Cannabis Use Not Sinful if Only Used to Feel Good, (but not to excess)?

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Cannabis, like smoking a tobacco filled cigarette, is not conducive to good health. In fact smoking one “joint” has the same effect on our bodies as smoking six cigarettes. There is much more tar in cannabis.

So when one considers that our bodies are Temples of the Holy Spirit, do you think the third person of the Trinity would want His Temple filled with yuck?

There is also the risk that smoking, any smoking, could lead to an earlier death by cancer. If our tobacco corporations have to post a health warning on cigarrette packages, then let’s imagine what type of warning SHOULD be posted on a “joint”.

Perhaps: “Smoking this product could lead to an earlier judgement than brand X”.
 
elts1956 said:
Cannabis, like smoking a tobacco filled cigarette, is not conducive to good health. In fact smoking one “joint” has the same effect on our bodies as smoking six cigarettes. There is much more tar in cannabis.

So when one considers that our bodies are Temples of the Holy Spirit, do you think the third person of the Trinity would want His Temple filled with yuck?

There is also the risk that smoking, any smoking, could lead to an earlier death by cancer. If our tobacco corporations have to post a health warning on cigarrette packages, then let’s imagine what type of warning SHOULD be posted on a “joint”.
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What if smoking pot is actually good for you? Rediculous you say? There have been studies published in medical journals last year and this year that indicate that the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, prevents and shrinks cancer. The studies’ conclusions were that smoking moderate amounts of pot therefore is good for you, as we’ve known for years that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol is good for a person’s health. I can’t specifically site these studies, but you can Google it.

Consider this: in over five thousand years of known marijuana use there has never been one death attributed to it. Not one. It’s impossible to overdose on, not a single person has ever been linked to suffer from cancer or emphasema resulting from smoking pot (as one would think if it’s so dangerous), it’s absolutely proven to be safer than tobacco and alcohol which claim hundreds of thousands of casualties a year. And the “gateway drug” argument is bogus, any more than alcohol or anything else is a gateway drug. The only reason pot could be considered as a gateway drug is due to the fact that it’s illegal and the same person you purchase marijuana from is the same creep that would sell meth, cocain, heroin, etc.

The Lord made it, has allowed it to be grown everywhere on the planet as a weed, it’s proven to be safe, people under it’s sole influence are not as drunkards as St. Paul warns us against. Pot smokers aren’t violent or dangerous (just hungry and mellow). Why is pot automatically considered a bad thing in our society?

Therefore I argue that depriving man from what God has given and called good is an illegitimate abuse of power by governments who seek to prohibit it and therefore not a validly moral law.

(I don’t use pot anymore, just giving food for thought.)
 
When I was a teenager(in the 70’s), I was a heavy marijuana user. One of the first things I did when I was converted was flush an ounce of marijuana down the toilet. With no regrets. Nobody told me to do it. I felt that I was being led by the Holy Spirit to renounce it. That act of renunciation was certainly reinforced by much of what I learned of my faith in the days following. In the thirty years since then I have not used any drug whatsoever, legal or illegal.

The principle is that there is a chemical in mairjuana called THC which affects your brain. Doubtless, anything that affects your brain affects the rest of you, and considering that we are body, soul and spirit, it’s logical that what affects our bodies affects the rest of us.
Alcohol intoxication is forbidden, so then why would marijuana intoxication be acceptable? Is it acceptable to get drunk? No it is not. Then it is not acceptable to get “high.”

And why would anyone want to have an altered state of consciousness if you are actively seeking God’s will for your life? Do you love the effect of a drug more than you love God? Using drugs, uneqivocably interferes with your ability to do many things, including prayer and service to God and other people. That is why using drugs is a sin.

I think there’s a principle of hedonism, which is pleasure for pleasure’s sake, at work here. Pleasure is really the result of obedience to God. Those are the legitimate pleasures. There are plenty of illicit pleasures to be had, resulting from disobedience to God, and all of them ultimately lead to self-destruction. Anyone who loves God finds their greatest pleasure in pleasing God. When He is pleased with us, we are likewise pleased. Pursuing pleasure in isolation from the pleasure of God is where most of us go astray.
Using marijuana is a sin. Repent of it immediately, and don’t use it again. Not ever…for any reason.
 
eyeCalypso said:
What if smoking pot is actually good for you? Rediculous you say? There have been studies published in medical journals last year and this year that indicate that the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, prevents and shrinks cancer. The studies’ conclusions were that smoking moderate amounts of pot therefore is good for you, as we’ve known for years that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol is good for a person’s health. I can’t specifically site these studies, but you can Google it.

