This week the Catholic Church declared drug-taking to be a mortal sin -- even though I don't recall any of the ten commandments proscribing the practice.
They don't seem to include alcohol as a drug even though the edict was reportedly aimed at 'drugs which weaken the mind'.
Of course the new rules must have come straight from God as The Pope apparently has a hotline to the Almighty (or else he is suffering from serious delusions). So it seems that God must be on the side of ultra-conservatives and prohibitionists, and the Yanks who want to prevent harm by spraying half of Afghanistan with poison to kill the opium crops. What could possibly go wrong?
It makes me wonder, then, if God doesn't want us taking these substances, why He created cannabis, the Coca tree and the opium poppy, and made their effects so medicinal and/or pleasurable and/or addictive. Perhaps they are a divine entrapment strategy, like Adam and Eve's apple, or perhaps the numbers are dropping in Hell so it needs a bit of a boost. However this is unlikely as each soul is sentenced for eternity.
In addition, pharmacists were told they shalt not sell contraceptives (because obviously this would be worse than reducing the 60% AIDS infection rate in parts of Africa), and pedophilia by clergy had apparently been blown out of proportion by the media.
But it seems the media's continuing moral panic about drugs must be not only in-proportion but also divinely sanctioned.
Or is it just that The Church just wants to induce more people to return to religion, 'the opiate of the masses'.
Gee I'm glad we are subsidising World Youth Day so generously. And I guess that's put the 'moral' firmly back into the drugs debate.
Pictured is the atrocious el-cheapo WYD ad structure obscuring the western entrance of St Mary's Cathedral.
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