(Jesus 'Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethern, ye have done it unto me." (Matt. 25:40) Marijuana: A Theology Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite Professor of Theology, Chicago Theological Seminary Chicago Tribune via Getty Images Recreational marijuana became legal in the State of Colorado on the first day of 2014 for those 21 and older. Other states, like Washington, are preparing to do the same. Recreational marijuana became became legal in the State of Colorado on the first day of 2014 for those 21 and older. Other states, like Washington, are preparing to do the same. Is this just a further sign of the "moral decay" of American society, or can we say the legalization of marijuana can have a place in a Christian theology that values, instead ofhttp://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Body-Theology-Introductions-Feminist/dp/1850759952"] denigrates, the body? We might think primarily of the individual body and marijuana use, but first let us consider the social body and what will happen to our social body by legalizing marijuana. Our social body is currently deformed, almost beyond recognition as a developed democracy, by the huge numbers of Americans in jail, many of them there for non-violent drug offenses. The so-called "war on drugs" begun in the Nixon administration has been a Trillion Dollar Failure. All it has done is explode the prison population to the point where in the United States the number of Americans incarcerated dwarfs that of other nations. Our national failure on drug policy is also racist. "Black men were more than six times as likely as white men to be incarcerated in federal and state prisons, and local jails in 2010," according to the.Pew Research Center The effects of this on our social body of families separated, and non-violent individuals exposed to the horrific conditions of our overcrowded prisons, cannot be exaggerated. From a body theology perspective, one thing we can say for certain is prison is very bad for your body. The American Journal of Public Health has published a study that shows a "two-year decline in life expectancy for every year served inside prison." In fact, we could say our marijuana public policy in almost all states and at the federal level is a public health menace, and that makes it a theological menace, if we value the social body. But, let us not forget about the individual marijuana user. Is it good to smoke pot if it is legal? Is it moral? There are biblical resources to which we can turn in thinking about these questions. Biblically speaking, Jesus and his disciples clearly drank wine, and enjoyed it. In John 2:2ff, the Gospel records that Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana. Matthew (11:19) and Luke (7:34) record Jesus noting that when it comes to drinking wine or eating good food, there is no pleasing "the people of this generation." Jesus observes that people complained about John the Baptist fasting and "drinking no wine," and then turned around and complained when Jesus drinks and eats with people, saying, "Look a glutton and a drunkard!" When it comes to imbibing, in other words, there will clearly always be differences of opinions, even as in Jesus' time. But Jesus showed his disciples that eating and drinking together was a way to celebrate community. But, it is well to remember the instruction of Paul to the Corinthians, that their bodies are "a temple of the Holy Spirit" and thus we should "honor God with our bodies." (1 Cor. 6:19-20). In other words, don't abuse your bodies. In terms of body theology, stimulants or depressants, when taken to excess, have very negative health effects, and they are not a way to honor God and your body. Moderation, however, is a healthy approach to wine-drinking, and, we may come to think, to using "recreational marijuana." A little can be a part of relaxing with friends. In addition, a glass of wine a day is good for the heart, notes the Mayo Clinic, though doctors caution people not to run out and start drinking to excess. Marijuana has medicinal use for cancer patients, as is well known. Does recreational use have any health value? Probably not, especially given that it is often smoked, but marijuana seems not to be the feared gateway drug to becoming an addict either. Beyond recreational use, both wine and marijuana have had religious uses for centuries. Jews, such as Jesus, drank wine in several religious rituals and continue to do so, as do many Christians at Communion. Marijuana use has been part of Hindu ritual in the worship of Shiva, and its religious use "is most widespread today by Rastafarians as a Bible study, and meditation aid." Thus, it can be concluded that the moral goods of using wine or marijuana will depend on the user and his or her individual religious and or ethical convictions. In all instances, however, moderation that respects the well-being of the body is advised. Treating human bodies with decency and respect, however, transcends individual