Big Alcohol is adding a new ingredient—marijuana—to its moneymaking brew
And America continues to be awash in drugs. Perhaps some drinkers will be gratified at the legalization and mixing of marijuana. Alcohol and marijuana are now being mixed with practically everything.
Wonder if this relates to those who mixed wine in the Bible?
Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine. -Proverbs 23:30
Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink. -Isaiah 5:22 NKJV
John Kitto had a little to say about mixed wine:
http://gulfcoastpastor.blogspot.com/2013/05/john-kitto-on-wine-in-bible…
David R. Brumbelow
…..that caffeine was originally not the only stimulant in Coca-Cola:
“When launched, Coca-Cola’s two key ingredients were cocaine and caffeine. The cocaine was derived from the coca leaf and the caffeine from kola nut, leading to the name Coca-Cola (the “K” in Kola was replaced with a “C” for marketing purposes).
Coca – cocaine
Pemberton called for five ounces of coca leaf per gallon of syrup, a significant dose; in 1891, Candler claimed his formula (altered extensively from Pemberton’s original) contained only a tenth of this amount. Coca-Cola once contained an estimated nine milligrams of cocaine per glass. (For comparison, a typical dose or “line” of cocaine is 50–75 mg.) In 1903, it was removed.
After 1904, instead of using fresh leaves, Coca-Cola started using “spent” leaves – the leftovers of the cocaine-extraction process with trace levels of cocaine. Since then, Coca-Cola uses a cocaine-free coca leaf extract prepared at a Stepan Company plant in Maywood, New Jersey.”
- Legalization of marijuana (I view the Colorado experiment as a failure … but the Minnesota medical marijuana initiative as successful!).
- Worse perhaps is the recent SCOTUS decision on sports betting. I think it is bad for the sports … and bad for society!
Given the historic and ongoing “success” of our country’s Prohibition efforts—yes I am being very sarcastic here—it strikes me that our best approach might have something to do with asking users why they are using certain substances, not in prohibiting them altogether. It is worth noting that Scripture nowhere suggests Prohibition as the proper course of action for dealing with intoxicant abuse, and history gives us a very good picture of what happens when we try an approach not recommended by Scripture. It is quite frankly very often lethal.
Moreover, Coca-Cola is a good picture of what we can get to with misguided efforts. Pemberton initially marketed it as a hangover cure—one that in light of the fairly high dose of cocaine in there might have been a touch worse than the disease.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Some say that Kaneh bosem, an ingredient in holy anointing oil, was canabis. I don’t know where I fall on that perspective.
With that said, it isn’t the marijuana that is bad. It has medicinal properties to it. The bigger issue is the recreational use of it. I actually would promote more research to be put toward understanding the medicinal qualities.
I worked for Solvay Pharmaceuticals which produced Marinol that had THC as it’s main active ingredient, used to treat loss of appetite in chemo patients.
When I was taking some serious chemo in 1984/85, I had severe nausea and loss of appetite during treatments which lasted a week, and for a week or more following. After each episode, the doctor told me they had something new that would eliminate my nausea “this time.” Several of those new drugs were marijuana based. They didn’t work for me. Nothing did. I thank God those days are long ago and far away.
G. N. Barkman
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