Marijuana, bipolar, convert and a few questions...

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Hello Forum,

I am a 36 year old married lady with no kids. I have recently decided to come home to the Catholic Faith and my husband is a cradle-Catholic, but doesn’t practice the sacraments and we also attend his evangelical church. We do both, Mass and service.

I have a few questions regarding mortal and/or venial sin when it comes to Marijuana. Does it say anywhere in the Bible that cannabis is forbidden? I know the scriptures about wine, Jesus’ first miracle at Cana and how St. Paul says that a little wine for the stomach ailments are fine. But what does our Lord God say about pot? What does the doctrine of our Mother Church say?

I struggle with several illness, the top 4 being, Bipolar, Henoch-Schonlein Purpura and Diabetes Type 2 and Chronic Pain Syndrome. These various disorders do not work together well, I am on a cocktail of 14 different drugs, totalling 24-25 a day, over 4 times a day. I can’t even manage my own pill case, I get the pharmacy to do a blister pack. Thankfully in Canada, I don’t pay for any of my medication, it’s all covered by our provincial (state for you US peeps!) government. I have gotten sicker and sicker each year, especially since taking a new drug in 2004 that led me to have diabetes.

I was a pot smoker back during 1998-2003. 5 years of self medicating and now I have ended up with my very own mini pharmacy and yes I do offer up my pain and yes I do pray and yes I pray the Rosary and I am starting to do the St. Faustina Novena, I love Jesus with all my mind, body, soul and spirit, but I am really stumped on whether or not I could start smoking pot again to relieve my stress and physical pain.

I am so weak in handling all of the things I have, that I know ultimately I must realise what Jesus did for me on the Cross and I don’t want to live in a state of mortal sin, but I am not strong enough to keep going through increasing pain as I get older.

I really welcome any comments, questions or opinions in my quest to find the TRUTH.

God bless you who read, comment and love and don’t judge,
Tammy
 
Hi Tammy,

Don’t do it. I am not an expert on scripture but it sounds that you are in a lot of pain 😦 and would probably need to smoke a lot of it. And once you start smoking it, you would become completely dissociated from reality. Anything that dissociates you from reality is a sin. I am sorry I could not help you more but I am sure that other people here will. Although I cannot possibly understand what you are going thru, by grandmother’s been sick for the last seven years and nobody knows what’s wrong and she’s in a lot of pain.
 
aborodki said:
Hi Tammy,

Don’t do it. I am not an expert on scripture but it sounds that you are in a lot of pain 😦 and would probably need to smoke a lot of it. And once you start smoking it, you would become completely dissociated from reality. Anything that dissociates you from reality is a sin. I am sorry I could not help you more but I am sure that other people here will. Although I cannot possibly understand what you are going thru, by grandmother’s been sick for the last seven years and nobody knows what’s wrong and she’s in a lot of pain.
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There are many prescription drugs that do this sort of thing.

It is a sin to take them for the “high”, not a sin to take them for your health and have the high as a side effect.

Pot has fewer of those effects than prescription painkillers (which are also extremely addictive, whereas pot is not).
 
There isn’t anything specifically about canabis, so you have to extrapolate.

As far as recreational drugs go, there are issues that could apply - purposefully making your thinking less clear is not good. Escaping problems is not good, nor is decreasing your inhibitions so that you do things you shouldn’t. Illegal use of drugs is not good. Buying things from criminals is not good.

Medical use is different, it is legal, it doesn’t support organized crime, and it is used to an acceptable end. Of course it is possible to abuse prescription drugs too, and cannabis would be no different. As a drug, it has pros and cons, just like other drugs. It would likely be better, for example, than extended use of narcotics for pain.

In your case, I am not sure. I am not convinced that it is a great idea with bi-polar disorder, I tend to think cannabis can actually make it worse. As well, you would be adding one more drug to that mix, and it’s hard to say what kind of effect that might have.

If you were to look into it, I think it would be very important that you do it under the doctor’s care, so he or she could evaluate the effect it is having on you, and any possible drug interaction problems.

What types of non-pharmaceutical relief have you tried?
 
The main reason I want to do this pot is for pain. I have tried ALL non-opiate drugs which messed me up so bad in terms of my bipolar that I was hospitalized. I am literally out of options the only one being to increase the narcotics. I don’t want to keep increasing the narcs. When I did smoke pot in the past it was to escape reality. Things are completely different now as my life back then was without God and no family or friends. I now have a husband and we’ve been living stabily in this house for 7.5 years. I don’t drink alcohol but I do smoke cigarettes. Not a lot of cigarettes but enough to keep me addicted.

My friend who has the pot is also a Catholic and said he would keep me safe and make sure it goes fine and ge lives just across the street. I am assured by his friendship that ge does have my best interests at heart. He said whatever I decide he cares about me and it’s not a big deal what decision I make.

I am doing this for pain and my friend tells me that for someone like me a joint would last a week because of it’s potency. He said that it would only take a few puffs to feel the pain helping effects.

There is also some clinical trials that have been done at the U of Berkely that say definitively that pots DOES have pain relief effects verses placebo trials. The pot was double the amount.

Please pray that tonight my body/mind will respond in a healing way when I try the pot. All I really want us a day I could grocery shop, take a walk do some laundry without feeling like I am about to die from chronic pain. In this decision I am trying an alternate method of pain relief and if you could walk in my shoes you would understand why.

God bless. Tammy
 
Tammy, My mil is bipolar and has many other medical conditions–I know what you are talking about with the mini-pharmacy!

I don’t think there is anything in the Bible or Catechism about pot. If it is illegal to smoke it where you live that you should follow the law. I would also have a huge concern about interactions between the pot and all your other meds–especially since it affects the metabalism.

I’ll be praying that you can find relief from your pain.
 
I don’t know if it’s a sin or not, but I just wanted to encourage you to continue on your path if you feel God calling you to the Catholic Church. Even if it is a sin, nobody converts to the Catholic Church already perfect. We are all sinners in need of God’s grace and mercy. The best person to talk about this with is a Priest.

God bless you, and know that I will keep you in my prayers. It sounds as if you carry a very heavy cross. May the Lord be right there beside you all the way.
 
CAF is not an appropriate venue for medical advice. Please consult with medical health professionals. Relying on the advice of internet strangers to determine an appropriate course of treatment is VERY dangerous.
 
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