Recreational Use of Marijuana? Priest Explains that Church Says Using Drugs is Wrong

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Not really up to speed on the whole marijuana craze because I haven’t smoked it in over 20 years and I would get fired from my job if I did but…

Aren’t there strains that don’t get you whacked out of your gourd these days? Are there any amounts of marijuana that don’t cause the imbiber to lose reason? Asking because I honestly don’t know.
 
CBD heavy stuff generally just relaxes you. No loss of reason from my own limited experience (I smoked marijuana a handful of times years ago). Then again regular marijuana didn’t remove the use of my reason either. It just made me feel extremely sick to my stomach.
 
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To be clear, I find pot and its resulting smoke repugnant. That said, whether or not something is wrong and whether or not is should be criminalized are two separate questions.
 
I don’t know if this is a very convincing argument, because one could say “well, what if you just smoke it till you’re buzzed, isn’t that ok then?” Because by this Father’s argument, it’s only immoral to lose your rational faculties.
 
StudentMI said:
CBD heavy stuff generally just relaxes you. No loss of reason from my own limited experience (I smoked marijuana a handful of times years ago). Then again regular marijuana didn’t remove the use of my reason either. It just made me feel extremely sick to my stomach.
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I would think that, like alcohol, it is the intended effect and not the substance used to get there that is the issue. If the effect is relaxation but without impairment that clouds clear moral decision-making, that is OK in moderation.
 
Welshrabbit said:
Aren’t there strains that don’t get you whacked out of your gourd these days? Are there any amounts of marijuana that don’t cause the imbiber to lose reason?
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As a long-term recovering addict who knows one or two neurochemistry PhD’s, I believe I’m qualified to speak to this.

High-CBD strains that have no THC won’t get you high; the story on possible medical benefits is far from certain although I hear there’s some indication that it can help with some forms of psychosis.

Strains that contain THC are the ones that get you high; good evidence exists that dosages a thousandth of what it takes to feel a buzz cause measurable degredation of mental acuity for up to six months. THC greatly interferes with neural plasticity, there is no dosage that is not harmful, and by definition the person using it will be the last to notice the long-term effects.

I find CCC 2291 to be poorly formulated. Alcohol is a drug. While its chemistry is such that there is a therapeutic dose (for non-addicts, that is), it’s the most widely used and abused narcotic in the world and the Church obviously doesn’t have a blanket prohibition on its recreational use.
 
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I would be inclined to agree which makes me question the blanket condemnation. Again however, I don’t have enough experience with narcotics to know if it is possible to use marijuana without losing one’s reason.
 
The thing with alcohol is that the presumption of appropriate use is widely apparent in Holy Scriptures.
 
One should simply ask oneself, does this glorify God? Is this Christ in me working or the sinful flesh we are called to crucify? For Galatians 2:20 says “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me” Is it one using marijuana or Christ in one?

Romans 13:14 “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

Proverbs 23:21 “For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.”

Galatians 5:19-20 “ Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
 
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PetraG said:
The thing with alcohol is that the presumption of appropriate use is widely apparent in Holy Scriptures.
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I understand that. What I’m saying is that that paragraph of the Catechism is poorly formulated.
 
christismylord said:
The purpose of any drug used to “escape reality” or simply “because it feels good” is bad because we are turning to the world and it’s goods for comfort instead of God…obviously medicinal usage is different.
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Sacred Scripture speaks positively of wine’s ability to gladden the heart in a number of places, so I don’t agree that enjoying some wine because you like the effect is necessarily a bad thing. It’s very bad for me, but that’s me.
 
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