by Teri Ong
There seems to me to be some odd thinking going on (or perhaps it is that no thinking is going on, which is not odd) about the government’s role in preserving our health. On the one hand, those who are of the “nanny state” mentality want to protect us from a whole list of things that could harm our bodies: cigarettes, trans-fats, high fructose corn syrup, sundry food dyes, etc. On the other hand, however, many of the same folks won’t grapple with the fact that there are many other more destructive behaviors that can’t be touched for a variety of politically correct reasons: perverse and/or promiscuous sex, alcohol use/abuse, unnecessary or illicit use of prescription drugs, use of illegal drugs, etc.
I find it fascinating that the U.S. military is trying to ban the use of tobacco products, supposedly to cut costs for the V. A. health care system in years to come. I am nearly sure that that is a bogus reason, and that the powers that be are probably more concerned with being culturally in vogue. I am also sure that problems associated with alcohol abuse in the military cost much more; think about liver disease, brain dysfunction, accidental injuries during binges, alcohol poisonings, as well as psychological problems, domestic violence, and other forms of mental, emotional and physical debilitation. These are not only problems in the military; they are problems in our culture at large. If we really wanted to cut long-range medical costs, why would we choose to focus on the dangers of tobacco (which debilitates primarily the smoker’s body over a long period of time), instead of on alcohol (which debilitates minds quickly and can be fatal for the drinker or those around him almost immediately)?
Why would we choose to focus on eliminating trans-fats from restaurants and processed foods and not worry much about all of the societal factors that encourage and promote immoral sexual behaviors that cost millions of dollars and uncalculable amounts of human misery due to sexually transmitted diseases, abortions, illegitimate births, and damaged human relations?
Why would we worry about whether or not high fructose corn syrup is causing our epidemic of obesity and turn a blind eye toward the pharmaceutical industry that would pump all of us full of chemicals that cause side effects which require pages of fine print to describe?
While the mainstream media have been consumed with who cast the first racial slur in Cambridge, Mass., a number of more important stories have gone off the radar–
1. The lady who was so addicted to pain killers that she infected who knows how many innocent victims with Hepatitis C (incurable and potentially fatal) as she stole their painkillers and substituted saline solution in her old, dirty syringes.
2. The lady who was stealing prescriptions from terminally ill Hospice patients and filling them for herself.
3. The number of “medical” marijuana users in Colorado will nearly double this year; and the average age has dropped from 42 to 24. (Are there really that many chronically ill 20-somethings?)
4. Michael Jackson’s body was so ruined by years of various types of abuse that he had to be anaesthetized in order to go to sleep. Eventually, the anaesthesia killed him.
5. The ousted and exiled president of Honduras has threatened to further destabilize the government of his homeland by bring in plane-loads of cash and drugs.
6. One of the main problems in Afghanistan is control of the poppy fields
Proponents of drug legalization put forward the following arguments: if drugs, such as marijuana, are legalized, the government can tax and regulate them as they do other substances. If people can walk into a store and buy them, the crime associated with “drug dealing” will go away. I argue, however, that while certain types of neighborhood thuggery might diminish, there would be other negative consequences and dangers. Yes, gangland alcohol running and bootlegging diminished when prohibition ended, but drunk driving, under-age binge drinking, and destructive social behavior while drunk are bigger problems than ever.
The kind of people that are going to want the biggest supply of drugs are the very ones who will not have a lifestyle that will enable them to pay for the drugs, not matter what their cost. Just last month thieves broke into a marijuana “dispensary” in Boulder, Colorado and stole two twenty-gallon barrels of high grade cannabis. Theft and panhandling for drugs will proliferate for drug users as they have for alcoholics. Drugs which cause psychotic events will cause increasing problems in domestic relations as well as danger to the public at large. Breckenridge, Colorado is considering restricting “dispensaries” from being close to schools. Police will have to have an ever expanding arsenal of tactics for catching and preventing DUID’s. And if the government tries to take the profit motive out of selling drugs by giving drugs away as a government service– you know, like medicaid drug benefits for marijuana– the already scarce resources for legitimate medical care in America will further dry up while creating an ever greater demand.
It is painfully obvious that we have a societal sickness that we are trying to self-medicate; we feel bad and we are trying desperately to find something to help us feel better. But I am afraid the cures we are trying are as bad as the disease. We are consumed with our bodies, but we won’t account for things that damage our minds and our souls.
God may just let us bankrupt ourselves materially and morally like the woman “who had suffered much… and had spent all she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.” (Mark 5:26) God still asks us individually and societally, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” (Isaiah 55:2) He knows we are so self-willed that we will not believe how empty and unsatisfying life is without Him, unless we experience the emptiness for ourselves.
After we have gotten a snoot-full of self-inflicted misery, we may seek to touch the hem of His garment for healing. When we realize that “in vain we have used many medicines,” we perchance might seek out the Balm in Gilead. (Jeremiah 46:10)
“There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin-sick soul.”
(From a traditional spiritual)
