Follow us on:

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube

Archive -Seychelles

Speak with one voice about drugs |22 June 2017

The Seychelles Interfaith Council(Sifco) feels it is necessary to highlight religious thinking and principles on drug use as a moral guide for society in the formulation of laws, in education and dissemination of information. Strong language is sometimes used in order to deter mankind from the temptation of mind altering substances. Spiritual values and convictions give firm points of reference for personal development, thus preventing our young from being easy prey for drug pushers.

 

Christianity

Christian morality firmly rejects whatever use of illegal drugs. In fact John Paul II has referred to pushers as "merchants of death" and warns potential drug users against using substances that offer the illusion of liberty and false promises of happiness.

Many of the causes of dependency are to be found in insecurity, fear, guilt, disappointments, immorality, frustration, stress and peer pressure. The root cause of dependency and widespread use of drugs is the spiritual vacuum as a result of a breakdown of moral standards, the disintegration of the home and the staggering availability of drugs of every kind to every age group. The fight against drug is a grave duty for those in public authority who have the duty to protect citizens and promote the common good. Enforcement of drug laws is crucial for protecting society and individuals from grave danger. And widespread violations of the law should not lessen the effort to enforce it.

 

Legalization?

The Church opposes the legalization of drugs. This includes so-called soft drugs, which it sees as fomenting the same type of dependence mentality and the eventual loss of personal dignity that hard drugs produce.

Legalizing drugs would have serious impact on potential users, damaging their health and stunting their lives.

From a medical point of view, the division between soft and hard drugs is hard to draw. In many cases what is more important is the quality or quantity of substances consumed, how they have been taken and whether they have been mixed. Moreover, new drugs are constantly arriving on the scene, along with new side effects and questions about their potency.

The Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers also points out that drug abuse has significant non-physical effects. The psychological and behavioural consequences of soft drugs lead to substantial problems, even if their physiological effects are not as serious as those of hard drugs.

How then can we best fight drug abuse? There are three courses of action: prevention, suppression of trafficking and rehabilitation.

Prevention can be brought about by offering to potential victims of drugs the human values of love and life, illuminated by faith. In this way we can give meaning to our lives. The Church offers people the gift of God's love, with her word and with Christ's grace.“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

The role of the family is providing for children a solid education that teaches them to avoid ever starting with drugs. Family love is a potent weapon in fighting drug use. Youth groups and parishes can also play a part, by promoting a lifestyle based on evangelical values and contact with God that will lead to the discovery of what is the true meaning of our human existence.

Fighting against the international network of drug traffickers is also important; and international cooperation is needed to overcome the power of crime syndicates.

Drug suppliers and merchants should be the primary object of legal and police action.. While it would be a mistake to leave unpunished ordinary drug users, authorities should take into account the personal and social factors that led them into addiction. Above all, users should be helped to escape from their dependence.

The Baha’i Faith prohibits the use of heroin, hashish and derivatives of cannabis such as marijuana.

Hashish “causeth the disintegration of thought and the complete torpor of the soul .….. extinguish the mind, freeze the spirit, petrify the soul, waste the body and leave man frustrated and lost.” (note that some statistics quote the THC content in hashish ranging from 20 to 60% while marijuana on the market can be up to 30%)

“As to opium, according to the explicit Text of the Most Holy Book, it is forbidden, and its use is utterly condemned. Reason showeth that smoking opium is a kind of insanity, and experience attesteth that the user is completely cut off from the human kingdom. May God protect all against the perpetration of an act …which layeth in ruins the very foundation of what it is to be human.. For opium fasteneth on the soul so that the user’s conscience dieth, his mind is blotted away, his perceptions are eroded. It turneth the living into the dead. It quencheth the natural heat. No greater harm can be conceived than that which opium inflicteth. Fortunate are they who never even speak the name of it;”….

O ye lovers of God. In this, the cycle of Almighty God, violence and force, constraint and oppression are one and all condemned. It is however mandatory that the use of opium be prevented by any means whatsoever, that perchance the human race may be delivered from this most powerful of plagues. And otherwise, woe and misery to whosoever falleth short of his duty to his Lord.”(Abdu’l-Baha, Centre of the Covenant)

All mind-altering substances, however mild their effects, including alcohol, should be abstained from. Some chemical compounds in marijuana act as stimulants or depressants in the brain and affect our natural state. However this does not forbid the use of any plant extracts or alcohol if prescribed by qualified physicians approved by established medical authorities as part of a well-researched and proven treatment. We are not to be our own doctor in this matter!

