Mennonites and Drugs

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  I'm sure you've heard and read news about marijuana plantations found close to Plautdietsch Mennonite communities and mysterious nighttime airplanes landing in these colonies. No doubt many of my readers were wondering when I would write about this subject, and no doubt also you're waiting and wondering which of all the Mennonite groups in Belize are the most involved with growing marijuana or trafficking other drugs.
  Well, I'm going to disapoint you because my aim is not to point out exactly which Mennonite persons are doing business with this stuff and to what extent but I will admit that there have been, are, and will be Plautdietsch and non-Plautdietsch Mennonites caught up in this trade. Remember though, simply because a plantation is found close to a Mennonite colony or a burnt plane is discovered inside the community does not always mean that the Mennonites were directly involved in it.  You see drug lords and their workers take advantage of these smooth, straight farm roads to land their planes.
  The wealthy farms of the Old Colony from Shipyard and Little Belize as well as the modern machinery of the Spanish Lookout and Blue Creek farmers (KG and EMMC) have led some people to think that these Mennonite people must be involved in drug dealing, otherwise how can they get rich so fast? Because of some incidents that have happened throughout their history, I cannot say this is totally false, but neither can I say it is true. I have had conversations with some who spoke in hushed tones of certain things they had seen and have heard of a few who had to flee the country due to a deal that went bad but this is only a very small percentage of the Mennonite population in Belize.
  Anyways most, perhaps 95-98% of all Mennonites in Belize whether Plautdietsch or not, stay clear of this shady business and owe their prosperity to the sweat of their brows, economic lifestyle, and strong community bonds.
  Wait, what about those unmarried Plautdietsch teenage boys from the modern communities of Blue Creek and Spanish Lookout and those boys who have left the Old Colony and Old Order Mennonites? Yes, there are a few boys who are using drugs and smoking weed but it is limited to a personal thing and not a business.
  How about those Mennonites who are not Plautdietsch? The Beachy, Conservative, and Holdemans are not innocent from this but since their numbers are so small compared to the Plautdietsch Mennonites, you hardly hear about them concerning this subject. Isolated cases do arise and are dealt with by the congregation to which the individual belongs.
 

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