Catholic Church and medicinal marajuana?

[OraLabora]

Such as opiates? Opiates are far more harmful to the body, and WAY more habit forming than THC. You can OD on opiates, you can not OD with THC.

I think if they can find a pain killer that gets us away from opiates, I say do it and do it NOW. I speak from experience. My mom is heavly dependant on opiates and it has just about ruined what bit of life she has left. You don’t see too many “potheads” facing the challenges as some addicted to prescription medication.

I say legalize, in all cases, NOW. It will free up prisons and taxpayer dollars for real criminals (rather than potheads), provide revenue for treatment centers for people with substance problems (you know, so they can go to GOOD treatment centers and get REAL help), and it can be regulated to get it OUT of the hands of minors. It’s WAY easier for a minor to get weed than it is to get alcohol. Anyone who has been through a pubic high school in the last 20 years knows this. The reason? Alcohol (although more dangerous to your body and mind) is legal, and marijuana is not. Therefore, alcohol can be more closely regulated.

I just read a report today that indicates that today’s more powerful marijuana increases the chances of becoming schizophrenic sixfold. If you know anyone with this illness you’ll understand that it is a serious, dreadful mental illness for which there is no cure.

On the other hand, an alcoholic can discontinue drinking.

I think we have enough legal means of poisoning ourselves. Do we need to legalize more?

 

[Qoeleth]

"It is the official Church teaching which you must accept.
…and that’s what drove so many away from catholicism…"

WOW! Really?
Does That Mean We Shouldn’t Accept Official Church Teaching???
Are We Supposed To Cave Into What The People Want To Do As To What God Wants Us To Do?

**Jesus Let Many Turn Away From His Teaching Of “My Body Is Real Food”
Many Turned Away & Followed Him NO More! Should He Have Changed His Teaching Just Not To Lose Those People???

So, If It Is The Official Church Teaching Then Just Accept The Truth!
Unless You Want To Protest The Truth, Than You Are Just Another Protestant/Heretic! .**

Are you equating Protestants with heretics? You make an error in taking Church teachings as Sacred Scripture, "“teaching for doctrines the commandments of men”. (Matt 15:9)

Many of the Church teachings (such as those which allow NFP, usury, and making of images) are in error and contrary to Scripture. The fancy vestments, the titles, the superstitions (in short ‘Romanism’), all of these could also be seen as inconsistent with the Gospel.

I am a Catholic, but I thank God for the Reformation. Today, we need constantly to question Church doctrines in the infallible light of Scripture. After all, we are members of the Church, and therefore have some degree of responsibility for its actions.

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

I just read a report today that indicates that today’s more powerful marijuana increases the chances of becoming schizophrenic sixfold. If you know anyone with this illness you’ll understand that it is a serious, dreadful mental illness for which there is no cure.

On the other hand, an alcoholic can discontinue drinking.

I think we have enough legal means of poisoning ourselves. Do we need to legalize more?

This just stands out at me as another reason to legalize. Because of the lillegality of pot, growers are breeding the plant to be more and more potent so less amounts are needed to get really high. This creates problems like you see with “superhemp” or whatever they call it. Were it regulated, the government could ensure that such high concentrations of THC weren’t reached. Besides if it were privatized, companies would make SURE there were less concentrations so people who wanted to abuse it that badly would have to buy it in very large quanitities. Much like alcohol.

Secondly, I disagree very strongly with your statement about alcolics just stopping drinking. Some of my very close immediate familymemebers were alcoholics, and let me assure you that if an alcoholic could “just stop drinking” we’d have a very different conversation about the physical addictiveness of pot and alcohol. If a hardcore alcoholic “just quits drinking” they need severe medical supervision because it could cause their blood sugar to crash so low, they could die. This is why alcoholics typically have to go to (name removed by moderator)atient treatment centers.

Lastly, there’s a chart published by a university I want to show you. It rates the physical addictiveness of drugs against their harm to the body. Look at where nicotine (cigarettes), and alcohol are. Then look where cannabis is, and please explain to me the logic of why these drugs are legal, and church APPROVED, while marijuana (even if it were legal and used in moderation to relax and not lose one’s senses) is not. The truth is, legalizing pot would do far more good than it could possibly cause in harm. I don’t see Amsterdam crashing and burning.

http://www.udel.edu/chem/theopold/chem465/copland.udel.edu/~rmarcus/drug chart.gif

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

I think we have enough legal means of poisoning ourselves. Do we need to legalize more?

