Mary Jane question

[Michael15]

Hi I’m a born and raised Catholic and I was wondering about what Christian teachings say about marijuana. I’ve been to Catholic school all my life except last year at college and attend mass regularly, but I cannot form a clear opinion on the subject matter. I know a clause in the catechism says that the use of drugs is a grave offense, but I personally don’t consider it a legit “drug” like cocaine and heroine. I see it more as a relaxant like alcohol and tobacco. It can be detrimental to one’s health, but does it not also promote tranquility when used correctly and in the right environment? I understand that it would be breaking civil law, but is that not also barring the common good promoted from it being used reasponsibly?

I have never consumed weed in any way outside of second hand smoke, but I have always had this predjudice against it and the people who smoke it. I was easily able to turn away from it in High School and my first year of college, for one of my best friends shared the same predjudice I have. I even backed out of living with 5 close friends next year in order to stay away from it. But a few weeks ago that friend took a hit for the first time and there’s no turning back for him. I am surrounded by smokers at my new job as well and I literally don’t know one person who hasn’t tried it, now that my friend has. I am not one to give in easily, but it feels like I’m entrapped with smokers and that It’s me against all of them right now. I am not going to try it just to conform to all of them, but I want to start finding some answers to tackle this predjudice instead of being alienated from all of my family and friends.

Right now I want to say that I am 100% neutral on whether it is good/bad.
This has nothing to do with tobacco smokers, just weed.

 

[Holly3278]

Have you done a search for the various threads on the morality of marijuana yet? If not, I think you will be surprised to learn that this topic has been rehashed over and over and over. I am not getting on to you for asking about this but I am just saying that you can find a plethora of information that already exists on the forums. In fact, I think there is an active thread in the Moral Theology forum which exists under the Apologetics forum. Beware though, last I checked, it was several pages long. Anyway, here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say about drug use:

**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.

Now, granted, the Catechism of the Catholic Church does not directly address marijuana usage so I have provided you with links to several articles about marijuana from various orthodox Catholic sources along with a quote from each from the beginning of the article to give you an idea of what each particular article addresses concerning marijuana. I think you will find that the Catholic Church is against marijuana usage and legalization:

catholiceducation.org/articles/civilization/cc0088.html
Killer Weed:

Only now, you hear the refrain in courtrooms and state houses, not just in reggae bars and subculture outposts.

In Canada, a judge determined that the law prohibiting the cultivation of marijuana is unconstitutional because it doesn’t allow for medical use of the drug, The Globe and Mail reported Dec.12. In the province of Alberta, Justice Darlene Acton threw out a charge of cultivating marijuana against Grant Krieger, who grows and consumes the drug to alleviate the symptoms of his multiple sclerosis.

catholiceducation.org/articles/civilization/cc0092.html
Marijuana on the Ballot:

While it has long been clear that chemical compounds found in the marijuana plant offer potential for medical use, smoking the raw plant is a method of delivery supported neither by law nor recent scientific evidence. The Food and Drug Administration’s approval process, which seeks to ensure the purity of chemical compounds in legitimate drugs, sets the standard for medical validation of prescription drugs as safe and effective. Diametrically opposed to this long-standing safeguard of medical science is the recent spate of state election ballots that have advocated the use of a smoked plant — the marijuana leaf — for “treating” an unspecified number of ailments. It is a tribute to the power of political activism that popular vote has displaced objective science in advancing what would be the only smoked drug in America under the guise of good medicine.

catholiceducation.org/articles/civilization/cc0131.html
New Studies Point to Health Dangers of Marijuana:

The controversy over marijuana for medical treatment came into focus again this week as a court case got under way in California. Ed Rosenthal, who promotes the use of marijuana, went on trial in a federal court in San Francisco, the New York Times reported Jan. 21.

Rosenthal is on trial for his role in growing marijuana for medical use. His business operates under the local laws of the city of Oakland, which allow for medical marijuana. Federal authorities are fighting against the spread of such municipal ordinances.

catholiceducation.org/articles/civilization/cc0272.htm
Not your mother's reefer:

The 18th-century poet Alexander Pope was a keen student of human nature, and often delivered bits of timeless wisdom in memory-friendly rhyming couplets. One that opinion writers in particular should take to heart from his Essay on Criticism is: “A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.”

