Sheldon Emry God's Solution For Drug Peddlers

GOD'S SOLUTION FOR

DRUG

This was an AMERICA'S PROMISE radio broadcast on October 20, 1968.

America's Promise MbrlstrIes POBox 157 5aldpOOt, Idaho 83864

In our Wednesday night Bible study classes at my home we have been reading about God's Laws for government as given to Israel through Moses and then passed down to us. At the same time we are comparing this erroneous preaching today that God's Laws are no longer in effect for us-that we are not under the Law, but under grace-and it is preached as if that is true of the whole nation. So last Tuesday one of the ladies from our church called to suggest I might be interested in attending a public meeting that evening (October 15) at the West High School auditorium on the marijuana and dope problem in Arizona. Governor Williams was to speak, as well as some other well-known people, so I went. The meeting was sponsored by the Arizona Alcohol & Narcotics Education Association, at least partially composed of ministers. There were 200-300 people in the audience. The meeting was opened by a presentation of colors, a soloist sang The Star-Spangled Banner, we all joined in the pledge of allegiance, a prayer was offeredand the speakers then followed. It was all done in a very nice Christian manner.

I shall briefly summarize their talks and then make some comments and read some Scripture, for what I saw and heard in that 21/2-hourforum was the absolute and total futility of a people trying to solve a problem of crime and wickedness WITHOUT the Laws of God. My friends, it simply cannot be donel The first speaker was Mrs. Sarah Folsum, State Superintendent of Education. She welcomed the people and expressed her satisfaction that they were. showing concern for our young people and the. drug problem. Governor Jack Williams then spoke for about 5 minutes, as he could stay for only a short time, complimenting the group sponsoring the meeting and those who attended. He likened the audience to the disciples of Christ-few in number, but because of their dedication, they could do much. It was one of the best 5-minute sermons I have ever heard. I don't know the Governor very well, but I believe he might have made a good preacher. Mr. Charles Tignor, head of the Arizona Dept. of Narcotics, gave us the arrest and drug statistics for the last year. Of 356

arrests of known peddlers, half were charged only with possession of narcotics, as a peddling conviction is hard to obtain. Also, he said they have a card file on 1,101 known addicts in the state with more being added daily. Mr. Tignor has only 10 men to cover the state of Arizona. Mr. Jay Smith, Arizona Dept. of Education, spoke next for about 10 minutes on the parents' responsibility and the need for the young people to have goals in life. He indicated part of the problem was some parents not raising their children right. The next speaker was Moise Berger, Chief Deputy County Attorney. He spent 30 minutes giving an excellent account of the illegal drug traffic, the path to addiction from marijuana to heroin, and the hell on earth in which the drug addict lives. He also stated that of the addicts who go through the year-long cure at the State Hospital (at taxpayers' expense) OVER 95% GO BACK ON DRUGS AFTER THEIR RELEASEI He also told us that many become addicted from drugs furnished free by pushers who, in that manner, obtain another involuntary customer addict, who then buys drugs from them.

Mr. Berger ended his talk by saying that part of the solution would be at least 40 men for Mr. Tignor for investigations and arrests, and that parents and schools need to train children properly and educate them to the dangers of these drugs. He then invited the audience to come forward and examine the drug display which he had brought with him. I hope this is not beginning to bore you, because I have only summarized in 5 minutes what took about 2 hours. Rev. Wes Darby, pastor of West High Baptist Church, then closed the meeting by taking up a collection to help him and the committee hold further meetings, in which other experts, doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, and government men could help educate school officials, parents, and children. He praised the Police Dept. and condemned some of the judges who continually turn criminals loose on technicalities. He then repeated the desire to have other meetings with these experts to find answers to this terrible drug problem and dismissed the meeting with prayer. 21f2 hours had passed, and those of you

· who know me realize that by that time I was almost ready to burst! I had hoped for a question-and-answer period in order to read 3 verses of Scripture, a very small portion of God's Statutes and Judgments to Israel, and then ask these fine people on the stage if the implementation of those 3 verses might just help solve the problem of the drug pushers in Arizona. And when I call them fine people, I mean just that. I am convinced that everyone of the speakers was entirely sincere in his desire to find a solution to the drug problem. But there was no opportunity to ask the question, so I rose to leave, after writing these words in the pad on which I was making notes: "2112 hours, and not a one discussed in any manner the punishment of the wicked." I met 2 ladies from my church in the rear of the auditorium. One said, "All that talk about the problem-and no solution." They recognized that every speaker was searching for a HUMAN SOLUTION-and of course there is none. The problem will only get worse and worse and worse, until we turn to the Bible and begin to put into effect God's