religions, and even opinions, and is a common good. Our laws on marijuana need to reflect this common good. We should legalize recreational marijuana use at the federal level, keep it out of the hands of children and teenagers as we do with alcohol, and release those who have been incarcerated for using marijuana from all our overcrowded prisons. That is only common sense, and common sense is one of the best guides to morality. Follow Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite on Twitter CSP: Green Gold The Tree of Life: Marijuana in Magic and Religion by Chris Bennett, Lynn Osburn, Judy Osburn Studying Marijuana and Its Loftier Purpose Rabbi Ties Jewish Faith to Medical Marijuana Orthodox Rabbi Says Medical Marijuana Is Kosher Studying Marijuana and Its Loftier Purpose USE OF MARIJUANA AS INCENSE Just What The Jewish Doctor Ordered? On Indications of the Hachish-Vice in the OT Sanjay Gupta (ĞαηЈᾱὙ ʃʊpʈα) Using Pot To Save Brains! Ancient Temple Hashish Incense! Did Jesus Inhale? Theoriology is Theoriology Blasphemy and The Tree of Life Ganja Mothers, Ganja Babies Pot can be safely used during pregnancy, and can help with several of the discomforts/problems associated therewith, a fact little known by the medical community, and even much of the herbalist community. Pot while breast-feeding suggests that a baby fed by a lactating marijuana user might be more likely to have a healthy, well-regulated appetite. There are several other studies of the effects of marijuana use on the fetus. None have shown any significant differences in functioning. The 30-day test showed that children of ganja-using mothers were superior to children of non-ganja mothers in two ways: the children had better organization and modulation of sleeping and waking, and they were less prone to stress-related anxiety. Hondreds of testimonials and herbal experts agree that marijuana can alliviate PMS! Punishing "druggie moms" and seizing their children is big business in North America. Pro Life? Not even anti abortionists... The study examined pesticide exposures based on recall by farm families and reported histories of spontaneous abortions among women living on the farms. Switching cotton fields to hemp fields would improve: the quality of our soil, the durability of our clothes, the safety of our ground source water, the quality of our air, and the preservation of forests cut for paper (not to mention saving hundreds of thousands of lives prematurely ended by disease caused by pollution) Cigarettes and alcohol use by pregnant women has adverse effects on the fetus. It is estimated that 3700 children die by the age of one month because of complications during pregnancy. Fetal alcohol syndrome is a leading cause of mental retardation. "From time to time, I say that the suppression of medical marijuana is murder. This is not quite correct. It is actually mass murder. It has caused the deaths of countless thousands of people." ~ the Financial Times Limited, 1998 (Ed. note: The FT is the London equivalent of the Wall Street Journal. This drug could be patented, so it is of interest to the financial community.)
It Is Immoral to Cage Humans for Smoking Marijuana Conor Friedersdorf Jan 6 2014 That's why Colorado and Washington have the most moral drug laws in America right now. Under the law in 48 states, here's what can happen when an adult is thought to possess marijuana: Men with guns can go to his home, kick down his door, force him to lay face down on the floor, restrain him with handcuffs, drive him to a police station, and lock him in a cage. If he is then convicted of possessing marijuana, a judge can order that he be locked in a different cage, perhaps for years. There are times when locking human beings in cages is morally defensible. If, for example, a person commits murder, rape, or assault, transgressing against the rights of others, then forcibly removing him from society is the most just course of action. In contrast, it is immoral to lock people in cages for possessing or ingesting a plant that is smoked by millions every year with no significant harm done, especially when the vast majority of any harm actually done is borne by the smoker. That there are racial disparities in who is sent to prison on marijuana charges is an added injustice that deserves attention. But if blacks and whites were sent to prison on marijuana charges in equal proportion, jail for marijuana would still be immoral. America has used marijuana charges to cage people for so long that it seems unremarkable. The time has come to see the status quo for what it is. A draconian punishment for a victimless crime has been institutionalized and normalized, so much so that even proponents of the policy are blind to its consequences. Commentators are criticizing marijuana policy in Washington and Colorado, where the drug was recently legalized. These commentators aren't willing to put their names on an article stating that human beings who possess or smoke marijuana should be locked in