MARIJUANA

Living in Humboldt County, USA is a constant reminder of the issues around marijuana use, and the industry behind it. Several of my friends are users, and some of them for no medical reason whatsoever. I know a few who grow and some who sell. And I am a pastor in a United Methodist Church, usually not the best connected to the marijuana community!

There are many questions related to its use that spiritual people are right to ponder:

First, there is a near-universal tendency of the human family to find pharmacological substances in nature and to use them with sometimes wisdom, and sometimes excess. Virtually every ancient culture has discovered and used substances in their environment to alter feelings of emotion, pain, and lethargy. From these we get most of our modern drug therapies and, of course, also the drug problems. This ranges from aspirin and caffeine to coca and opium.

Second, in the Jewish tradition there is a place for an occasional light buzz from alcohol as a tool of celebration, as you can see in my earlier blog on drinking. This can be easily transferred over to marijuana use, or other rather benign substances.

Third, excess in the Jewish Bible is condemned as damaging to life and to others. My big concern for non-medical marijuana use is around this topic. How often have you heard a frequent user brag on the non-addictive properties of marijuana? This is hard to hear from someone using it three times a day, or even three times a week. Deep breathing and exercise and play and reading and so many other things alter us for good without the downsides of drug use, and without requiring drug use. It is hard to admit when we have let ourselves slip into a dependency, and pot is a great one to suck us in.

On the legality issues, I always favor public acknowledgement and public tracking. With cigarettes legal, we can track the trade, tax it, watch for labor and producer abuse, and even use its income to seek to limit its use. With current marijuana law, none of that can happen. Many times you hear pot users compare its use to alcohol favorably. I understand, but those involved in alcohol production can be held to account and contribute to the public good whether they want to or not, and that is a fully appropriate societal demand. Anti marijuana laws have done much harm to individuals, and have produced very little benefit.

As to medical use, pot has some real benefit to those who have digestion problems and need palliative medical care. This seems to be an obvious place for support from the spiritual community at large.

Am I pot user? Nope. Have I ever inhaled? Yes, the last time was 34 years ago. Why not now? I love being alive, in touch with my ups and downs, and I don’t need help except from friendships, family, nature, and physical and mental work.

Do I have any … ANY interest in condemning others for pot use? Not a puff. Oh, forgive me for that. But do I hope my friends can do without, or use it very rarely, or use it in a nation with more sensible legal structures? Yes, and I’m not just puffing smoke.

(Oooh, am I going to get it for the puns)

Do well---