Consider this: in over five thousand years of known marijuana use there has never been one death attributed to it. Not one. It’s impossible to overdose on, not a single person has ever been linked to suffer from cancer or emphasema resulting from smoking pot (as one would think if it’s so dangerous), it’s absolutely proven to be safer than tobacco and alcohol which claim hundreds of thousands of casualties a year. And the “gateway drug” argument is bogus, any more than alcohol or anything else is a gateway drug. The only reason pot could be considered as a gateway drug is due to the fact that it’s illegal and the same person you purchase marijuana from is the same creep that would sell meth, cocain, heroin, etc.

The Lord made it, has allowed it to be grown everywhere on the planet as a weed, it’s proven to be safe, people under it’s sole influence are not as drunkards as St. Paul warns us against. Pot smokers aren’t violent or dangerous (just hungry and mellow). Why is pot automatically considered a bad thing in our society?

Therefore I argue that depriving man from what God has given and called good is an illegitimate abuse of power by governments who seek to prohibit it and therefore not a validly moral law.

(I don’t use pot anymore, just giving food for thought.)
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Perhaps you had better check the tar content and the THC which you say is beneficial. As far as marujuana being beneficial, I have heard that it is and isn’t as far as cancer patients using it. I have heard it alleviates the sickness resulting from chemo., but don’t have statistics. Again, if the government insists that tobacco companies post a health warning label on the pack of cigarettes which are addictive, what do you think they would have to post on a pack of marijuana joints each joint containing six times the amount of tar as a cigarette.

God gave many things to us in this world, but we are to be responsible in how we use all of them.:rolleyes:
 
I suppose objectively, if you lived somewhere like Alaska where you can grow your own for recreational use, it wouldn’t be technically sinful.

I have a question about the parts of America where cannabis is legal for ‘medical’ use, do you need to have a prescription, and do you pick up your marijuana from a pharmacy where it’s grown under controlled conditions, or do the police just turn a blind eye to people who use it to relieve chronic pain?

The reason I ask is because there are two issues, one is the use of the drug itself, the state of mind it creates, the risks to your mental health. I fully accept that moderate cannabis use is no different to moderate drinking as regards the sinfulness in this regard.

On the other hand, there is the fact that all the cannabis sold on the streets goes to support organised crime, the dealing of hard drugs, illegal gun running, prostitution and people trafficking, and propping up corrupt governments or rebel factions in South America. This includes the cannabis that is ‘legally’ sold (but illegally imported) in Holland’s ‘coffee houses’. This is the thing that would suggest to me that anyone not growing their own is commiting a serious sin.

Having said that, by the same standards, clothes made by child labour, diamonds mined in conflict zones, coffee grown in plantations owned by some companies, etc. would be equally sinful.
 
I think that the core of the issue is that God created our bodies. He also created other things, plants, animals, rocks—He created everything. There is the right use of a rock and the wrong use. You can use rocks to build a church. You can use rocks to hit people on the head.
Certainly God created the hemp plant(from which cannabis is derived), and for the most part, historically, hemp was used to make rope. Ingesting the plant in order to produce a feeling of euphoria has to do with two things that God created. Our bodies. And the plant.
Is the feeling of euphoria produced by smoking or otherwise ingesting a cannabis plant something God wants us to experience? Some say that by virtue of his having created the plant the answer is obviously yes. But then by the same rationale there are those who would say that God created sex, and that therefore having sex with anyone at any time is permissible. The only problem with this is that the Bible gives us strict guidelines about all things sexual. Does the Bible likewise give us strict guidelines about cannabis? Not specifically. But God does give us strict guidelines about our bodies.

Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Do you put an idol in the temple of God? No, we do not. Is it possible to pollute the temple of God? Certainly. Biblically, the temple of God was polluted by illicit sacrifice, by prostitution, by idolatry, among other things.

Furthermore, the Bible condemns drunkenness. There are many references to drunkenness in both the Old and New Testament in which it is SPECIFICALLY condemned. I can quote these by request in a later post, if necessary. So then, how is “getting high” related to drunkenness? What is it that happens to the body, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, during the act of excessive drinking of alcohol, and during the act of imbibing THC in a cannabis plant? Is what happens to the body similar in each instance? What is the reason why we are forbidden to get drunk and how does that correlate to a commandment not to get “high?”

