Pubdate: Wed, 20 Feb 2002
Source: Reason Magazine (US)
Copyright: 2002 The Reason Foundation
Contact:  http://www.reason.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/359
Author: Sara Rimensnyder
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?1043 (Christianity)

MORMONS, GREEN JELL-O & OTHER DRUGS

If there's something non-believers know about Mormons, it's that they 
treat their bodies like a temple. And that caffeine, alcohol, and 
drugs have no place in an individual's house of the holy. So the news 
that Utah, where 70 percent of residents accept the Plates of Nephi 
as scripture, leads the country in use of anti-depressants (not to 
mention sugary green Jell-O), was met by many with surprise -- or 
smug satisfaction.

It needn't surprise. Americans may worship more gods and monsters 
than the Greeks, but we share a national devotion: weird hypocrisy 
about drug use. When Mormons shrink in horror from Starbucks but pop 
Paxil like Pez, they're indulging the same kind of mystification that 
decides U.S. drug law. Or, for that matter, that can lead pot smokers 
who say they self-medicate to denounce those "drones" on artificial 
anti-depressants.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Josh