 

Buddhism

The Buddha encouraged His followers to refrain from consuming any kind of intoxicant including alcohol and drugs. These are inconsistent with Buddhist teachings as they impact the mind or the nervous system artificially, however slightly. Avoid pollutants of the mind; intoxicants that cloud the judgement, dull the mind and the thinking. The mind is precious and through the art of meditation, we learn to master it. Mindfulness enables the individual to react wisely to emotions and sensations as each one is responsible for his own Karma (action or volition). The 8-fold path or the Middle Way involves:

Right views -right resolve-  rightconduct - right livelihood- right effort or mental attitude -mindfulness and concentration.

The 5 virtues or precepts are : Abstain from harming living beings, from stealing, from sexual misconduct, from lying and intoxication.

 

Hinduism

Drugs only construct a reliance on a material substance and lead to bondage to that substance therefore, for our purposes, they do not lead to unconditional freedom, but to spiritual regression.

Those who wish to get high, numb, forget some bad incident, peer pressure, try new things are interested in getting an artificial stimulant. Those who rise above all naturally through meditation and practices as instructed by Sri Krishna never need an artificial stimulant or numbing agent.

Sattivic foods are recommended to maintain purity, clearness and avoid restlessness, anger, laziness and sloth. Intoxicants destroy austerity, one of the 4 defining qualities of human civilization (Bhagavad Gita Purana)

 

Islam

Allah Almighty said: "O You who believe! Indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than Allah], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may prosper." [Quran: 5:90]

Allah Almighty has described using intoxicants, as being an act of Satan, and He has commanded us to abstain from them. Allah, thereafter, states in the next verse; "Satan only wants to cause between you animosity and hatred through intoxicants and gambling and to avert you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. So will you not abstain? [Quran: 5:91]

This verse tells us how intoxicants are an addition to sow the seeds of enmity between families, friends and weaken the ability of a nation, more over it also reduces one’s potential to reflection and praise The Almighty.

So avoid it; marijuana, hashish, heroin and all other recreational drugs. So will you not abstain?

 

PREVENTION AND TREATMENT

 

Developing programmes for the prevention of drug abuse should target the individual, the family and society. Drug dependency is a problem of the whole person - spiritual, physical, emotional and social. Once addicted, the dependent lives in an illusory world characterized by paralysed feelings and emotional responses, mental denials and illusions, social isolation and spiritual limbo. For many it is a helpless state, a life of no return! The effort to withdraw from drug addiction can be very painful both physically and psychologically. Unmonitored withdrawal can be dangerous. Getting free from dependency and the subsequent rehabilitation is usually a long-term process. A strong support system involving the spiritual, emotional, mental and physical is needed. The individual is helped to develop a sense of purpose, a feeling of self-esteem and respect for others, a state of maturity making it possible for him or her to evaluate circumstances objectively and to postpone immediate gratification for a future goal, a feeling of personal responsibility, and spiritual orientation, which can help the individual to develop positive attitudes towards himself or herself and the environment. It involves a behavioural and attitudinal change. Above all, addicts must be treated with love, compassion and respect as they are accompanied by professionals, pastors, friends, family and community in their life-long struggle. Moral sermons or passing judgement are not of much help in that road to recovery.

Parents are encouraged to promote love and unity, as well as a drug-free lifestyle, so that children are provided with healthy models. The family experience is also intended to help children cope with stress and other problems of daily life. By means of education, society at large is encouraged to adopt positive attitudes towards health and to promote activities that lead to the elimination of isolation. Deterrents to drug use can be in the form of appropriate laws and effective use of the media to educate on the dangers of use and promote a drug free society. 

All efforts should be made for early detection and treatment of users and all measures taken for eliminating trafficking.
World-wide, the Church has been successfully treating drug addicts for years. In Seychelles, CAR (Centre d’Accueil de La Rosière) is stepping up its efforts to provide rehabilitation for users using natural methods, in addition to its after care programmes. Sifco was in fact set up in 2012 to work with local agencies to prevent and combat drug use. The faith-based Commission of CEPS (Citizens Engagement Platform Seychelles) in which several Sifco members are engaged, has also participated in educational programmes in schools and community rehabilitation programmes, trying to spiritually empower participants  to avoid it or to overcome their addiction. Paster Lannwit (Night Pastor) has also tried to assist drug addicts on the streets as part of an on-going campaign.

 

Contributed by the Seychelles Interfaith Council (Sifco)

 

 

 

» Back to Archive