God is consistent. He does not change. Why would He forbid one chemical which alters the central nervous system but allow the use of another chemical which alters the central nervous system? The point is that our brains are a part of our body and the chemicals in alcoholic beverages and in the cannabis plant alter our consciousness by virtue of creating chemical changes in our brains.
It’s really a question of what we are and are not permitted to do with our bodies. I think the Bible alone is quite clear, let alone Church teaching. We are Catholics. We do not practice Sola Scriptura. Anyone wishing to justify the use of marijuana by a devout Catholic should ask permission from their Bishop first. But I don’t think anyone is willing to take this rather silly discussion to that extremity.
 
I think it’s better not to cloud ones thinking with any drug or alcohol, but that using marijuana moderately is morally no different than drinking wine or beer.

As far as it being illegal, how many people here go over the speed limit or jaywalk? Why is pot illegal? It’s not an especially dangerous substance like hard drugs. It’s mainly illegal because of cultural tradition.
 
lovesMary said:
I think it’s better not to cloud ones thinking with any drug or alcohol, but that using marijuana moderately is morally no different than drinking wine or beer.

As far as it being illegal, how many people here go over the speed limit or jaywalk? Why is pot illegal? It’s not an especially dangerous substance like hard drugs. It’s mainly illegal because of cultural tradition.
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And because it has the tenedency to tar up the lungs, big time.
 
And alcohol has negative effects on ones liver, and can contribute to type 2 diabetes. Also, alcohol leads people to other sin more by lowering the inhibitions, much more than pot.
 
lovesMary said:
I don’t believe in the nanny state making every decision for us. People hurt themselves more with eating junkfood.
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Nanny state? Please elaborate. When does “government” become “nanny state?” Furthermore, what is the criteria you use to determine which laws the “nanny state” imposes upon the populace can be rightfully disobeyed?

For that matter, is it proper for the magesterium of the church to teach the faithful about matters of morality. Or would you refer to the teaching authority of the church in the same derogatory terms.

It’s really the modern thumbing of the nose at all authority that seems to be the issue here. Is it that the “nanny state” has no right to tell you as an individual what you are and are not permitted to do? Do the bishops and your local parish priest have any right to tell you what is right and wrong? Or is right and wrong entirely your decision–what you believe it should or shouldn’t be?

When did right and wrong become arbitrary? When did obedience to church teaching become a matter of personal choice? Does the church permit any form of drug use? No, it does not.
 
lovesMary said:
I don’t believe in the nanny state making every decision for us. People hurt themselves more with eating junkfood.
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lovesMary said:
And alcohol has negative effects on ones liver, and can contribute to type 2 diabetes. Also, alcohol leads people to other sin more by lowering the inhibitions, much more than pot.
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Yes, we do have our choice of evils, don’t we? I don’t know which is worse, but I think dying of lung cancer would be one of the most painful. Of course one can get fat on junkfood, or one can drink too much alcohol. Junk food and alcohol could be within one’s control. One joint of marijuana has six times the tar that one so called “ordinary” cigarette has. So choose your method of suicide.
 
elts1956 said:
Yes, we do have our choice of evils, don’t we? I don’t know which is worse, but I think dying of lung cancer would be one of the most painful. Of course one can get fat on junkfood, or one can drink too much alcohol. Junk food and alcohol could be within one’s control. One joint of marijuana has six times the tar that one so called “ordinary” cigarette has. So choose your method of suicide.
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A marijuana joint is usually shared amongst many people, and is usually consumed very infrequently. Cigarette users smoke, what, a cigarette every hour? It’s not a 1:1 ratio of use. There are people who die of lung cancer in their 20’s who never touch a cigarette, and those that live into their 90’s who smoke two packs of unfiltered Camels a day. I don’t think there is a hard and fast rule for substance debilitation rates, everyone’s body reacts differently. And besides, as I stated the other day, studies have found that THC within marijuana tar has been shown to prevent and shrink cancer cells. Those that smoke tobacco AND pot have a lower incidence of lung disease than those who smoke tobacco only, etc. Also, neither cancer nor emphasema have ever been linked to marijuana use, read up on it. According to physicians I’ve spoken with, there are few physical or mental hazards to using marijuana, which is the criteria the Church uses for determining whether the use of “drugs” is a sin or not, according to the CCC.

