Author Topic: What's the purpose of smoking marijuana for Recreation? (Read 27989 times)

Drolo · « **Reply #265 on:** December 01, 2022, 01:11:12 AM »

Now seriously. I guess theoretically it can be used sparingly. But I don't know anyone who does. All marijuana smokers I know are or were low-life people. So I wouldn't recommend smoking marijuana. But I'm not a priest or an expert in moral theology.

Quo vadis Domine · « **Reply #266 on:** December 01, 2022, 05:05:24 AM »

Quote from: SimpleMan on November 30, 2022, 10:20:23 PM

Why not? In and of itself, smoking tobacco is no sin.

I was sneaking an illicit cigarette in my high school boys' restroom when I got to talking to another student (who did not smoke) about becoming a Catholic, he said "so why don't you?", and I called the priest that afternoon. (I didn't mention the smoking.)

I was received into the Church a few months later, baptized and confirmed.

Who can say what I would have done if I hadn't been in that restroom, smoking that cigarette, and getting in that conversation? (To be fair, it had been on my mind for some time.)

I hope you’re not serious. Do you really think it would be becoming of the Blessed Virgin Mary to smoke a cigarette?

SimpleMan · « **Reply #267 on:** December 01, 2022, 09:10:09 AM »

Quote from: Quo vadis Domine on December 01, 2022, 05:05:24 AM

I hope you’re not serious. Do you really think it would be becoming of the Blessed Virgin Mary to smoke a cigarette?

At Medjugorje (if it is to be believed), it was the youths smoking cigarettes, not Our Lady.

It's a hard thing to imagine, but if smoking a single cigarette (as opposed to yielding to temptation to habit which could be dangerous to one's health, and often is) is no sin, then if they had existed in Palestine in the first century, then I can't exclude the possibility that she might have done it to help with digestion (and it does), similar to how one might have a cup of coffee. Tobacco is an herb of the earth that can have medicinal uses, again, digestion, calming of nerves, and so on. I am forced to eschew tobacco (at least until my Medicare kicks in three years from now) to remain in compliance with my health insurance (they impose a $200/month surcharge for smokers), but I can't condemn occasional usage of it as a sin.

When I was working, the surcharge was $50/month, which I was willing to pay, but not $200. I received my first Social Security payment last month, and even with that, my pension, and my 401(k), money is tight and I wouldn't even be able to afford the $50, let alone the $200.

SimpleMan · « **Reply #268 on:** December 01, 2022, 09:14:37 AM »

Quote from: Jimmy on November 30, 2022, 11:12:41 PM

Haha, I like the conversion story. I had many a good deep conversation with my brother sneaking a cigarette on the roof at 1:00 am. He would never smoke, I was the degenerate, but he would hang out with me :).

Obviously I'm not a good person to go to for advice, seeing as I am sort of new coming back to the Faith. However, I know many good people who smoke, and I have a good friend who does weed occasionally. He's not a Catholic, but he is still able to regulate and to be in control of his senses, and he's a good guy. I wouldn't recommend getting into drugs, because I also know many folks who ruined their life with the stuff. I work in an area where there are needles everywhere and hoboes all over the place. People usually don't start off with the big drugs, they work their way up. It could lead down a bad road.

Marijuana being a "gateway drug" to "harder stuff" is probably more of a social thing, than anything intrinsic to marijuana itself.

Not condoning its use, but no less a social philosopher than Snoop Dogg points out that if you get a bunch of gang-bangers in a room, and throw down a bottle of alcohol, someone's going to die, but if you throw down a bag of weed, they'll end up laughing, joking, telling stories, and rapping.

Ladislaus · « **Reply #269 on:** December 01, 2022, 09:28:36 AM »

Quote from: WorldsAway on November 30, 2022, 06:48:07 PM

Since there has been no definitive Church teaching on those two drugs in particular, I would equate their sinfulness with that of drunkenness as "loss of reason", among other things, seems to be why some consider said drugs mortally sinful.

As someone else pointed out, this has been dealt with on this thread. While there's no strictly Magisterial teaching on the matter (IMO none is required, as the moral theologians all seem to be in agreement), the principle behind the intrinsic immorality of drugs is in fact the degree to which it compromises the higher faculties (reason and its direction of the will).

Grave reason is required to completely deprive someone of the rational faculties, i.e. extreme pain, need to perform surgery, etc. Lesser reason can justfiy a partial impairment of the faculties. Total impairment without sufficient justification would be grave sin, while partial impairment without sufficient justificationn would be venial sin. There would appear to be a sliding scale, where the more one is impaired, the greater the reason one would need to have to justify it.

There are other extrinsic considerations as well ... illegality, compromising one's job (if use of drugs might cause the loss of a job), etc.

Those who were arguing that, say, marijuana, is always sinful (and gravel sinful at that) all the time couldn't produce any additional principle to justify the assertion.

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Author Topic: What's the purpose of smoking marijuana for Recreation? (Read 27989 times)

Drolo

Re: What's the purpose of smoking marijuana for Recreation?

Quo vadis Domine

Re: What's the purpose of smoking marijuana for Recreation?

SimpleMan

Re: What's the purpose of smoking marijuana for Recreation?

SimpleMan

Re: What's the purpose of smoking marijuana for Recreation?

Ladislaus

Re: What's the purpose of smoking marijuana for Recreation?