Sorry, one more thing about this comment.

The point is, people are using this drug anyway. With the overwhelming number of people who already use it, I sincerely doubt legalization will make even more people use it. It’s already widespread, and current laws aren’t even being enforced in some states. This “war on pot” (specifically) is just using up taxpayer money, jamming the prisons full people people are are NOT a menace to society, and in the process, only providing funds to the drug cartels that seel pot to help finance the producton, trafficking, and advertising of things like meth or heroin. Things that REALLY need to be stopped. Cutting off their sales of pot (just as we did to the mobsters of the 30’s with alcohol) will take a big chunk of their money, give it to the federal government (through taxation and sale) and may just finish them off and get them out of our country.

The prohibition of alcohol created organized crime, and the curent prohibition of marijuana is only furthering their business.

 

[DihydrogenOxide]

Such as opiates? Opiates are far more harmful to the body, and WAY more habit forming than THC. You can OD on opiates, you can not OD with THC.

I think if they can find a pain killer that gets us away from opiates, I say do it and do it NOW. I speak from experience. My mom is heavly dependant on opiates and it has just about ruined what bit of life she has left. You don’t see too many “potheads” facing the challenges as some addicted to prescription medication.

I say legalize, in all cases, NOW. It will free up prisons and taxpayer dollars for real criminals (rather than potheads), provide revenue for treatment centers for people with substance problems (you know, so they can go to GOOD treatment centers and get REAL help), and it can be regulated to get it OUT of the hands of minors. It’s WAY easier for a minor to get weed than it is to get alcohol. Anyone who has been through a pubic high school in the last 20 years knows this. The reason? Alcohol (although more dangerous to your body and mind) is legal, and marijuana is not. Therefore, alcohol can be more closely regulated.

There are other painkillers that are of use other than opiates. The thing is, opiates actually work, THC does not. It just makes you act like an idiot. Potheads actually lose brain cells, get lung cancer, among a myriad of other complications that have been found due to use of THC. It hasn’t been proved to have more positive chemical action than negative action on the body. California legalized, because there are so many neohippy groups there that want to smoke pot. It will never regulated enough to be out the hands of minors, especially in such a corrupt state. Legalization was another way a state slipped up.

You can’t tell me alcohol and marijuana are the same. You will always get high on marijuana, you will not always get any sensation from alcohol. It’s a regular drink. Hey, even Jesus drank alcoholic beverages. Jesus, did not smoke something that was going to cause him to get high, though. Just try to block the drug cartel from coming from other countries. Legal or not, you can’t regulate it.

It’s exactly the same as the red herring people always give about keeping abortion legal.

 

[Lauds]

May God have mercy on your soul. You just told someone to sin, so also would be responsible for leading them off. I don’t understand how you can consider that okay for a roman catholic, unless you aren’t one.~ I am a Catholic, I have no intention of causing anyone to sin, they do good enough with that themselves. I don`t know of any perfect catholics, Tho I am Catholic, I have met many more Protestants who put Catholics to shame for being Holy. & Good wholesome people.

Me thinks thou dost protest too much.

Yes, it’s a mortal sin. Also, there is no real medical benefit of marijuana. Many doctors agree in studies also. There are a whole lot of negative effects. If a drug is just taken to make you goofy, it’s not a drug to help in pain. They need to get some pain meds to take care of serious pain.

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

There are other painkillers that are of use other than opiates. The thing is, opiates actually work, THC does not. It just makes you act like an idiot. Potheads actually lose brain cells, get lung cancer, among a myriad of other complications that have been found due to use of THC. It hasn’t been proved to have more positive chemical action than negative action on the body. California legalized, because there are so many neohippy groups there that want to smoke pot. It will never regulated enough to be out the hands of minors, especially in such a corrupt state. Legalization was another way a state slipped up.

You can’t tell me alcohol and marijuana are the same. You will always get high on marijuana, you will not always get any sensation from alcohol. It’s a regular drink. Hey, even Jesus drank alcoholic beverages. Jesus, did not smoke something that was going to cause him to get high, though. Just try to block the drug cartel from coming from other countries. Legal or not, you can’t regulate it.

It’s exactly the same as the red herring people always give about keeping abortion legal.

