Drugs, Video Games, and Raw Materials

Tonight, while I was hanging out with someone who I'll affectionately call "The Pal," I had a very interesting conversation. See, The Pal believes (or did believe- I don't know whether I changed his mind or not) that video games are intrinsically evil, and should basically always be avoided. I know he isn't that extreme, because he and I play Monopoly, bowling, and pool on my Wii when he comes over, but his beliefs are pretty close to that. Now, The Pal is about to go to college, and I'm concerned that he might miss out on social opportunities and possibly alienate himself from his peers by his video game convictions, so the goal of this conversation was to show that maybe it wasn't video games themselves that were bad, nearly so much as how they are used. CS Lewis says, in the book "The Screwtape Letters," that nothing in itself is good or evil, but the question is how it is used, and how it affects a person's relationships around them, and whether it produces disobedience to God, and so on, that makes something good or bad, so if a person played video games in moderation, that might be okay. The Pal, being the very smart person that he is, then asked me a very difficult question- what about pot?

Now, to be clear here, in a lot of ways this question is fairly hypothetical/theoretical, because neither myself nor The Pal are ever likely to use marijuana- I can speak confidently about The Pal here, because I know him very well. However, this was an interesting topic for me, because it hit upon a subject that I have strong feelings about. When I was a kid, during the short time I was in Cub Scouts, I was given a poster that named most of the drugs in existence at that time, and next to each drug was a cartoon/picture of a demon and a list of all of the negative health side effects associated with each drug. For me, that pretty much did it. I never wanted anything to do with any drugs. Alcohol was included on that poster, and it took me awhile before I was okay with having a drink (I've never had more than two in an evening, so I'm definitely NOT an alcoholic), but other drugs... no. Honestly, I've never really even been around drugs. To this day, I'm not exactly sure what pot smells like when it's being smoked. And to top it all off, for reasons that I don't understand, I once "failed" a urine test for pot, and was accused by a doctor who did not know me at all of using pot. Fortunately, my parents knew that I was innocent, but I consider that one of the worst insults anyone has ever slung at me (particularly, since at that time, I wanted to be a DEA agent when I grew up). All this to say, I probably wouldn't "take a hit" unless someone put a gun to my head. Inspite of what I've heard- that pot isn't much worse than alcohol, and it is even legal for some people to use to handle the pain associated with certain medical conditions, honestly I could never see myself smoking a joint, and truth be told, I don't think I really ever want to even be in the presense of someone who is while they are smoking it. So, The Pal's question was challenging to me. I'm trying to ask myself, is there a situation where the need to socially bond with the people around me trumps the potential harm I would be doing to my body and the risk of becoming addicted? Of course there is also the question of legality, but I think the argument could be made that loving our neighbor might trump that. To me, though, that leads to a scary slippery slope- how far do we go down this path? What about drugs like heroine, cocaine, methamphetimines? Are these just "raw materials" as Screwtape says everything is? That is a tough question- I don't think I could ever love another human being enough to have anything to do with drugs like this. Maybe I could learn to be around drug addicts while they used- that in itself would be uncomfortable. Actually using myself- I can't see that ever happening. Maybe it isn't necessary. I just know that people often bond while doing an activity- and for me, playing a video game or having a drink, I see that the social value is worth it, and the harm to the body is negligible or possibly even beneficial. This assumes that you can do these things without becoming addicted (whether or not I'm a video game addict, that's a whole other question...) but otherwise it's fine. Honestly, from what I've heard, pot isn't much different from either of these, but it is to me. I wonder if that is okay. I wonder how much I really love the people who are prechristians. I wonder if I'm hypocritical here. In theory I could see a situation where I might agree that taking the hit would be the right thing to do, but in practice... for me, I just couldn't do it.

I wish that I knew what to make of all this. I guess, everyone has things where we have strong feelings about this or that. The good news is, I've spent time with alcoholics and drug addicts, and I have no trouble loving them. Maybe that is what they need, more than me "using" along with them. Maybe I'm not ready to be around them while they are using, but we all need to grow in one way or another, right? I've just got to give it time. Meanwhile, I have to keep thinking about "raw materials"... Was CS Lewis right? I don't know...