However, I believe that the most important aspect of one’s life, whether they smoke pot, drink beer, watch tv, go bowling, or dance, is their relationship to God thru His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. People behave differently under the influence of different substances. I’ve known many who become creative and productive and I’ve known many who pray and meditate while “high” on marijuana. I’ve also seen many who get stupid, drool, and become bums. But the point is, to say that marijuana is a suicidal poison that automatically separate us from God is a little short sighted.
 
I will repeat, once again, that getting high is a sin because getting drunk is a sin. It’s the same death, just a different poison. Alcohol abuse causes inebriation. Marijuana causes inebriation even in small doses. The reason why we are permitted to drink wine is because for the average adult, ONE serving(small glass or otherwise) does NOT produce intoxication. Marijuana is not on the same level as wine by any means because one “inhalation” of marijuana will produce the “high.” I used marijuana as a teenager. I am quite familiar with how it works. The very first time I ever used it, the effect was immediate. One joint or a hundred, the “inebriation” is the same.

Not so with wine. I weigh 230 Lbs. One glass of wine has absolutely no effect upon me. I feel no different after than before. If I’ve eaten a good meal, I can have another glass and absolutely no “buzz.”
However, marijuana produces the high without exception, regardless of what you’ve eaten, what your body mass is, or any other factor whatsoever. The body does develop a “tolerance” to all drugs, including alcohol, after awhile, but there is absolutely no comparison to a glass of wine and imbibing marijuana in any form.

People who say, “It’s just a plant…God made it,” must surely realize that we can use or abuse God’s creation. You can use the cannabis plant to make rope. God made water. You can drink it or you can drown in it. When God created water, He by no means intended anyone to drown in it. It is due to SIN that creation no longer serves the human race as it should. And God created the “Tree” of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If I’m not mistaken, he told Adam not to eat from it. There are RULES about God’s creation, and before anyone by some twisted logic wants to justify the abuse of God’s creation, I suggest they first consult Him to make sure we’re all on the same page.

Frankly, I’m appalled that anyone would declare faith and use drugs. Thank God for the Cross of Christ. He died for every stupid sin we would ever willfully commit.,
 
The only reason we aren’t supposed to smoke weed is because there is a stupid law against it. If there wasn’t a law, we’d be able to smoke marijuana and not be sinning.
As it is, I consider smoking marijuana to be a venial sin.
 
eyeCalypso said:
A marijuana joint is usually shared amongst many people, and is usually consumed very infrequently. Cigarette users smoke, what, a cigarette every hour? It’s not a 1:1 ratio of use. There are people who die of lung cancer in their 20’s who never touch a cigarette, and those that live into their 90’s who smoke two packs of unfiltered Camels a day. I don’t think there is a hard and fast rule for substance debilitation rates, everyone’s body reacts differently. And besides, as I stated the other day, studies have found that THC within marijuana tar has been shown to prevent and shrink cancer cells. Those that smoke tobacco AND pot have a lower incidence of lung disease than those who smoke tobacco only, etc. Also, neither cancer nor emphasema have ever been linked to marijuana use, read up on it. According to physicians I’ve spoken with, there are few physical or mental hazards to using marijuana, which is the criteria the Church uses for determining whether the use of “drugs” is a sin or not, according to the CCC.

However, I believe that the most important aspect of one’s life, whether they smoke pot, drink beer, watch tv, go bowling, or dance, is their relationship to God thru His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. People behave differently under the influence of different substances. I’ve known many who become creative and productive and I’ve known many who pray and meditate while “high” on marijuana. I’ve also seen many who get stupid, drool, and become bums. But the point is, to say that marijuana is a suicidal poison that automatically separate us from God is a little short sighted.
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My Dad died of emphysema at age 64. He was a heavy CAMEL smioker until two years before he died. Whether he got the short end of the straw that made him a victim of smoking, his physical disposition, his genes, who knows. All I know is watching him gasp for that last breath was an experience I don’t want anyone else, or myself to go through again. If marijuana can do so much more damage than a pack of CAMELS a day, why take a chance?
 
WhiteDove said:
I visit this ‘Ask Father’ site often, It seems to be a very conservative site.
Here is a link to a question. If you read Father’s answer, he says that cannabis is ok to use in moderation, just like alcohol. How surprising!
CLICK HERE for link

What say ye???
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I may be way off, but I wonder if that site originates outside of the US, maybe where cannabis is not illegal. The time zone is UTC, it looks like it might be Britain. That’s the only clue I see.
 
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