Actually no. Not every time you smoke do you get high. Pot, like alcohol, isn’t an on-and-off. It’s a gradual increase that starts at mld relaxation, and can progress to totally “stoned.” This is the more common case because right now pot is bred to be super-potent so dealers can sell in smaller quanities so they don’t have to have as much on them, and it’s easier to hide. If it were legalized, THC could be brought back down to normal levels, and small amounts could be brewed into tea to make a relaxing before-bed beverage.

All of your arguments against legalization all make reasons to make alcohol illegal too. Minors can still get it. Happens all the time, but it’s harder to get it because it’s more regulated. You can’t get everything 100%, so you have to weigh harm. If people use alcohol always to the same quantities that people think everyone has to use pot this is what it would look like:

Alcohol should be illegal because it’s strongly physically addicting. When addicted, the individual has to have strong medical treatments to come off it or they may die. Alcohol kills brain cells, cases liver damage, and can cause severe stomach issues, not to mention cancer. Alcohol can even kill in one use, if one overindulges. Immediate effects cause dehydration, loss of motor contol, loss of ability to problem solve and make rational decisions.

See? Anyone would agree that this would be a good case to make it illegal, and they did. Look where that got us.

A lot of people out there don’t always use pot to get “totally blitzed” just as people don’t always use alcohol to get totally drunk. Most of the studies that show the harmful effects of marijuana are talking about heavy continual users. That is, people who smoke several joints a day, every day. With moderate use (getting stoned once in a great while, or even continual use in small quanitites) produces no measurable ill effects.

I am personally not a user of marijuana, but I have educated myself on this topic when trying to tell a friend why she should get off caffeine. Turns out even caffeine is far more physically addictive and harmful than marijuana when used in the same quanitites that these studies are typically done. The beluieve that marijuana is used always to get totally baked, or that the ill effects of marijuana can come even with rare/occasional use is a lack of education on the topic. Read things from both sides of the arguments.

The point is, all things in moderation. Alcohol in great quantity, is bad. Pot in great quantity, is bad. ANYTHING in great quantity is bad. Even tomato juice. Just talk to anyone with GERD about that

 

[OraLabora]

I don’t mean to minimize the difficulty of stopping drinking for an alcoholic. As difficult as it is though, and with help, an alcoholic who goes dry can return to a normal, productive life.

That is not the case for schizophrenia.

 

[LittleSoldier]

I apologize for posting my last post with an error in the quote function. The last paragraph is my reply - I don’t know how I managed to do what I did, or that I didn’t catch it in time for fix it.

I’m sorry about that.

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

I don’t mean to minimize the difficulty of stopping drinking for an alcoholic. As difficult as it is though, and with help, an alcoholic who goes dry can return to a normal, productive life.

That is not the case for schizophrenia.

That is true. But one could argue that schizophrenia is a rare (the numbers show this) serious sife effect of serious chronic abuse. With alcohol, it just plain kills you when you pickle your liver, assuming of course you don’t succumb to alcohol poisioning or get brain damage from the continual lack of oxygen reaching brain cells.

Death, liver cirrhosis, brain damage…schizophrenia. If anything, this should just show why the abuse of any substance to an extreme is bad. Not why any particular substance should be outlawed.

Also, there have been studies done that show that people who smoke enough to possibly cause schizphenia would be about equal to a person staying perpetually drunk to the point of black-outs for several years on end. ABUSE is bad, the substance itself is not.

 

[LittleSoldier]

Such as opiates? Opiates are far more harmful to the body, and WAY more habit forming than THC. You can OD on opiates, you can not OD with THC.

I think if they can find a pain killer that gets us away from opiates, I say do it and do it NOW. I speak from experience. My mom is heavly dependant on opiates and it has just about ruined what bit of life she has left. You don’t see too many “potheads” facing the challenges as some addicted to prescription medication.

I say legalize, in all cases, NOW. It will free up prisons and taxpayer dollars for real criminals (rather than potheads), provide revenue for treatment centers for people with substance problems (you know, so they can go to GOOD treatment centers and get REAL help), and it can be regulated to get it OUT of the hands of minors. It’s WAY easier for a minor to get weed than it is to get alcohol. Anyone who has been through a pubic high school in the last 20 years knows this. The reason? Alcohol (although more dangerous to your body and mind) is legal, and marijuana is not. Therefore, alcohol can be more closely regulated.

