“Just say no.” You have probably repeatedly heard this phrase before regarding drug use. It might invoke an image of students sitting in class, watching a film about why heroin, marijuana and crystal meth are bad. Youth around the world have been told that resisting the pressure from peers to take illicit substances is as simple as stating these three words.

Yet it is usually not so easy.

A main reason for this is that drugs are more prevalent and accepted than ever before. Marijuana, also called cannabis, is the perfect example of this. In the United States, four states have legalized it. Twenty-three allow it to be used for medical purposes. Even Washington, D.C.—the nation’s capital!—has legalized it for personal use. (Note that marijuana is still illegal according to federal law.)

In addition, 18 states have decriminalized possessing smaller amounts of the drug. For instance, when someone gets caught with marijuana on them, police treat it similar to a traffic stop. A person will get a small fine and then be on their way—the event will not even appear on his permanent record. Many other nations have taken this approach, including Canada, Mexico, Italy and parts of Australia.

This is completely different from what used to happen. In 1951, the consequences of carrying marijuana in America included jail time of up to 10 years and a fine of up to $20,000, according to PBS.

With marijuana being legalized in some cases and decriminalized in others, society in general views drug use in a more positive light. This viewpoint is strengthened through movies and television shows that regularly depict the use of drugs as a normal part of life. Often, they fail to show the negative consequences of drugs.

For teenagers, all of this means more are doing drugs than ever before. In the U.S., the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found that 49 percent of all teens will have tried an illicit substance before the end of high school. Its 2014 study found that 44 percent of those aged 17-18 had smoked marijuana. Consider that only 34 percent of this same group had ever smoked cigarettes.

While marijuana use was highest, 20 percent of this group had abused prescription drugs, 12 percent had abused amphetamines, and 6 percent had used ecstasy. In addition, 11 percent of eighth graders had used inhalants such as glue or permanent markers.

With drug use rampant, attitudes toward it softening, and certain forms of it becoming legal, conversations about illicit substances have become more and more common. The “just say no” approach now often includes having to say why you do not use them.

Such conversations can seem tricky to navigate. Yet you can be ready to answer!

Obvious Problems

To understand how to respond to questions about illicit substances, it is important to know what draws people to them in the first place. This knowledge will help you better tailor your responses to their questions.

Many start using drugs because it is seen as fun. Others use them to alleviate depression and anxiety. Still others use them to relax, reduce stress, and help them sleep. And many simply say they do them because they are bored.

Problems such as chronic depression and anxiety can be overwhelming and seem impossible to solve. They can lead people to take drastic actions to deal with them. But using drugs to alleviate sadness, stress and boredom only masks these problems rather than getting to the root causes. These difficulties return as soon as the drugs wear off—and sometimes become worse.

In addition, the fleeting solution of drugs brings with it a host of negative side effects—many of them obvious problems.

Let’s look at the long-term effects of cannabis use. NIDA states that “heavy marijuana use [is linked] to lower income, greater welfare dependence, unemployment, criminal behavior, and lower life satisfaction.” This list could easily be expanded to include family issues, memory loss, and many other potential lifelong problems.

But there are immediate impacts also, even for lighter users. NIDA states that marijuana use is tied to reduced school performance: “Students who smoke marijuana tend to get lower grades and are more likely to drop out of high school than their peers who do not use. The effects of marijuana on attention, memory, and learning can last for days or weeks. These effects have a negative impact on learning and motivation. In fact, people who use marijuana regularly for a long time are less satisfied with their lives and have more problems with friends and family compared to people who do not use marijuana.”

These impacts grow significantly when looking at harder drugs, such as heroin or crystal meth, which involve the risk of overdose and are much harder to quit.

Even prescription drugs fall into this category. One person who had a horrific experience with getting off the anti-anxiety drug Xanax relayed his story to the Foundation for a Drug-Free World: “I realized I was using more Xanax on a regular basis. I took time off work to get off it. Without the knowledge I was ‘addicted,’ I went off of it, cold turkey: for four days and nights I was bedridden. I didn’t sleep or eat. I vomited. I had hallucinations. On about the third day without Xanax I started to become uncoordinated and unbalanced and bumped into things…On about the fourth day I became really worried when I started having twitching sensations.”

Not a pleasant experience!

The destructive effects of drug use—everything from slipping grades to horrible withdrawal symptoms to death from overdose—are obvious. They are clearly not worth the momentary high to alleviate boredom or depression.

What the Bible Says

God also states that the use of drugs is obviously bad. It is included in the list of “the works of the flesh” in Galatians 5:19-21, which is a brief description of human nature.

See if you can spot drug use in this passage: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest [obvious], which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like…they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Did you find it? At first glance, the closest thing to drug use on this list is “drunkenness,” but that relates to alcohol. There is actually a more direct word that has to do with illicit substances. That term is “witchcraft.”

Have you ever wondered why God tells us to be careful not to fall into witchcraft? Is it common for us to have bubbling caldrons in our kitchens or ride broomsticks at night? While we must avoid things like casting spells or dabbling in the Wiccan religion, this is not all that God is implying in Galatians 5.

The word for witchcraft is the Greek pharmakeia, from which comes the word pharmacy—a place where medical prescriptions are filled. Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament states that this word is “associated with sorcery or magical arts,” but another main meaning is “the use or administering of drugs.”

This is a condemnation of drug use! The Bible clearly states “that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Another reason witchcraft and drug use are linked is that mind-altering substances make users more open to demonic influence. This can be seen in various pagan religions, where hallucinogens are used to contact the spirit realm.