Laws, Statutes, and Judgments. So we left, but on the steps outside was Rev. Wes Darby. On the stage he had said he had worked with the Arizona Alcohol & Narcotics Education Association for 15 years, so I thought, "Well, I'll read the 3 verses of God's Law to him; I haven't been able to read them to anyone else." I introduced myself and said, "Pastor Darby, I'd like to read 3 verses of Scripture, which I think might solve this problem for Arizona, if they were put into effect. " He indicated he would listen, so I opened my Bible to Deut. 25 and read verses 1-3: "If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked. And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number. Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed; lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee." And then I said to pastor Darby, "If the

next 10 or 15 drug pushers were taken down in front of the State Capitol, had their shirts taken off their backs, and were given 20 lashes with a horsewhip, they and the other drug pushers would be out of the state of Arizona so fast it would make your head swim." And glory be, he looked up at me and said, "That's right-that would do it." Well, this agreement floored me. Most ministers REFUSE to admit that God's Statutes and Judgments have ANYTHING to do with crime in America! So, rather startled, I blurted out, "Well, pastor Darby, if you believe that, you have this ministers' organization here; why don't you all go down to the State Capitol and tell the Governor and these other law officers that putting into effect God's punishment on criminals would stop this?" And do you know what he said? Brother, Sister, to the everlasting shame of the other ministers, this is what he told me: "Well, I do, but my fellow ministers shoot me down every time." And then he explained that the other ministers who went with· him would not agree that God's Judgments should be put into effect!

Yes, my friends, ministers have preached so long that God's Law has been put away that they spend their time and their flock's money bringing in doctors and psychologists and psychiatrists in the VAIN hope they can stop teen-agers from smoking marijuana or taking heroin! And a horsewhip on the backs of a few criminals could save thousands of our young people from a living death and our state from chaos of unchecked crime. For I believe (and I am sure police officers would back me up on this) the majority of the crimes in our cities in this state are committed by drug users and addicts. Moise Berger had said a heroin addict would need $20 to $100 a day-yes, a day-to supply himself with heroin (1968 prices). How does he get $20 to $100 a day? By burglary, robbery, mugging, purse snatching, beating up helpless old men and women, and of course, murder in the process. And what is worse, he also gets others hooked on the drugs, so he can sell drugs to them. And the drug suppliers who make $10,000 to $100,000 a year from these addicts receive small fines or a few years in jail if they are caught with the drugs I

JLootl Paid For Heroin SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (UP!) - An 18-year-old transient has admitted to authorities that he pulled off 376 burglaries over the last two years to support a $150-a-day heroin habit. The exploits of the youth, identified as James A. Gardner, were disclosed by sheriff's investigators who estimated the total "loot" involved at between $40,000 and $50,000. Cl'-

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Inspectors Bowen Bridges and Marco Melovich said Gardner has beer. in custody since late Octobcr and has quit heroin "cold turkey." In addition, thcy said, the youth has displayed "an incredible memory" in pointing out houses he entered and recalling just what he took. In going from marijuana, a variety of pIlls, "speed," and fil1:J!!L heroin, the investigators said Gardner said he was assisted occasionally by some

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plices refused The sold to cisco prices,"

whom he adamantly to identify. things he stole were "fences" in San Fran"at ridiculol.lsly low the inspectors said.

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Each Case Is A Tragedy In Drug-Damage Hearings By JOHN DECENZO Each case Is a tragedy. An 18-year-Qld girl, turned into a living vegetable because of brain damage from drug abuse, may spend her rel)laining Christmases in Arizona State Hospital.

Thurston, who con du c t s mental health hearings every Monday and Thursday at the hospital, is concerned !>el;ause the 56-plus cases he has heard since July all involve young people with drugo{jamaged minds.

Judge Thurston said this Or two women, 23 and 24, number is "far tou many." and two teen·age boys, 18 and AT EACH MENTAL health 19, are committed to the state hearing, the judge must demental hospital because of cide whether thL person is drug abuse. mentally ill or is a danger to SUPERIOR Court Judge himself or others. On the day he committed five, he released Edwin Thurston knows the seven others. extent of the tragedies, for he A lawyer is always present committed all' five of the young people to Arizona State and at least two lay persons Hospital in just one day last and two psychiatrists testify week. at each hearing. The 18-year-Qldgirl is in the Their testimony is becoming mental hospital because she took 20 amphetemine capsules all too familiar: "Brain damover a weekend, "just to ex- age is indicated ... prognosis is very guarded." periment with drugs." All five are from respectable, well-tCHIohomes, Judge Thurston said.