cages among child molesters, gang members, and muggers. Yet they reserve their criticism for states that don't do that. If blacks and whites were sent to prison on marijuana charges in equal proportion, jail for marijuana would still be immoral. Status quo bias has mangled their priorities. Present the American people at large with an individual who admits to having used marijuana and they are more likely to elect him president or to send him to Congress than to suggest that he ought to have been arrested and jailed for his crimes. But a majority of voters in most states, and even a majority of elected officials who've smoked marijuana, continue supporting laws that permit locking various marijuana users in prison among perpetrators of hate crimes and elder abuse. In his recent column on marijuana policy, David Brooks wrote that "many people these days shy away from talk about the moral status of drug use because that would imply that one sort of life you might choose is better than another sort of life." I submit that a more urgent problem is Americans who shy away from talk about the dubious moral status of marijuana prohibition. It is, at its core, an exercise in using people as means to an end. The end is maintaining a stigma against marijuana use. And the means is locking humans in cages with dangerous people. One day, we will look back at that tradeoff in moral horror. The real argument about morality dwr Malc January 7, 2014 “In the United States, drug arrests have tripled in the last 25 years, however most of these arrests have been for simple possession of low-level drugs. In 2005, nearly 43% of all drug arrests were for marijuana offenses. Marijuana possession arrests accounted for 79% of the growth in drug arrests in the 1990s. Nearly a half million people are in state or federal prisons or a local jail for a drug offense, compared to 41,000 in 1980. Most of these people have no history of violence or high-level drug selling activity” – page 4 “With over 5 million people on probation or parole in the United States, drug use on parole or probation has become the primary basis by which thousands of people are returned to prison. These technical violations of parole or probation account for as many as 40% of new prison admissions in some jurisdictions.” – page 6 –Drug Policy, Criminal Justice and Mass Imprisonment, by Bryan Stevenson Noam Chomsky: The Drug War Is the Latest Manifestation Of a Centuries-Old 'Race War' t’s not based on crime,” Chomsky continued. “The device that was used to recriminalize the black population was drugs. The drug wars are fraud — a total fraud. They have nothing to do with drugs, the price of drugs doesn’t change. What the drug war has succeeded in doing is to criminalize the poor. And the poor in the United States happen to be overwhelmingly black and Latino.” Chomsky then made his most explosive statement, claiming that the war on drugs is, in fact, “a race war.” “It’s a race war. Almost entirely, from the first moment, the orders given to the police as to how to deal with drugs were, ‘You don’t go into the suburbs and arrest the white stockbroker sniffing coke in the evening, but you do go into the ghettos, and if a kid has a joint in his pocket, you put him in jail.’ So it starts with police action, not the police themselves, but the orders given to them.” “The black population now — they don’t call it ‘slavery,’ but it’s under conditions of impoverishment and deprivation that are extremely severe, so if you look at the past 400 years of United States history, there have only been about 20 or 30 years of relative freedom for the black population. And that’s a real scar on society. Chris Hayes video about his own experience having to do with class privilege in the drug war. Boy, have times changed! Remember when the drug czar would just put out a press release and all the media would dutifully print the lies? We still have a ways to go, but there are powerful national discussions happening now, and that’s a good thing for us. It was critial to break through the national fog caused by the propaganda of prohibition. ~ Pete Guither dwr Sensible on Weed CN Source: National Review January 06, 2014 Editorial USA — Launching 17 million “Rocky Mountain High” jokes, Colorado has become the first state to make the prudent choice of legalizing the consumption and sale of marijuana, thus dispensing with the charade of medical restrictions and recognizing the fact that, while some people smoke marijuana to counter the effects of chemotherapy, most people smoke marijuana to get high — and that is not the worst thing in the world. Marijuana Access On The Horizon “The anti-marijuana campaign is a cancerous tissue of lies, undermining law enforcement, aggravating the drug problem, depriving the sick of needed help, and suckering well-intentioned conservatives and countless frightened parents. William F. Buckley Requiescat In Pace Commentary in The National Review, April 29, 1983, p. 495 http://i34.tinypic.com/13yqnw1.jpg
