself of an ailment, or disorder that cannabis has been studied to cure, then I think it can be beneficial. If you desire to quiet the noise so you can return to the state of mind you were created with to commune with God and others— then I think it can be beneficial.  (1 Corinthians 10:23: Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.) It is an individual thing— not a blanket statement. The condition of our heart is so important. (1 Samuel 16:7) (Jeremiah 17:9)

Plants were created on the third day, and humans were created on the sixth. ( Genesis 1:11-13: And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.)

The provision was created before the need. God created the earth (and the plants) FOR us, BEFORE us.

THIS is why when I became severely ill in 2018,  I chose to go with a homeopathic/natural course of healing when Western medicine just wanted to treat the symptoms. My motive was to be HEALED. And thank God that I chose that path. I am walking in healing because of plant-based medicine.

Genesis 1:29-30: Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so.

Cultural Taboo

This idea that cannabis is taboo is a human-made idea that we have accepted culturally. The same culture that says it is OK to eat garlic to aid the body in fighting off pathogens. The same culture that says milk thistle (a plant) is OK to help keep depression at bay. But ironically, it is also the same culture that says Western medicine/pharmaceuticals— many human-made synthetics should be used to treat symptoms of illness yet those same synthetics are known to CAUSE other diseases or ailments. I think we have so many things backward as a culture BECAUSE we accept social norms.  Hence the soccor mom who drinks her glass of wine and takes her prescribed Xanax judges the ballet mom who uses marijuanna.

Redefining Recreational

It’s time to redefine the term “recreational use" as it relates to marijuana.  Recreation is leisure, and we think of it as an ‘alternative’ a ‘past time.’ The definition Google landed me is: "relating to or denoting activity done for enjoyment when one is not working.”

We have become a distracted society. We are distracted by business, distracted by deadlines, distracted by activities, distracted by pressures of the world, distracted by politics, distracted by media and technology. All this NOISE has hindered our ability to get quiet. It’s blocked our ability to SIT with the Lord and to HEAR from the Lord.

What if the “recreational use” term was modified to say: “relating to or denoting activity done to quiet the noise so one can return to the state in which he was designed to be.” Sure, this might sound like “hippy talk” especially to those who have accepted social norms or haven't thought outside of a tradition or thought process handed down to them… but what if? What if when all that busy-ness was quieted down through the recreational or medicinal use of cannabis, we returned to the state we were created to live? What if we began to think bigger, we began to see clearer? What if?

If indeed God created this plant as the Scriptures states, then surely He knew what its properties consist of and what its capabilities are. Why are we so afraid of this? If our hearts are right before the Lord, I don’t understand how this is even debatable…

What Do You Think About Cannabis?

63122 PEOPLE AGREE
31858 PEOPLE DISAGREE
18235 PEOPLE UNSURE