Why the Christian Right Should be on Board with Legalization and How to Win Them Over

You often hear social liberals complaining that the Christian Right doesn't respond to reason. The problem here is that they don't respond to your reasons--because you aren't sensitive to theirs. One group talks the language of revenue, social factors, comparable activities (drinking/smoking being "less bad") while the other subscribes to the idea of Absolute Truth or only deals in the terms of right & wrong--and in the eyes of many in this large and politically powerful group, consuming Cannabis is simply WRONG. 

Without getting too theological, here are a few points that could hold sway in a legalization discussion with a Conservative Christian:

• Who was the first to say consuming Cannabis was sinful? God never said it in the Old Testament. Jesus never said it around AD 0. Harry J. Anslinger said it in the 1930s. Unless Harry J. Anslinger was a Christian prophet, which would seem blasphemous, there are no grounds on which consumption of the herb should be deemed a 'sin'.

• Cannabis is a natural, God-given herb that has been growing as long as we know. Humans have used it for over 6,000 years  (5-10k depending on where you read) as food, fiber, and medicine--long before being named 'the devil's narcotic' and 'the assassin of youth' in the 1930s.

• The Reefer Madness campaign in the 1930s that put the smear on Marijuana has since been accepted to be choc-full of lies (self-admittedly so in 1951) and hateful racism driven by petrol & timber profits. Before then, most Americans had never heard of it, and there was no official stance on it being right or wrong. It was 'just another herb' which happened to appear in over 50% of the medicines of the time.

• It hasn't killed anyone. Period.

• Intoxication is deemed wrong, but small amounts of alcohol are not. Otherwise Jesus never would have turned water into wine. Marijuana induces mild euphoria and relaxation, but all mental faculties are in check and this shouldn't be deemed 'intoxication'. Somehow, though narcotic painkillers are  MUCH more intoxicating, it is okay, because these things are dubbed 'medicines' by society.

In conclusion: In dealing in absolute right and wrong, it is WRONG to use lies to perpetuate a pseudo-morally driven war which has ruined and ended tens of thousands of lives, for the insignificant goal of keeping humans from consuming a God-given medicinal herb which can be used irresponsibly, but has never done damage on its own. I hope that followers of Christ and believers in free will can see the hypocrisy that lies in the Drug War.