It mean; they may be hospitalized 'the rest 01 their lives.

"About the Only t h i n g they've got going for them," T h u r s t 0 D said, "is their youth." TIlE MAJORITY of the victims mess up their brains with LSD or speed, the judge noted, but the harder drugs like heroin and opium also rot their share of what were once rational, inquisitive minds. In three border-line cases, the detained persons were released because the brain damage had not destroyed their personalities. They were released with recommendations to continue outilatient treatment and consultation, But some of those released have been on drugs too long. "In their present state of mind," said T h u r s ton, "they'll probably go right back to drugs. You just don't' know if treatment has helped because yoU can't communicate with thcm."

THE RELEASED .. ones rarely hold down jobs or return to schoo\. They have no idea what the effects of drugs they took .weeks or even months ago will have on them now. "These kids are playing with dynamite. I wish I could make a movie in court of the results that often follow .the use of drugs and show it to every high school student in Arizona," the judge said. Some of the more severe young drug abuse victims, he said, "sit looking like vegetables" or else just sit and constantly mumble incoherently. Others, he said, animate hopelessly in a fog of drowsiness. "Sometimes the parents come and sometimes they don't, and I see them with tears rolling down their faces because they don't know what to do with their children or how to do it, and nobOdy has an answer for them."

HOSEA,4 6 '1 My people are 3destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou ha~;tforgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

SllDday, Dee. %8,1969 The Arizona Republic

Girl, 12, says she's addict (AP)-Pima TUCSON County medical officials said F rid a y a 12-year-{)ldheroin addict came to their family planning clinic in Tucson and told them she was a prostitute. "Smack costs money, you know. I've heen using two doses ($10worth) a day, but I !lot to have more." County Health De~rtment authorities said Iri te sto~ that the girl's Illibit IS a ligt one compared 10 some Tucson youngsters kI10wn10 use up to 10doses daily. When officials saw the age on the application, they said they chose an exceptionally skilled and compassionate nurse to interview the child. "I've interviewed several youngsters 11, 12 and 13 years old, using or addicted to heroin," one nurse was quoted as saying in the article. "Most of those we see are from very poor homes and their families can't afford private care for them."

It is that serious. Yet when I suggest God's Judgment on criminals as a Scriptural punishment (the whip), most ministers cry out in self-righteous horror and say, "Oh no, we can't do that; that would be too cruel; we must love our fellow man; we are under Christ's love, not under the Law," and other foolish nonsense. My friends, which do YOU think would be more merciful: the bleeding backs of a few miserable criminal degenerates? or the shattered and broken lives of thousands of once fine young men and women? In these ministers' attempts to be MORE merciful than God, and MORE righteous than God in His Judgments, they have brought our civilization to the brink of ruinand they cannot see what they have done! So they turn to doctors and psychiatrists and psychologists and other so-called "experts" for an answer-and, of course, they will find none. Bible students agree that Daniel is one of the wisest men in the Bible, and in Daniel 9, in discussing the reason Israel had all the trouble they did and why they went into captivity, Daniel had this to say: "We have

sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments." If you will read that whole chapter, you will discover that Daniel knew that Israel had had trouble and gone into captivity because they refused to put into effect God's Laws, Statutes, and Judgments against the law-breakers. . In 1 Samuel 15 we find righteous Samuel talking to Saul after Saul had disobeyed the Lord, and he said this: "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. " (1 Samuel 15:22,23). And, Brother and Sister, Daniel said that rebellion was refusing to obey the Statutes and Judgments of the Lord. Samuel said, "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." And he continued, Saul, "because thou hast rejected the Word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king." You know the rest of the story. Saul was

killed in battle shortly after that. God's punishment for witchcraft is death, and Samuel said, "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft!" And yet our ministers preach and teach to their flocks, and to their young people, and to the government, and to everyone else: "No, we don't have to put into effect and obey God's Statutes and Judgments!" Brother, Sister, they are tragically wrong, and our whole nation is in trouble because of it. WHAT IF THE DOPE CAUSESDEATH? If death is caused by the drug or its addiction, the drug supplier is guilty of murder, for he has broken the commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Kill." The Judgment (punishment) is as follows: "If a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile (treachery); thou shalt take him (the murderer) from mine altar, that he may die" (Exodus 21:14). The sentence is to be carried out by the civil authorities: "Then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood (the executioner) that he may die. Thine eye

shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel THAT IT MAY GO WELL WITH THEE" (Deut. 19:12, 13). The security of the nation depends upon obeying God's Law and putting murderers to death . . People who hate God and His Laws argue that death for murderers is unnecessary and cruel, because "that won't bring back the victim ... it is cruel and vengeful ... it's not the Christian thing to do . . ." and other nonsense. God deals in no such silly arguments, but states very simply that execution of murderers and punishment of other criminals is so that "those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you I" (verse 20). All of God's Laws and Judgments were given "for our good;" yet we listen to foolish ministers who say they need not be obeyed. We admit the murderer has violated God's commandment when he killed, but we fail to realize that we become the transgressors when we then fail to obey God and put that murderer to death! Then God's punishment falls upon the whole nation-just as it is falling upon America today.

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WHAT IF THE DOPE CAUSES DISABILITY? If the drug user does not die of the dope, but is affected physically or mentally, then God's Law regarding deliberate injury would be used. It is stated in Exodus 21:18,19, "And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed; if he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff (recover completely), then shall he that smote him be quit (not punished); only (except) he shall pay the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly

healed."

Loss of wages, all doctor and hospital bills, and other related costs would be chargeable to the drug peddler. We follow this law in assault, in automobile liability, and similar cases today. Interestingly enough, we have followed this to some extent regarding the selling of beer and liquor! Courts have often punished bartenders for selling liquor to a person who later had an accident because of being drunk! Since dope is "intoxicating," drug peddlers should· certainly be liable. To further understand God's precepts of

liability, read verses 23-36 of Exodus 21, regarding the ox goring a person or a man leaving a pit open and aDOIher being injured. The principle of liability ~ based OIl the person krwwinglj,· alJowiJIg II siI:wnimt to exist which injures tlIIOtlter. With the tremendous publicity OIl drugs, no drug peddler could plead ignonnce of what the drug will do to those to whom he sells or gives the dope. He would be required to pay all damages, or in some cases be woold forfeit his life. The result would still be the same-the end of the drug traffic. WHAT IF THE PUSHER CANNOT PAY?

Ifthe "pusher" has nothing or refuses to disclose assets with which he could pay, God's Law has an answer for that also. In the next chapter of Exodus we find that a person unable to make restitution for his crime "shall be sold for his theft" (verse 3). This means the civil authorities are to place him at labor, and except for his subsistence, his earnings are to be paid to his victims. Today, because of ignorance of God's just Laws, we take dope-injured persons and place them in hospitals, and the parents or

the state [the rest of us] are forced to pay thousands and thousands of dollarsfor their treatment, while the drug peddler serves a few months in prison [or none at all] and then goes free! Many families have been impoverished, and the rest of the children suffer, because we will not put into effect God's punishment on evildoers! How many criminals would risk a sentence at labor until all costs caused by their peddling dope were paid? Very few would, if any. But as long as our people continue to believe rebellious ministers who tell us that God's Laws are not for us and not to be followed or put into effect-just so long will we continue to suffer the penalty for disobedience. WHY DON'T WE TRY IT GOD~S WAY? CONCLUSION The whipping of a few drug peddlers, the execution of those who have caused deaths, and the sentencing of those who have caused injury to pay all costs of such injury, even to working the rest of their natural lives to pay it off, would end illegal drug traffic in

a matter of weeks in any state or DatioB in which it were tried. All of God's I..aws, Statutes, aDd JIIdgmeats are siRpIe, economical, ••• dft:d:i.1Ie •••• wws to tile problem of (:I iu.MaJ jatice. To rdiIse to lISle His Laws is 10 inIpIy that -..: are more iBIdligent than God is. BId fnJIu. tile fruits of our man-made laws, it is otw-.s that we are not as inteIIiF-t as we imagine. WHAT CAM TOO 00 TO HELP?

Send copies afdBs tract to your Governor, Mayor. State L-gisbbws, Sheriff, Judges, and other law eadUtcement officers. And pray America will tom to the Bible for God's answers to tile dmg and other problems. For furtbenmdyon God's Lawfor America, you may obtain the following books by writing to the address below: To Heal tlte NIItioa, 186pages. BillionS for tile BankerS; DebtS People, 32 pages •

Amedal"s

P'I.1Jmise MInIstries

POBox 157 5a'q)oW, Idaho 83864

for

the

ST. MATIHEW 5

17 er RThink not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. 18 For verily I say unto you, "Tillheaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19 "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

I TIMOTh? 1

8 But we know that "the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; 9 RKnowingthis, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary Rtosound doc-

trine;

ROMANS 3 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.