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Yesterday I wrote a note to a dear friend whose seventeen-year-old son was arrested last week. He was booked for possession and sale of marijuana. He is out on $5,000 bond. This young man was reared in a fine Christian home. Only the week before his arrest his mother had written to tell us proudly that he was an honor student. He has been a Christian for several years. He has never lived in the slums.
Some of the effects of this boy’s involvement are literally immeasurable:
- His personal influence for the Lord has suffered great damage.
- While he can be forgiven of God for his sin, he will likely never cease regretting his misdeed.
- Who can put a price on a mother’s crushed pride and the shame brought upon a family by the newspaper account of the arrest?
- It doesn’t exactly brighten the light of the church in the community, either.
If some effects are incalculable, others are not. If convicted, this boy will lose his right to vote, his right to own a gun, and his right to run for public office. He will have lost the opportunity to ever serve in several professions, including those of a dentist, CPA, engineer, attorney, architect, realtor, physical therapist, pharmacist, teacher, barber, funeral director, or stockbroker. He will be excluded from any job requiring bond or license. He will be unable to work for the city, county, or federal governments. He will forfeit admission to West Point, Annapolis, or the Air Force Academy. He may enlist in the military service, but will have no branch choice, possibly to be assigned to a labor battalion.
Maybe he bought the rumor that MJ (marijuana) is physically harmless (unsubstantiated). Whether it is harmful physically is not all of the issue. It is definitely illegal! Avoid drugs like they were the plague. They are.
[Note: I wrote this article for and it was published in the April 18, 1972, edition of Sentinel, weekly bulletin of the Sunset Church of Christ, Carlsbad, New Mexico, of which I was editor.]
Attribution: From thescripturecache.com; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.