The words “intoxicate the brain” bring to mind the Post’s 2007 editorial on marijuana, enunciated in response to evidence that Canada’s marijuana consumption was the highest in the industrialized world: “What is really remarkable about Canada’s status as a cannabis capital is that if you were to set out looking for reasons to worry about it … you would have an awfully hard time finding them. Legalizing pot makes sense.”

And despite doing rather extensive searching using ProLife Internet (powered by Google) I was unable to find any further information about marijuana. I will, however, keep my eyes “peeled” for more information about marijuana and the Church.

 

[puzzleannie]

Hi I know a clause in the catechism says that the use of drugs is a grave offense, but I personally don’t consider it a legit “drug” like cocaine and heroine. I see it more as a relaxant like alcohol and tobacco. It can be detrimental to one’s health, but does it not also promote tranquility when .

what you “see” is irrelevant. you see the CCC teaching. it is also illegal, so would be a mortal sin to use it, even more so to sell it for that reason alone, even without the ill effects on your health. There is a further sin involved when buying illegal drugs because you support the international drug trade, contributing directly to the sin of those involved, which is also a mortal sin. You also directly support the drug related violence here on the boder and elsewhere, yet another mortal sin.

 

[Stylites]

what you “see” is irrelevant. you see the CCC teaching. it is also illegal, so would be a mortal sin to use it, even more so to sell it for that reason alone, even without the ill effects on your health. There is a further sin involved when buying illegal drugs because you support the international drug trade, contributing directly to the sin of those involved, which is also a mortal sin. You also directly support the drug related violence here on the boder and elsewhere, yet another mortal sin.

Breaking a human law is not a sin; and indeed there are laws which require Christians to break. The Allies’ governments at the Nuremberg Trials cleared up this issue of “I was only following the law” by stating that one is obligated to adhere to one’s conscience above any merely human law.

To speak of the violence associated with the drug trade as a reason for the supposed sinfulness of cannabis use is a circular argument, since the violence associated with it’s trade is only caused by its prohibition in the first place. Perhaps the grave moral disorder is to be found in those who cheer on and silently acquiesce to its illegality, as Catholic social justice states that a policy mustn’t cause more real harm than it purports to “prevent.”

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[Dorothy]

I know of a person who uses it to “escape her misery” as she says. Instead of finding new friends or working on her art hobby which she is quite good at, she smokes pot on weekends because it makes her feel good.

If she continues this she is falling into a trap, and the normal joyful things of life won’t be able to make her feel good.

Just like people who abuse alcohol and miss out on the really great things in life, those who abuse marijuana miss out on developing their own lives physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

The fact that it is illegal should figure in here as well!

 

[Stylites]

I know of a person who uses it to “escape her misery” as she says. Instead of finding new friends or working on her art hobby which she is quite good at, she smokes pot on weekends because it makes her feel good.

If she continues this she is falling into a trap, and the normal joyful things of life won’t be able to make her feel good.

Just like people who abuse alcohol and miss out on the really great things in life, those who abuse marijuana miss out on developing their own lives physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

The fact that it is illegal should figure in here as well!

Again, there is no sin in breaking merely human laws, and there are times when it is moral to break them rather than to follow them. The Martyrs are puzzled by the allegation that they committed mortal sin by refusing a lawful order to worship Caesar, and those who illegally harbored illegal Jews in Europe are being labeled as “sinners” for doing so.

The abuse of anything is to be lamented - puritan progressives spearheaded the prohibition of alcohol, and that was a moral disaster, too.

If we are to make all immoral acts illegal (such as substance abuse) then do so, but that is not what the current laws proscribe, as any amount is deemed abuse, which is a sin against justice. In our rush to violently arrest and imprison and abuse people under the pretense of “charity” then by all means let’s also have police pull guns upon and haul before magistrates those who fail to honor their parents. At least cannabis use is not against one of the 10 Commandments, and yet those who fail to honor their parents are given a pass by the self-appointed morality police. Go figure.