From what two physicians (one is a pain specialist and anaesthesiologist, the other is in internal medicine) and a pharmacist have told me, I am in more danger from taking opiates than from ingesting marijuana. I don’t have a reference for this - this is what I have been told and I tend to agree. I know that the opiates have given me brain damage although I’ve been told it’s reversible, unlike brain damage that occurs with crack use.

There seem to be two groups in this thread: one, there is a group that likes pot, they want to use it, they feel it’s a good recreational drug; two, there is a group of people who need marijuana in order to control pain and nausea (among other effects of disease).

The first group needs to be on another thread.

Like you, I speak from experience. I’ve been trying to get off the opiates for a couple of years now, with little success. I can get down to two or three tablets a day (down from sixteen a day) but I can’t get off them completely. Opiates are great for the short-term. But I wasted so much time and money when on these drugs. I really did not know what I was doing. I had money - it is mostly gone and I don’t know where it went. I had time to start a Ph.D program but how could I do that when I was so stupid from drugs that I couldn’t even talk to someone coherently? Now it’s too late.

The federal government should legalize marijuana, at least for medical use, and stop going after physicians who are only trying to help their patients. Marijuana should be available by prescription in pharmacies. The current system is a mess.

I agree with you.

 

[stringbeanduck]

Marijuana is a pretty controversial subject within the Church that goes well beyond legality. The main problem with arguing about it is that people can’t separate their thinking into proper categories. If I made a point that driving cars is sinful because people can use them to willfully kill people and illegally street race with them and hurt the environment you would say I am thinking about too many things at once. Therefore when we want to have a logical discussion of something we must separate it into categories.

So with that said:
Is marijuana intrinsically evil? No. We know that by when God mention that all plants are created good. Nothing created by God can be evil. Meth, might be evil given that we know that meth is not only useless, but is contrary to life and reason and the fact that God did not create it. So right off the bat we know that there must be a distinction between marijuana(God made plant) and other drugs created by man. It’s not too say that all drugs created by man are bad. It also doesn’t mean the things He created can not be used for bad intentions. Marijuana can most certainly be abused and used for wrong intentions just like alcohol. When talking about marijuana, the two most important paragraphs in the CCC are 2290 and 2291.

2290 The virtue of temperance disposes us to* avoid every kind of excess*: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others’ safety on the road, at sea, or in the air.

2291 The use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense. Clandestine production of and trafficking in drugs are scandalous practices. They constitute direct co-operation in evil, since they encourage people to practices gravely contrary to the moral law.

In order for something to be okay it most merit something good. Therefore there comes a time when a person before they use or do something in which they must think whether the action or thing they about are to do/use is going to merit something good or bad. If a person drinks alcohol to escape from reality, whether they get drunk or not, it is correct to say they are trying to merit something bad. If a person uses marijuana to escape from reality, whether they’ve lost complete reason or not, it is correct to say they are trying to merit something bad. If a person willing drinks coffee to the point where they believe they can not live without or becomes adverse on their health, it is correct to say they are meriting something bad. If a person uses luxury of driving to put themselves or others in harms way or they become so consumed in it that they neglect their other obligations it is safe to say that they are meriting something bad. Whether they think is bad, is completely moot. The point to be made here is that regardless of what good/non evil creation or action a person uses or does their intention for using/doing it has a big impact of the morality of it. In my discussion with a Priest, I learned that the Catholic Church doesn’t always point fingers at every drug and say you can’t have it. That we must look upon what the drug is capable of doing before its use is immoral.

Now what about the CCC. Does it mention marijuana being okay in 2290. No. So therefore it must fall under drugs in 2291 right? Absolutely not. This is big grey area which many don’t understand. One of the biggest mistakes made by Catholics is assuming that 2290 is the list of drugs and actions that are okay to use and do as long as we don’t do them too much. The truth is tobacco and alcohol are not a couple of “exceptions” God threw at us to make our selves feel good as long as we do it in moderation. There’s three reasons why this is not the case: 1 if it was caffeine and common homeopathic herbal drugs that may or may not have an affect on the mind(such as you find at nature food store) would be sinful to use since it is not on the “list” mentioned. 2 as I pointed out the intentions for using them govern a person’s moral choice for using them. And most importantly 3: notice how every kind of excess is italicized. If you don’t believe me pull open your catechism. It’s not just a pretty grammar makeup. The reason for doing so was to help illustrate that there are many types of things can be done or used in excess( e.g. caffeine[not mentioned in 2290]) Theoretically any useful drug can be used in excess. That’s why medicine is included as an example. So we must have just reasons for doing and using these things and actions. Social apathy, minor health benefits, and relaxation are some common just reasons for using and doing certain things…

