Is it a sin or sinful to smoke marijuana?

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jkiernan56 said:
Ron Conte;4517533:
Use of drugs to get high is clearly not a cooperation with grace.

QUOTE]

Ron, do you know that you can get “high” drinking alcohol?
You and Nino should avoid drinking any alcoholic beverage or anything that contains alcohol in it (ie - cold medicine etc …). Again I am amazed at the lack of common sense. 🤷

I will respond to some of your other comments in a later post.
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The mindset is different,

I can drink a beer or have a glass of wine with dinner and not get drunk. - But if I smoke a joint and don’t get high… I’m going right back where I bought it, kicking down the door and getting my F’n money back.

This is a grade school argument, there is no use comparing the two. Use a different approach.

Cheers tho!
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jkiernan56 said:
I would just like to throw this question out there to see what people have to say on the matter.

For those who want to respond by saying that it is sinful because it is illegal (in most places in the US) and therefor breaking the law makes it sinful, please don’t go there. It does not hold water with me that breaking the law is always a sinful act.

You and I know that the law is not always right in this country - taking for example legalizion of abortion. Just because something is legal in this country does not mean it is morally right. Taking the converse, just because the law says something is illegal today (in most States) does make it sinful in my opinion.

Remember that alcohol also used to be illegal in this country and then later became legal. It wasn’t the change in the law that makes the use of something sinful or not sinful.

Your thoughts?
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You’re right, the legality argument doesn’t hold water with me either. Although I don’t do it, I know plenty of people who do-- and don’t think that it’s sinful. For instance, in Maryland, where I live, savlia is legal and marijuana is not (except for medical purposes.) :confused:

Salvia will really mess with you’re mind, it’s a hallucinogen, unlike marijuana. Well, salvia needs to be regulated, 'cause I think it’s better if no one under 18 buys it, but there are shops around here that sell it. Salvia is way worse than marijuana, so I don’t see why there is such a disparity of laws. But, of course, they’re only human laws, not divine laws.

But anyway, back to marijuana. I don’t think it’s sinful at all, unless you don’t do it in moderation, or if you overindulge. 🤷
 
Ron_Conte said:
The intention must be good. Using drugs to get high, i.e. for reasons of self-indulgence, would be immoral. God intends that human persons enjoy life by cooperating with grace, acting with love, faith, and hope. Use of drugs to get high is clearly not a cooperation with grace.
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Um, didn’t God say wine is to “cheers men’s hearts”?
The same principle would apply to marijuana. 🤷

I guess we just disagree. No hard feelings. 🤷
 
TLM08 said:
French fries and cigarettes are harmful too. So what?
The sin would come from the fact that civil autorities have declared it illegal.
:cool:
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Don’t blame everything on civil authorities; they are also human beings. Please do not encourage people to harm themselves from using marijuana.

Peace,
Ed
 
Of course it is.People always try to justify their sins by rationalizing why it is ok to do so-and-so.Cigarettes are a sin also.
I used to smoke pot when I was a kid.I still smoke cigarettes.Everybody knows the harmful effects of these items.Yet, we chose the wrong anyway.(St.Pauls ‘thorn in the side’ thing)
I’m not going to tell you what you should and should not do.It is not my place to point out the splinter in your eye when I have a log in my own.
I somehow feel as if this thread was started by someone who was trying to justify what they already know is wrong.
But, that is just my opinion,…for what it is worth…🤷
 
There are receptor sites in the brain for it. It isn’t like alcohol, whose effect is basically your body reacting to a toxin. Marijuana affects your body in a natural way- in a way it was designed to be affected. It should be used responsibly, but I do not believe it’s use is inherently sinful.
 
m134e5 said:
There are receptor sites in the brain for it. It isn’t like alcohol, whose effect is basically your body reacting to a toxin. Marijuana affects your body in a natural way- in a way it was designed to be affected. It should be used responsibly, but I do not believe it’s use is inherently sinful.
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I’m not standing on either side of the fence on this argument but there aren’t receptor sites in the brain for marijuana. The drug/chemical may coincidentally fit into chemical receptors, but the receptors were not designed for the reception of marijuana. Similar arguments have been made regarding other things that are objectively sinful (e.g. homosexuality); I don’t think that this is necessarily a legitimate argument.
 
anying that is harmfull to the body falls under the category of thou shall not kill.

that may sound drastic, nevertheless is true. it is the same for smoking and drinking. they also destroy (kill) the body.
 
joseph_virgen said:
anying that is harmfull to the body falls under the category of thou shall not kill.

that may sound drastic, nevertheless is true. it is the same for smoking and drinking. they also destroy (kill) the body.
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Does alcohol fall under the same argument? It destroys the liver.
 