Even when not used for religious ceremonies, drug users will often say that getting “high” opens their minds. While it does open their minds, it is not to anything good!

Each work of the flesh is considered by God to be obvious and should be avoided. Why? Because they each bring harmful consequences. Adultery breaks up homes. Drunkenness can lead to car wrecks and jail time. Fornication can lead to sexually transmitted diseases and unexpected pregnancies.

Yet the apostle Paul brought up another reason to avoid the poisons of illicit substances: “Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?” (I Cor. 6:19).

Although you do not yet have God’s Holy Spirit, you are preparing yourself to receive it in the future. God desires us to keep our physical bodies (temples) holy and undefiled by harmful activities.

“Every Green Herb”

Even though the Bible is clear on the use of illicit substances, some people try to prove that God’s Word says it is fine to smoke weed and do other drugs. They use a difficult scripture to supposedly prove their point.

The verse they often cite is Genesis 1:29: “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat [food].”

Often they also include verse 30: “And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.”

Many will say that this is proof that “every herb bearing seed” and “every green herb” are fit for human consumption. They specifically point out that marijuana is both green and an herb.

Yet this is faulty logic. There are many poisonous plants including deadly nightshade, rosary pea, and oleander. If ingested, the toxins in these plants will quickly kill you. When oleander is burned, even the smoke is lethal.

Although God created all of these poisonous plants, He did not intend for them to be consumed, smoked or injected. He gave us certain plants to eat. Others are not for consumption, similar to how God gave us clean and unclean meats.

This is made even clearer in Genesis 9: “Every moving thing that lives shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things” (vs. 3).

Again, we do not eat every green herb, nor do we eat every type of meat.

Also, while Genesis 1:30 does mention “every green herb,” it is not talking about what humans should eat. Rather, it is addressing food for mammalian animals, birds, reptiles and insects.

Knowing what the Bible says about drug use will help give you confidence to say no. But it will also help you realize how privileged you are to know God’s truth, and to not look down on those who feel hopeless and use drugs to solve their problems.

Think. If you were not involved with the true Church, there is a 50 percent chance that you would have done drugs by the time you left high school. That is a flip of a coin! This does not make it right for others to use drugs, but it may help remind you to feel compassion for them.

God’s truth coupled with empathy for those caught up in the ways of the world will help you address any drug-related situation that comes up.

How to Respond

There will likely come a time in your life when someone will offer you drugs. Even more likely, there will be conversations asking whether you do drugs at all.

Such situations can either be seen as incredibly intimidating or positive opportunities to be an example of God’s way of life. The key to taking advantage of such opportunities is to be prepared to respond. Though your response should be based on biblical principles, your answer almost never requires that you bring up God or the Bible in a direct way.

One of these principles, helpful for the times you are offered or asked about drugs, can be found in Colossians 4: “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man” (vs. 6).

There are a number of important points packed into this verse. It states that your speech should “be always with grace.” No matter the conversation, you should speak with graciousness, meaning with kindness and courtesy. It also implies tact and carefulness.

If this is how you approach every conversation throughout the day, when a more tense discussion comes up—such as why you do not use drugs—you will naturally approach it with graciousness.

In other words, do not overreact when asked about whether you use illicit substances. Almost always, a pleasant “no” will suffice. If someone asks why, you can usually kindly say something like, “I just don’t use them.” You might add (if it applies): “It is against the law. I don’t want to jeopardize my future.” The conversation will often end there.

The next point in Colossians 4:6 is to always have your speech “seasoned with salt.” Make sure you constantly practice this too.

Think of what salt does to food—pour on too much and a dish becomes inedible and disgusting. At the same time, salt added to food in moderation makes it extremely tasty.

Conversations are the same way. You should “season” your conversations sparingly. Put another way, it is sometimes best to use few words. If asked why you do not use drugs, you never need to launch into a lengthy response that includes biblical references. Doing so can make you appear self-righteous and make a person feel as though you are looking down on him.

Less is usually better. Give short confident answers to only what a person asks. Only bring up deeper information if questioned further. For example, you would only talk about Genesis 1:29-30 if someone directly asks you about it.

If you diligently practice speaking with graciousness and seasoning your conversations with salt, you will “know how you ought to answer every man.”

Another way to alleviate the fear of uncomfortable conversations about drugs is to think through scenarios before they happen. You can rehearse how you would respond to specific questions.

For example, you can ask yourself how you would answer if someone really presses for a reason why you do not smoke marijuana. Depending on the context, you could mention that studies show that those who smoke marijuana have lower grades—and that you like having good grades. You could also respond that you do not want to do anything you will regret later. Or you could say that you do not want to give up control of your mind and senses.

The overall point is that if a simple “no” is enough, leave it at that.

If you ever find yourself in a situation where drug use is occurring, of course you should say no, but you should also leave. Continuing to spend time in the environment partially condones what is occurring and can even get you in trouble.

In all of this, it is good to keep your parents in the loop. They will not only help you better understand why you should not do drugs, but they can also let you know how to address certain situations—especially if you witness drug use.

Your parents can also help you remember that your teenage years will not last forever. During this time, peer pressure and tense conversations can seem unbearable, especially at school. Focus your attention forward to attending an institution of higher learning and having a career. Keeping in mind Galatians 5:19-21, you can even look forward to the kingdom of God.

Arm yourself with the information this article contains. Understand why people use drugs—and the many negative effects that come from using them. Study Bible verses that condemn the use of illicit substances. Practice gracious speech and think through drug-related questions before they happen.

If you do these things, you will have the confidence to “just say no.” And when someone asks why, you will be ready to answer!