Posted on 06/10/2013 2:44:17 PM PDT by markomalley
Lighting up pot has its moral pitfalls.
The dawning of legalized marijuana across the states in recent years has prompted Church experts to try to clear the haze about the much-debated drug.
Since last Novembers elections, Colorado and Washington passed unprecedented laws making legal recreational use of marijuana, and lawmakers and state boards are formulating ways to shift it from a black market to a regulated and taxed commercial enterprise. Medical use alone has passed in 18 states from Alaska and Arizona to Delaware and Vermont.
These laws contradict federal law, but states are not obligated to enforce federal regulations on personal consumption. In addition, President Barack Obama has stated that prosecution of marijuana users in the two states will be a low priority for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Often, those with a moral conscience rejected pot use because its against the law.
In the wake of pots decriminalization and growing acceptance...
(snip)
After considering the effects of marijuana use, moral theologians said a users intention is crucial to determining its morality. Cannabis is not intrinsically evil, so an analysis of the morality of smoking pot is found by determining the object of the act of smoking, said Christian Brugger, a moral theologian and seminary professor in Colorado.
Recreational pot smokers use marijuana to induce themselves into a state of euphoria. So the object is to get high and to alter their consciousness.
Yet consciousness is needed to make choices, and to impair the human mind is to impair the ability to make choices, he said. Therefore, if a person is high, its more difficult for them to make good choices.
Sacred Scripture doesnt address getting high, but it is filled with warnings about drunkenness.
Scriptures are pretty harsh about it, Brugger said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
From a health point of view, I probably see marijuana as slightly better than cigarettes. However on a social level, and I may be prejudiced by perceptions rather than reality, I see marijuana addiction as worse than cigarette addiction due to its side-effects on the person
I work with Ph.Ds and engineers who smoke marijuana occasionally and have been doing so, for decades. I haven’t seen any serious side effects that have prevented them from being accomplished individuals with strong values and loving families.
The act remains open to life even with condoms, as they are not 100% reliable. The argument is fecal only because the original “moral” argument in the article is straight out of a cesspool.
Ok that’s all very well and good but it doesn’t seem to answer mylife’s question, at least not the spirit of the question.
So in developing countries where water may be questionable in quality fine, consumption of alcoholic beverages may have a beneficial effect that outweighs any deleterious effects. So it’s “moral” there. But here in the US there are no such concerns so let’s get real.
In the US where the water is safe to consume, is consuming alcohol moral? Even just one drink?
I ask because I have a similar question/point as mylife. I have always wondered if pot became fully legal would it then become moral to consume it on a leisurely basis. It seems to me that it comes down to a question of potency. One drink won’t make one as intoxicated as one joint. Anyone who has smoked knows that.
But what about literally one puff, compared to one drink. It really gets hazy, no pun intended, as to what constitutes an “immoral buzz”. Because let’s be honest: people in the US who come home from a hard days work and have one or even two drinks aren’t drinking those drinks to avoid contaminated water. They are drinking them to relax.
So, couldn’t the same be said about one puff of marijuana? Literally one.
As I said — those are my perceptions.
I agree, but since we see a spectrum of behaviour among marijuana users, it tends to convey the opinion that marijuana is not a major factor in determining life outcomes in any significant way.
So, what’s the immorality of marijuana, then?
Pointing out that the there is no comparison with drunkenness is the answer to the question.
There's no legitimate comparison between the abuse of something that enables the safe use of a necessity and something that is pharmacia ( see Galatians) that is of no value other than to distort the senses and wallow in getting high.
Anyone who refers to the Bible as warning against drunkenness for their comparison rather than just reading the direct statement made regarding pharmacia needs to know that they're already off on a tangent and why it's a tangent.
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