Here are four installments from a series of articles on the history of cannabis by Chris Bennet, which appeared in Cannabis Culture, a Canadian magazine:
2. The Scythians - High Plains Drifters
3. Kaneh Bosm, The Hidden Story of Cannabis in the Old Testament
4. Cannabis and the Christ: Jesus used Marijuana
There are a couple of things that bother me about this.
Chris Bennet says "The Scythians played a very important part in the Ancient World from the seventh to first century BC." They were fierce warriors, the Hell's Angels of their time. True enough. However, he neglects to mention that in later centuries the Scythians ceased to exist as an independent people. They were sold in slave markets. In the Roman Empire, it was common for wealthy households to have Scythian slaves, washing the dishes and cleaning out the stables. The high plains drifter had become a janitor.
Likewise, the cannabis-smoking priests that Chris describes were driven to extinction.
Why does our side always lose?
This is not a rhetorical question. It is a question that has an answer. There is a long-term competition between different cultures and different modes of consciousness. Some win and some lose. When the same thing happens consistently over a long period of time, there must be a reason. There must be something about the structure of the situation that causes the same outcome to occur over and over.
I don't believe in poverty. I have no intention of being a slave. I'm not interested in noble lost causes.
I want us to take our place in the sun -- to take control of our lives, so no one can attack us, divide us, and put us in prison. To do that, we have to understand how we got into this situation.
But alas, I don't understand it. I'm just posing the question.
Chris Bennet says that John anointed Jesus with the holy oil, Kaneh Bosm. That's why Jesus was the Messiah (which means "Anointed"). Supposedly Jesus anointed other people with this oil. That's how he healed them. That's also one reason the priests hated him: he had revealed something that was supposed to be secret.
I understand where Chris is coming from. About 20 years ago, when I was in the prime of my age for getting high, I thought marijuana was the Holy Spirit. I got stoned and read the Bible, and saw things in it that I had never seen before. I also got stoned and said the Lord's Prayer. Sometimes I said it with such concentration that it took half an hour to get through it once.
But the idea that Jesus himself used cannabis is problematic. If Jesus and the original disciples used Kaneh Bosm, when did Christians stop using it? And why?
The thing is, Paul never says anything about this. If anointing with cannabis had been a central, essential practice of the early church, surely he would have had something to say about it, for or against.
Paul wasn't shy about speaking his mind. If something was happening in the churches that he didn't approve of, he said so in no uncertain terms. He never denounced the use of cannabis. If first-generation Christians were anointing each other with the holy oil, surely he would have known about it, and if he didn't like it, he would have spoken out against it. But he didn't.
There is no indication whatever that Paul disapproved of anointing. Anointing is mentioned only once in his letters. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, verses 21-22, Paul says
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
The only thing he said that might be construed as anti-drug is Galatians 5:19-21,
Now the works of the flesh are manifest: fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, fits of rage, rivalries, dissention, sects, envy, drunkenness, revellings, and the like. As I have told you before, anyone who does such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The word translated "sorcery" is pharmakeia, which is the root of the English word "pharmacy." The same word occurs in Revelation 9:21 and 18:23. The related word pharmakos ("sorcerer") occurs in Revelation 21:8 and 22:15.
Considering the context, since pharmakeia is mentioned in connection with idolatry, fornication, revellings (orgies), and so forth, it obviously doesn't mean anointing with holy oil.
Since Paul didn't denounce it, there are two alternatives:
1. It didn't happen.
2. It did happen. It was what Christians did in those days. It was a big part of what they did. Paul did it himself. But when he was writing his letters, for some reason that subject just never came up.
I guess the latter alternative is possible, but it still leaves the basic questions unanswered: when and why did Christians stop using the holy oil?
Not only that: if some people were against anointing with Kaneh Bosm, and Paul was for it, why didn't he speak out against them? It's hard to conceive of Paul being silent on any controversial issue.
It wasn't just Paul. Nobody else mentioned the use of Kaneh Bosm, either. There is nothing about it in the New Testament.
If some Christians in the first generation used cannabis and some didn't, surely Jesus would have said something about it. But there is nothing about cannabis in the gospels, for or against.
I'm not an expert in church history, so I'm not really on solid ground here, but as far as I know, there is no mention of cannabis in the controversies of the fourth century. The newly emerging Catholic Church wasn't shy about denouncing anything it disapproved of. Catholic theologians had plenty to say about Gnostic heresies and all kinds of heresies. If they had regarded the use of holy oil as a heretical practice that had to be eliminated from the Church, they would have said so. But they didn't. Not as far as I know, anyway.
If Christians used the holy oil in the first generation, and then stopped at some later time, there must have been a time when it was controversial. There must have been a time when they argued about it. But as far as I know, there is no record of any such argument.
There is another problem here, of a different kind. Chris takes it for granted that there must be some physical explanation for the healing described in the gospels. Of course, Jesus didn't have the power to create new realities. If he healed anybody, he had to use some kind of ointment. I would refer Chris to Mark 11:22-24.
My experience of pot:
marijuana as an intelligence enhancer
Prospects for the legalization of marijuana
There is no loyalty among drug users
The 915 movement - We are all supposed to support the American agenda, i.e. the attempt to create a drug-free society and an integrated society. There must be a few who think, as I do, that the American agenda is monstrous. It's the exact opposite of what we should be doing.
Note added February 4, 2003.
It has come to my attention that this page has been mentioned on the Cannabis Culture site, on a list of sites "unfriendly to Chris Bennet."
When I wrote the 915 manifesto and its associated pages (including this one), it never occurred to me that I was unfriendly to Chris Bennet, of all things. But apparently the "Jesus was a stoner" idea has become a belief system, and it works like any other belief system. Anyone who questions it is automatically an enemy.
Well, if they want to define me as an enemy, so be it. Fuck you, Chris. Fuck Cannabis Culture. Fuck everybody who is mindlessly committed to a belief system. Any belief system.