 

[stringbeanduck]

…Basically what it comes down to is that people argue against marijuana with the “I can control how much I drink, but you can’t control how stoned you get” argument. First let’s understand something important. Being stoned is not the equivalent of being drunk. There’s no real set definition of stoned, however it’s pretty easy to define drunkenness. THC and alcohol are different molecules and have many different properties so there’s no ‘joint to drink ratio’ that people can use when comparing them. Furthermore there is a big difference in the way people behave and control their thoughts. If you are ever around people who are drunk and people who are using marijuana you will see these observations: Most people who are drunk usually can’t walk well or at all or perform simple tasks(except putting the bottle to their lips) and even when they try, they are often acting recklessly, loud, silly/wild, and dangerously unpredictable. Most people who are using marijuana usually can walk okay, might have varying difficulty performing simple tasks, but are passive, quiet, silly(but not wild). With alcohol a person can drink to the point where they lose their reason completely and essentially an alter unpredictable ego comes out in them. With marijuana a person can use it, be aware of their surroundings aside (though short term becomes more impaired). If they continue to use it they often just simply fall asleep. The Baltimore Catechism defines an attempt to deprive one’s self completely of their reason grave matter. When a person uses marijuana they can still have control of their reason and thus have not be completely deprived of it. Can their reason be weakened some one under a reasonable dose, yes. But if wants to argue that as to why marijuana is a sin they should also understand that alcohol under reasonable doses does the same thing. If person can drink as method to relax, why not should they not be able to use marijuana as method to relax. The fact is that not every marijuana user is a liberal, deadbeat, uncharitable, violent, criminal, non contributor to society, just like not every alcohol user is not a liberal, deadbeat, uncharitable, violent, criminal, non contributor to society. And I for one am in support of using God’s creation for personal benefit.

I personally think it’s a culture issue. Different cultures handle alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, caffeine, coca tea(containing small amounts of cocaine) differently. A good portion of American society is anti marijuana. Others accept it, just like we accept alcohol. Some countries are extremely intolerant of alcohol. The Netherlands categorize drugs into different risk categories. Marijuana is a low risk and is therefore not legal, but tolerated and permitted to be sold in coffee shops. It is by this tolerance that they attribute the lower hard drug usage. Look at any scientific statistics and you will notice the Netherlands have lower drug usage (in percent not just number) than the United States. As a matter of fact the percentage of the people there who use marijuana is ½ that of the United States. It is terrible waste of money the DEA spends on marijuana folks rather than busting drug lords and dealers selling something that will kill you. Not to mention the waste of time and resource local police spend on it too. I’d rather see cops and government agents be spending their time on real criminals than marijuana users.

 

[stringbeanduck]

Potheads actually lose brain cells

Actually that’s a myth. You’ll notice those few studies were done on animals who were exposed to exceptional dosages, more than humans would ever take. Even so they the copious amounts these animals were tortured with didn’t kill the cells, but changed certain strutures. Trying to poison a monkey with weed, is not the equivelent of smoking a joint every day, let alone every so often. (For practical reasons, it wouldn’t be a good idea to smoke a joint every day, that was just an example for the arguement)

 

[Dan_Grelinger]

Stringbeanduck,

Thoughfulness went into your posts. There is one area, however, that is very critical to this discussion that you did not delve adequately into in your last three posts.

To the extent that marijuana use is illegal, it cannot be considered morally licit, except for some very specific situations that I don’t believe appear in our situation in the U.S.

I believe that if the appropriate jurisdictions were to legalize marijuana use for specific purposes, then, within some of the bounds that you mention (and perhaps others), its use could be licit.

The Church respects legitimate authority on this earth, even if it is secular. All legitimate authority comes from God.

Dan Grelinger

 

[Petergee]

…and that’s what drove so many away from catholicism…

Please explain why the great exodus from Catholicism occurred in times and places where Catholic leaders failed to clearly state what the Church teaches and that disagreeing with it is not an option for a Catholic.

