3. Marijuana impacts the adolescent brain and can damage it for life.
“The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.” Proverbs 22:3
According to Proverbs, simpletons see the danger in indulging in something but go for it anyway. These fools pay the price. Similarly, if science shows that smoking marijuana damages a teenager’s brain and they do it anyway, they’re being fools. And science does show that, by the way.
In an interview with CBC News, Dr. Romina Mizrahi, director of the Focus on Youth Psychosis Prevention clinic and research program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, said that “brain development in childhood continues through teenage years and into the early 20s.” She explained that “cannabis affects how the brain’s regulator—called the endocannabinoid system—controls things like mood and memory… You’re kind of tampering with or altering the system that’s there to regulate other things.”
4. Marijuana can lead to a sedentary, lazy, wasted life (which is a sin!).
“Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor.” Proverbs 12:24
Most stoners are depicted as Dorito-crunching, couch-crashing slackers for a reason. Because many of them are! I’ve talked to countless parents whose teens or 20-somethings have pretty much given up on anything but smoking drugs, playing video games and lying around. If they work, they work just enough to make just enough to pay for their next bag of weed.
Addiction to anything (especially drugs) can take away our ambition to work hard, save money and be generous to others. It can waste years of a young person’s life. And this brand of life does not glorify God!
5. It can become a gateway to even more addictive drugs.
“Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.” Romans 6:19
Sin breeds sin. Once you say “no” to “Just Say No!” it becomes much easier to say “yes” to even more dangerous drugs. Then the downward spiral begins.
Teenagers can easily become “slaves” to marijuana, which can lead to “ever-increasing wickedness.” Soon teens can find themselves addicted to Oxycontin, heroin or meth.
Am I using scare tactics here? Of course! But my motivation is love for Christian teenagers! I don’t want to see them caught in a trap that I’ve seen so many fall into and many never get out of. And far too many fall into even more addictive drugs as a result.
6. Weed can rob teens of pursuing their calling wholeheartedly.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23-24
Jesus calls his followers to work with all our hearts in the calling he gives. Students have a calling to be the best students they can be. Athletes have a calling to be the best athletes they can be. Employees have a calling to be the best workers they can be. Marijuana takes the edge off a teenager’s ability to think and execute their God-given calling wholeheartedly.