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[puzzleannie]

Breaking a human law is not a sin;
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yes breaking just laws is a sin, and if the matter is grave, as drug use is, a mortal sin. Christ said render to caesar what is his, and that includes obedience to civil law whereever it does not contradict God’s law. there are all the additional possiblities of sin, to my mind the worst being directly supporting the drug cartels and their violence, that someone also does when buying illegal drugs. The apostles dealt with this very issue in Acts and concluded in their councils that all civil laws of the empire must be obeyed, except those which were contrary to God’s law, like worshipping the emperor.

 

[Stylites]

yes breaking just laws is a sin, and if the matter is grave, as drug use is, a mortal sin. Christ said render to caesar what is his, and that includes obedience to civil law whereever it does not contradict God’s law. there are all the additional possiblities of sin, to my mind the worst being directly supporting the drug cartels and their violence, that someone also does when buying illegal drugs. The apostles dealt with this very issue in Acts and concluded in their councils that all civil laws of the empire must be obeyed, except those which were contrary to God’s law, like worshipping the emperor.

Again, the violence associated with cannabis trafficking stems from its illegality, and hence supporting laws against an otherwise harmless substance could be a mortal sin, unless one truly believes that people being brutalized and terrorized by the state in their name is an act of “charity.”

Also, the God-made plant grows like a . . . weed, and a user needn’t be involved in its economy at all.

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[puzzleannie]

Also, the God-made plant grows like a . . . weed, and a user needn’t be involved in its economy at all.

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there is no way in a country where growing and selling it is illegal for a user not to be breaking the law, and not to be directly supporting and contributing to the illegal trade with all the violence and evil associated with it. 6 children were caught in the cross fire of a drug-connected drive by in a border town this week. think of that the next time you light up

 

[Stylites]

there is no way in a country where growing and selling it is illegal for a user not to be breaking the law, and not to be directly supporting and contributing to the illegal trade with all the violence and evil associated with it. 6 children were caught in the cross fire of a drug-connected drive by in a border town this week. think of that the next time you light up

Light up what? Maybe you need to think about those 6 children the next time you cheer on laws which make a natural weed an over-valued commodity, for it’s price is high only because of it’s illegal status, and 70 years of violent prohibition has not stopped people from acquiring it yet.

Your statement is illogical about how growing a weed directly supports and contributes to illegal trade and the resulting violence, but then there’s really no logic to the current laws against cannabis, as they’re based upon prejudice and ignorance and a lack of charity.

The Al Capones and the Elliot Nesses of the world laugh all the way to the bank whenever do-gooder Puritan progressives try to run everyone else’s lives but their own.

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[puzzleannie]

The Al Capones and the Elliot Nesses of the world laugh all the way to the bank whenever do-gooder Puritan progressives try to run everyone else’s lives but their own.

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nonetheless those who bought the bootlegger’s liquor contributed directly to the lawlessness of the era. You did not ask in OP about legalizing MJ, if you had, I would have steered the discussion in another direction. You asked about the morality of using illegals substances now. The lack of charity is the blindness, pigheadedness and arrant selfishness of those who place their own pleasure above the societal damage this traffic causes. I will shut up now because the rest of my opinions about illegal drug users are not fit for a Christian forum. fact. I live with this violence daily and with its victims. fact. if users were not buying it, criminals would not be selling it.

 

[Stylites]

If casual users were allowed to grow it, criminals would be out of business. Fact.

The great harm from it’s being made illegal eclipses the harmlessness of it’s use and even the relative harmlessness of its abuse. Fact.

.

 

[thistle]

I guess its an Americanism but what on earth is a Mary Jane Question?

 

[Stylites]

I guess its an Americanism but what on earth is a Mary Jane Question?

Yes, I believe that “Mary Jane” is an American slang for “marijuana,” the English language equivalent to this Spanish name.

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[puzzleannie]

I guess its an Americanism but what on earth is a Mary Jane Question?

that is a term aging hippies like us use for pot, marijuana, weed, hash

 

[thistle]

that is a term aging hippies like us use for pot, marijuana, weed, hash