Pax my friend, but I can bet money that the person who responds to this will cite 2290 of the CCC and/or then argue that they can control how much they drink, but you can’t control how affected you become off of marijuana. Happens pretty much every much marijuana thread you come across.
They are free to make that citation and argument, except that their argument is based upon a false premise. I most certainly can control the effect of marijuana, and it is virtually identical to the way I can control the effects of alcohol. Even if you only drink one glass of wine, that is still recreational, not medicinal. So I propose that the correct reading of 2290 must be taken along with the correct reading of 2291.
2291(a) The use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life.
Well, we need to consider what this first sentence of 2291 means. If you take it to mean that the use of ALL (each and every kind of) drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life, then the sentence is utterly false. We know that not all drugs inflict grave damage on human life. If that were the case, no drugs would be legal, because even coffee would kill you, as it contains a drug. Therefore, how are we to interpret the next sentence?
2291(b) Their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense.
Well this must mean that the use of
those drugs which do inflict very grave damage on human health and life may only be used on strictly therapeutic grounds. For example, someone mentioned the use of cocaine to recover from certain types of surgery.
I can see no other way of reading it in conjunction with the prescription that certain other drugs, like alcohol and tobacco, only be used in moderation. Clearly there is a demarcation between those drugs which inflict “very grave damage” and those that do not. The Catechism clearly places alcohol and tobacco in the latter category (although some would no doubt challenge the use of cigarettes under any circumstances), but neglects to even mention something like caffeine (how should we categorize caffeine?). The Catechism does not categorize marijuana, or any other scheduled narcotic. Why? Well, I think it’s clear that the standard of causing “very grave damage” is a medical standard. It seems to me to be a matter of science whether marijuana should be classified as something that is okay in moderation or whether it causes “very grave damage.”
So then the fight becomes how marijuana should be classified. Should it be grouped with things like heroin and meth? Or should it be grouped with alcohol and tobacco? Well, I’ve never done heroin or meth. But I have done alcohol and tobacco, and I can tell you that marijuana is pretty similar to simultaneously using alcohol and tobacco. I have done cocaine once in my life, and I can tell you that anyone who thinks it should be grouped with cocaine instead of alcohol or tobacco is severely misinformed and inexperienced. It is closer to caffeine that cocaine.