Also what do you think happened at Caina with the 120-180 gallons of grade A wine the Christ supposedly made? I doubt there were many uninebriated people there by the end.

There were probably hundreds if not thousands of people at the wedding feast, which probably lasted for a week. And even if it was a small, one-night celebration, you’re making a totally unfounded assumption that all the wine was drunk at the feast. Christ didn’t force anybody to drink to excess. The huge quantity is a “sign” (as St John calls it) of God’s greatly abundant blessings on those who ask for Christ’s help through His Mother.

 

[Petergee]

god does not make mistakes hemp is the most benifical plant on the earth god created it that way how could a plant that is so benifical to man be illegal IN GOD WE TRUST ?forums.catholic-questions.org/images/smilies/confused.gif

God made poison ivy, hemlock, rattlesnake venom, botulinum toxin etc. etc. Do you consume all these too? Or did God make a mistake with them but not with Cannabis?

The use of Cannabis is particularly sinful because, like LSD, it is an hallucinogen. That is, it makes you think that you are seeing, hearing, touching, smalling and tasting things which you aren’t. The user deliberately removes his senses from experiencing the reality of the world and gives a false experience of an unreal or semi-real world.

A very few health authories have authorised the very limited experimental therapeutic use of highly purified and standardised extracts of one or two of the dozens of biologically active chemicals in the cannabis plant. The question of whether these preparations do any good at all is still being investigated. No health authority that I know of has endorsed the so-called “therapeutic” use of cannabis as such.

Some people think that for every plant that God made, and for every chemical that is found in them, there must be some positive use. This is plainly not so. It seems unlikely to ever be so with cannabis and the chemicals found in it.

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

God made poison ivy, hemlock, rattlesnake venom, botulinum toxin etc. etc. Do you consume all these too? Or did God make a mistake with them but not with Cannabis?

The use of Cannabis is particularly sinful because, like LSD, it is an hallucinogen. That is, it makes you think that you are seeing, hearing, touching, smalling and tasting things which you aren’t. The user deliberately removes his senses from experiencing the reality of the world and gives a false experience of an unreal or semi-real world.

A very few health authories have authorised the very limited experimental therapeutic use of highly purified and standardised extracts of one or two of the dozens of biologically active chemicals in the cannabis plant. The question of whether these preparations do any good at all is still being investigated. No health authority that I know of has endorsed the so-called “therapeutic” use of cannabis as such.

Some people think that for every plant that God made, and for every chemical that is found in them, there must be some positive use. This is plainly not so. It seems unlikely to ever be so with cannabis and the chemicals found in it.

I know a few of people who smoke cannabis, and none of them state that it makes them hallucinate. It merely enhances sensations beyond that of a normal state. Science backs this up by showing that ingesting THC will cause your brain to release endorphons. You can do your own experiement on this if you’d like. Get a sports drink, take a sip, It’s bland, right? Now run 20-30 minutes on a treadmill or elliptical machine. Now take a sip. It’s exceptionally flavorful and sweet. The reason is that exercise releases endorphins in your brain much like marijuana does. We don’t want to outlaw exercise do we? At any rate, small amount of THC (say, that of 1 ounce of cannabis with NATURAL levels, not the super beefed-up ones) will create the same effect as running 30 minutes on a treadmil. That is to say, how you feel after jogging 30 minutes is exactly how you would feel after one joint) I don’t know about all of you, but when I am done at the gym, I am perfectly fine to drive home, to date I have no brain damage, and my sports drinks taste as good as ever.

However, I agree with you that not all plants are intended for a positive use. However, all things in moderation. Take foxglove. If you eat the foxglove plant, you will die. Natural levels of the chemcials found in it causes your heart rate to accelerate to the point of overload and shut-down. However, small doses of the derived chemical found in foxglove will save a patient with certain heart conditions and has been used medically in many cases. Many natural toxins, in unnaturally small doses can be beneficial! The same is true with marijuana. If we, as a society can get over the social stigma of the smear campaigns run against it by scared paper mills and racist activists, we can use it to treat a wide range of illnesses. One of which is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

wellness.blogs.time.com/2009/11/04/dude-wheres-my-trauma-marijuana-could-treat-ptsd/

And this has nothing to do with the positive effects it seems to show with glaucoma, pain management, nausea, and appetite stimulant for cancer patients and those with eating disorders. I personally think that if a naturally occuring plant can be used, rather than harsh man-made industrialized chemicals, we need to be doing all we can to seek that out, rather than poisoning ourselves with highly processed chemicals because we are clinging to our social preconceptions put forth by people with greedy agendas. One only needs to see an opiate addict in real life (especially if it is some close to you) to know that we need better ways of pain management NOW…before more families like mine are destroyed.

