Henry Boston: Anti-Prohibitionist (Pics)
My father, the Reverend Henry Boston (on right) with Gardie Gardom, the then Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, after receiving an award for his humanitarian activities campaigning for the legalisation of cannibas and an end to the war on drugs. (1999)
I have not closely followed my father’s activities in this domain, as I have had my own struggles and human rights issues to deal with, yet as I grow older, I come to appreciate more and more what he was doing.
I’ve surfed the web to find a few links with writings about some of his activities. They follow this excerpt from an email written by my brother Tom, who has perhaps written most truthfully about him in a letter discussing the pharmaceuticals the institution he is living in is pumping into our father to ‘control’ behaviours brought on by his irreversible dementia. Incidently, they have him so doped-up, he can barely stay awake. What kind of life is that? And at whose expense? His United Church of Canada pension does not cover the costs of his care.
Very appropriate that someone should be campaigning for Dad to have less drugs, as Dad spent so many years campaigning for the right of the individual to control what goes into his or her body. Despite the company he kept, Dad very definitely was not FOR drugs, only for the right to choose; for the supremacy of the individual’s right to control his or her body over the right of the state to do so.
Dad believed that the choice not to do drugs was a moral choice, and that by limiting the rights of the indvidual to choose, that the state was limiting the individual’s God given right to be truly moral. He believed that the state has no right to act as the conscience of individual citizens. Dad believed such choices should be left for the individual to work out with God. Whether anyone agrees or not, that’s the way Dad saw it. The Lieutenant Governor gave him a human rights medal for that work, and it would feel just for that to be honoured.
What would Dad want? He wouldn’t want to be hurting or harming people by his actions (although he was angry and capricious enough that he might not mind frightening them). So, he might agree to some drugs to control those particular behaviours, but how much? Thomas Boston, October 31, 2005
UPDATE June 4, 2006
Dad, June 03, 2006 after receiving his first cannabinoid treatment.
Dad is no longer on any pharmaceuticals.
Cannabis Canada: Supreme Court vs the Supreme Being
POT-TV: Healing Herb, Victoria Tour Dad comes in at about 15:30
Letter to St. Michael’s where he taught for one year. Sheds more light on the type of faith-inspired action that he operated under.
A link to his books “Forsaken Fountain” and “The iNternational War on Freedom”.
Here’s a bit I found on – Cannabis Culture that sheds some interesting light on his beliefs:
Forsaken Fountain
Dear Dana,
In your July/August 1998 issue (CC#13, Pought Thots) you published a letter from me, and underneath it you added that I am the author of a book called “Forbidden Fountain.” The book is actually called Forsaken Fountain.
This may not seem like a big deal, but the altered title misrepresents what the book is about. I am claiming that churches have forsaken the gospel in endorsing laws which prohibit substances.
Sincerely,
Henry Boston
Sorry about the typo Henry, but at least it gives me another chance to plug your book. Copies of Forsaken Fountain: The need to review international drug laws in light of the Christian faith are available for $5 from Henry Boston at PO Box 8179, Victoria, BC, V8W 3R8. Henry is a retired minister of the United Church.
Dana
Links to pages about Henry Boston on this site:
Henry Boston Obituary
Images of Dad
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