Here is something I came across for those interested …

"In the Old Testament and in its Aramaic translation (the Targum Onculos) hemp is referred to as kaneh bosm, which is also rendered in traditional Hebrew as kannabos or kannabus. The root “kan” in this construction means “reed” while “bosm” means “aromatic”. This word appeared in Exodus 30:23, Song of Songs 4:14., Isaiah 43:24, Jeremiah 6:20, Ezekiel 27:19.

Source: njweedman.com/kanehbosm.html

Another source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_use_of_cannabis

True? Not True?
 
joseph_virgen said:
anying that is harmfull to the body falls under the category of thou shall not kill.

that may sound drastic, nevertheless is true. it is the same for smoking and drinking. they also destroy (kill) the body.
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Really? So when Jesus provided wine for the wedding at Cana, he violated that commandment? When desus drank wine himself he violated that commandment? Sinned? I don’t think so.

Don’t forget, quantity makes the poison:
Breathing pure (100%) oxygen for 24 hours will harm your lungs,
Potassium is a necessary element, in too great of quantities it can cause a heart attack,
and so on…

The same goes with alcohol…in high quantities it harms the body and becomes sinful. Not in small to moderate.
 
I brought this question up today with a couple of coworkers and one made a good point. He said that we are called to obey civil authority when the civil law does not stand in contradiction of God’s law. Now I think that it is the duty of a properly formed conscience to differentiate and I’m not sure that the civil law banning the use of marijuana stands in contradiction to any of God’s laws and should in this case be followed. Thoughts?
 
From the Catechism:
**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.
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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. **
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Hm. Use of Marijuana is ambiguous, since “drugs” could very well include the aformentioned alcohol and tobacco. However, it condemns “clandestine production and trafficking in drugs” as scandalous.

Just my thoughts.
 
Matariel said:
From the Catechism:

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.

Hm. Use of Marijuana is ambiguous, since “drugs” could very well include the aformentioned alcohol and tobacco. However, it condemns “clandestine production and trafficking in drugs” as scandalous.

Just my thoughts.
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Thank you for thoughts. It still doesn’t have much weight (with me at least) since this thread is not about production or trafficking, but about smoking marijuana. How it is obtained and what is done with it afterwards is an entirely different matter.

One thing you did point out that in my opinion does carry alot of weight is “the virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess.” Why and how something is used is definitely something to look at.
 
Most everything used to excess is bad for people. There are also health reports that come out everyday saying that this substance or that substance is bad for you. Then a few years later, there is another one that comes out saying, “We were wrong… actually, it’s not too bad for you, if used in moderation”. Using anything to excess is sinful, as well… gluttony. Smoking a half-ounce in a few hours is very sinful, but smoking enough to where someone has the same effect as have a couple of drinks is only sinful where it’s illegal.

As far as the health damages from marijuana go, there are so many conflicting reports with that. It is probably somewhat harmful, but not more so than alcohol, and maybe even a bit less. And until there is more definative proof, I am sticking to that belief. The cotton and paper industry don’t want marijuana legalized at all because if there were a hemp industry, it would greatly affect the bottom line. But that’s my own paranoid delusion… 😉
 
ericka1701 said:
The cotton and paper industry don’t want marijuana legalized at all because if there were a hemp industry, it would greatly affect the bottom line. But that’s my own paranoid delusion… 😉
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One day I think marijuana will be legalized and controlled in the United States just as is alcohol. You can already see the beginning of it in some States. You and I know that what makes the secular world go around is money. And where there is money to be made, one day I expect Uncle Sam to get in on the action.
 
jkiernan56 said:
Thank you for thoughts. It still doesn’t have much weight (with me at least) since this thread is not about production or trafficking, but about smoking marijuana. How it is obtained and what is done with it afterwards is an entirely different matter.
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I agree. The Catechism, while extremely useful and generally accurate on Magisterial teaching, is fallible. But, since marijuana is not mentioned,
One thing you did point out that in my opinion does carry alot of weight is “the virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess.” Why and how something is used is definitely something to look at.
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Definitely. I think this issue should be deal with in terms of moderation. It’s true that if you smoke too much all the time, you lose motivation. But small quantities may be morally illicit.

However, there is the added issue of causing scandal… 🤷
 
I know the OP said not to go with the part about it being against the law…But, Jesus never broke the law…
Aren’t we supposed to emulate Jesus?
🤷
 
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