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

To the extent that marijuana use is illegal, it cannot be considered morally licit, except for some very specific situations that I don’t believe appear in our situation in the U.S.

I’m sorry to jump in here, but I really wanted to address this.

This is actually a big problem in the US. In some states, it is legalized for medicinal use…however federally, it is still banned. This means that one can legally obtain a prescription from a doctor to address their medical concerns, buy it legally in their own state or grow it themselves, but then the federal government decides to “crack down” so they come in to the state and arrest everyone who uses it medically. So is it legal or not? Personally, I think it needs to left up to the individual states to decide. This huge loophole/gray area is just…well, ludicrus. How can one follow the law when the law is so convoluted.

However, I agree with you that we as catholics need to follow the law of the land. This means that so long as marijuana is illegal, we should never have it.

 

[LittleSoldier]

God made poison ivy, hemlock, rattlesnake venom, botulinum toxin etc. etc. Do you consume all these too? Or did God make a mistake with them but not with Cannabis?

The use of Cannabis is particularly sinful because, like LSD, it is an hallucinogen. That is, it makes you think that you are seeing, hearing, touching, smalling and tasting things which you aren’t. The user deliberately removes his senses from experiencing the reality of the world and gives a false experience of an unreal or semi-real world.

A very few health authories have authorised the very limited experimental therapeutic use of highly purified and standardised extracts of one or two of the dozens of biologically active chemicals in the cannabis plant. The question of whether these preparations do any good at all is still being investigated. No health authority that I know of has endorsed the so-called “therapeutic” use of cannabis as such.

Some people think that for every plant that God made, and for every chemical that is found in them, there must be some positive use. This is plainly not so. It seems unlikely to ever be so with cannabis and the chemicals found in it.

So you are saying that marijuana shouldn’t be used for medical purposes?? And you are saying that “a very few health authorities have authorised the very limited therapeutic use of …chemicals in the cannabis plant?”

So why is it legal in Oregon and California? If it does no or little good, why are people that I know who are on the medical marijuana program saying it works??

Are you in chronic pain? Are you going through chemotherapy? Are you a terminally ill patient dying from cancer?

I am in chronic pain. I can’t stand the pain sometimes. I have been on every pain medication from tylenol 2 to morphine. I have a good chance with marijuana. Do you think I should keep taking methadone even though it is causing (reversible) brain damage? Do you know what it feels like to not be able to understand simple concepts although one has a master’s degree??

Marijuana does not cause hallucinations. I never had hallucinations when I was using marijuana as a recreational drug when I was in college. I have never known of anyone who had or is having hallucinations when using marijuana.

Whether marijuana should be used recreationally is for another thread. This is for the medical use of marijuana. It is a good medication. It may save my sanity and keep me from wanting to kill myself when the pain gets so bad that all I can do is cry and writhe around on the bed and hope that the nausea will go away.

Do you understand how terrible pain can be?? Do you understand that people who use marijuana have managed to keep their pain under control?? I’ve spoken to these people. It has worked for them.

It works. It’s not a sin to use a legal substance from a plant that God created to ease one’s agonizing pain. It’s not a sin.

You are wrong.

The following website is a summary of studies on medical marijuana. Research has been conducted and research is continuing to be conducted, just like for any possible medication. This website shows that marijuana is a putative useful medication for numerous medical conditions.

norml.org/pdf_files/ReviewofHumanStudies.pdf

BTW, I’ll be sure to tell my physicians that they are not health authorities, according to you. I’m sure they would be interested to find that out as one is a pain specialist and anaesthesiologist and the other is practicing internal medicine. They both endorse the use of marijuana as a therapeutic tool. You might contact the states of Oregon, California, Hawaii, and others that have medical marijuana plans - I’m sure they would appreciate your telling them how counter-productive the use of marijuana is.