A Norwich man’s religious beliefs were not enough to reduce his jail time for marijuana possession. Vernon Smith, 43, is a Rastafarian who believes his use of pot is a God-given right. He had pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of marijuana with intent to sell after police found him with more than 20 pounds of the drug in July.
Read about it here.
[From me]
Oh my. What passage of Scripture does he use to support his beliefs? Why do people use God and religion to justify their bad behavior?
What do you think?
Rastas don’t look to scripture. About the closest they come is to think that Ethiopian emperor Hailee Selassie is the reincarnation of Jesus. There’s not much spiritual in their lives, and smoking ganja is part of their system of worship.
I’ve chatted about this with guys a few times on the street in Jamaica.
They believe that the smoking of cannabis enjoys Biblical sanction and is an aid to meditation and religious observance.
Among Biblical verses Rastas believe justify the use of cannabis:
Genesis 1:11 “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.”
Genesis 3:18 “… thou shalt eat the herb of the field.”
Proverbs 15:17 “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.”[1]
Psalms 104:14 “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rastafarian
I’ve got no html skills, so the above is all lifted from wikipedia. The biblical literalists among us need to tread cautiously over faulting someone else’s reading of the Bible.
God grew poisonous hemlock, too, but I’m guessing he didn’t do it for human consumption.
onelittleman,
I agree…
… and to wit:
Bob,
Mar 16:18 – “and if [them that believe] drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them”
Maybe He grew it for consumption only by the faithful.