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Author Topic: Marijuana use sinful for Catholics?  (Read 78442 times)

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Offline Ladislaus

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Re: Marijuana use sinful for Catholics?
« Reply #100 on: January 02, 2022, 01:17:10 PM »
As for the real or alleged health benefits of marijuana, I find that completely irrelevant to the question of its morality (and besides, it is available in non-euphoric form anyway).

Crack, speed, and meth are probably good for weight loss, since they speed the metabolism and suppresses the appetite, but that doesn't make them moral.

Again, you're applying emotional considerations.  Crack, speed, meth, etc. are similar to, say, legal prescription opiates or morphine.  With grave eough reason, you can take morphine (and could conceivably take the others, say, if you were in extreme pain and it was all you had), etc.  But you're tring to blend less grave reasons that are not proportional.  That's the major principle, that the justifying reason has to be proportional.  Losing weight or suppressing appetite, which can be accomplished in many other non-narcotic ways, are not proportionally grave to be able to justify losing control of one's faculties.  But, if someone was in extreme pain, if it would be moral to take morphine, it would be moral to take these others.

And there's another problem with these (the opiate family), namely that they are incredibly addictive and end up ruining and destroying people's lives.  Even the tiniest amount can form a habit or an addiction.  That has to be considered in the equation.  There's no such effect from MJ.

Offline Ladislaus

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Re: Marijuana use sinful for Catholics?
« Reply #101 on: January 02, 2022, 01:21:58 PM »
On a side note, SSPX priests classify the use of CBD, Delta 8 and THC all in one. With a doctor’s prescription it is licit. Otherwise, all are potentially mortally sinful.

What does "potentially mortally" sinful mean?  Doctor's prescription means nothing to me.  You could get a doctor's prescription and still have it be mortally sinful.  Let's say you're faking a condition of some kind.  Conversely, if you can't get to a doctor and someone has major factures and trauma and are in unbearable pain, you can use these substances without any doctor's prescription.

And how can they possibly include CBD into the mix?  CBD doesn't make people high and is legal almost everywhere.  Moral consideration is whether you've lost control of our faculties.  Interestingly, CBD can offset and mitigate the "high-producing effects" of THC.


Re: Marijuana use sinful for Catholics?
« Reply #102 on: January 02, 2022, 01:27:28 PM »
See, that's a practical consideration, not a moral one.  Whatever amount it takes for you to lose control of your faculties would be grave sin without proportionate justification.  But I read about the phenomenon of micro-dosing where you can in fact take amounts that you can barely even feel to alleviate certain conditions.  If you could take enough micro-doses to make youself feel a bit tipsy but not "high," I can see no morally-relevant difference between that and having a couple glasses of wine to make you a bit tipsy.  I did include that caveat and distinction in my previous post, that, assuming you can take an amount that would get you tipsy but not high.  So the rational principle has to do with whether or not you lose control of your faculties.

Hmm...That's an interesting argument.  I've never heard of "micro dosing."

On the one hand, your argument has the merit of logical consistency: If it is the degree to which retention or surrender of the reasoning faculty is involved which determines the liceity or sinfulness of alcohol use, then that same standard would seem to equally applicable to marijuana use (in which case, at least in theory, a dose of marijuana which does not result in complete surrender of the rational faculty would not be gravely sinful).

On the other hand, I'm wondering whether there are additional considerations at play regarding marijuana use which could impact its morality -even without surrendering the use of the rational faculty- which are not applicable to alcohol use?

Re: Marijuana use sinful for Catholics?
« Reply #103 on: January 02, 2022, 01:28:23 PM »
I have not read any of the studies, nor do I care one iota about any studies that say MJ is Ok to use, morally or physically. I am now in my late 60's and have seen first hand what marijuana does to people, and today the stuff is 10x more potent. Marijuana makes people lazy, they lose all drive. I would not defend its use because then my children will interpret that as that I am OK with it. Marijuana is excellent for one thing, and that is for seducing young women, a lot quicker than alcohol. Those of you defending MJ will likely have your daughters seduced with it and it will be your fault for not seeing your own stupidity.

The same applies to alcohol, it just takes a little more work to use it to seduce.

I consider both useless, and do not have the time to waste using them for any reason. MJ and alcohol make one an old man in their 30's. I got married at 47 with a girl that was 25, I could NEVER have done that if I had not been a young man.

But that's just me. To each his own.

Re: Marijuana use sinful for Catholics?
« Reply #104 on: January 02, 2022, 01:30:23 PM »
Again, you're applying emotional considerations.  Crack, speed, meth, etc. are similar to, say, legal prescription opiates or morphine.  With grave eough reason, you can take morphine (and could conceivably take the others, say, if you were in extreme pain and it was all you had), etc.  But you're tring to blend less grave reasons that are not proportional.  That's the major principle, that the justifying reason has to be proportional.  Losing weight or suppressing appetite, which can be accomplished in many other non-narcotic ways, are not proportionally grave to be able to justify losing control of one's faculties.  But, if someone was in extreme pain, if it would be moral to take morphine, it would be moral to take these others.

And there's another problem with these (the opiate family), namely that they are incredibly addictive and end up ruining and destroying people's lives.  Even the tiniest amount can form a habit or an addiction.  That has to be considered in the equation.  There's no such effect from MJ.

What's emotional about noting the health benefit of crack, speed, and meth?

Its pure science: If you smoke/take these drugs, they will help you lose weight.

Its no honest answer to say there are other ways to accomplish weight loss than taking these drugs unless you also say the same for the alleged benefits of marijuana use (i.e., there are other medicines/treatments to cure nausea, glaucoma, etc.).

The questoin becomes: Are there other/additional undesirable and immoral considerations which preclude their use?

With crack, meth, and speed, there are a whole array of serious medical consequences, up to and including death, schizophrenia, etc.

What about with marijuana?

If not, I think I would have to reluctantly concede the argument, but if so, then fortuer inquiry is necessary.

This leaves us in the same place as in my previous post just above.