Is It Morally Licit to Smoke Pot?
Oct 20, 2018 14:38:17 #
10/17/2018 Is It Morally Licit to Smoke Pot? (Part 1)
E. Christian Brugge
http://m.ncregister.com/blog/christianbrugger/is-it-morally-licit-to-smoke-pot
DIFFICULT MORAL QUESTIONS: Although it is sometimes morally licit to smoke pot for purposes of healing, it is never licit to smoke it to get high.
Q. Pot smoking is legal in my state. I know pot is a bridge drug to other worse drugs.
But I was wondering if occasionally smoking it is okay.
My parish priest says there’s nothing wrong with it, so long as I don’t get dependent.
What do you think? Thanks, Rahl.
I think your priest’s advice is misguided.
The simple answer to the title question is:
Although it is sometimes morally licit to smoke pot for purposes of healing, it is never licit to smoke it to get high.
YES
“Brain Altering Substances” (BAS)
Medicine uses the term “therapeutic” to refer to something related to facilitating good physical or psychological functioning.
Using BAS for therapeutic reasons is using them to obtain real human goods.
But most BAS also have harmful effects, which mustn’t be the reason we choose them. In the words of moral theology, we mustn’t intend those effects as ends or means.
We all use BAS sometimes for therapeutic reasons, and many of us use them daily. We drink a cup of coffee or cola for an energy boost;
We have a glass of wine to calm feelings of stress after a long day at work;
We take antidepressants to ameliorate blue mood, or melatonin or Ambien to help quiet the sleep centers in our brain;
We take analgesics to assist with back pain;
And occasionally we take very powerful narcotics such as morphine to help relieve severe pain.
Each of these can be done quite innocently, as each can be a way of realizing genuine human goods.
Marijuana is a BAS, which too, doctors tell us, can have therapeutic effects. Physicians sometimes prescribe it to aid discomfort from headaches, cancer, glaucoma or nerve pain.
But ingesting it also has bad affects.
Moral Norm
I may use a BAS — whether Advil, pot or morphine — for therapeutic reasons if two conditions are met:
a. First, I intend only the therapeutic effect:
My intended end is healing, my intended means is the substance’s ameliorating mechanisms, and I merely tolerate — as unintended side effects — the harms caused by using it;
b. Second, there must be no other reason for me not to use it.
What are other reasons not to use a BAS (including pot) therapeutically?
Whenever using it would be contrary to another moral obligation:
For example, such use is illegal where I live; or it places me in a near occasion of sin (e.g., I cannot use it with clinical moderation because of an addiction);
Or the unintended bad side-effects from using it would be manifestly disproportionate to the benefits;
Or it would unfairly harm someone else, for example, I’m a father and my therapeutic pot smoking is likely to influence my teenage son to think drug use in general is okay.
Church Teaching
These two elements — therapeutic use and fidelity to moral obligations — are noted in the teaching of Pope Pius XII on using paink**lers.
He taught:
“The Christian, then, is never obliged to accept pain for its own sake. …
The patient, anxious to avoid or calm the pain, can in good conscience make use of the means discovered by science and that in themselves are not immoral.”
In this way, the Pope continues, “he is seeking, in accord with the ordinance of the Creator, to bring suffering under man’s control.”
He goes on to say, however, that a person has an obligation not to seek to relieve suffering “whenever he is faced with the unavoidable alternative of enduring suffering or acting contrary to a moral obligation, either by an action or omission”
(Responses to three questions regarding analgesia, 1957).
https://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/es/speeches/1957/documents/hf_p-xii_spe_19570224_anestesiologia.html
NO Abusing BAS:
Some people use BAS, including pot, not for therapeutic reasons, but in order to alter their consciousness for the sake of the experience of the altered state itself — to get high.
Since the highness it causes, however pleasurable, is a bad effect, to intend it as an end or means is to intend harm myself (and to others if I support them in getting high).
This is never morally legitimate.
Why is highness a bad effect?
Because it entails an alteration and impairment of my sensory, rational and volitional faculties, making it more difficult for me to understand things clearly and to choose well.
Although I may tolerate such impairment as a side-effect of taking BAS for therapeutic reasons, to will it for its own sake is wrongful.
One might reply:
But when I get high, I do it for the pleasure it brings me.
Isn’t a pleasurable experience self-justifying?
No, pleasure of itself is no justification — is not a reason — for acting.
Pleasure is good if it arises from the pursuit of real human goods and bad if it arises from what harms human goods.
(Think of the pleasure of an athlete versus the pleasure of a sex trafficker.)
Since the pleasure experienced in pot smoking arises from something harmful to us, it is wrong to seek.
Moreover, ingesting marijuana is harmful to our mind and body in a host of other ways.
The NIH website lists the following:
https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/marijuana
a. Worsens memory, learning, problem-solving and verbal ability; impairs body movements; increases anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and causes loss of IQ points if heavy use begins in teens;
b. Causes hallucinations, delusions, paranoia and psychosis (from long-term use); leads to a decline in academic and career success;
c. Increases job absences, accidents and injuries; acts as a “gateway drug” to harder drugs; leads to lower life satisfaction.
Presumably pot smokers do not intend any of these effects; they only want to get high.
But we’ve already shown that this is a bad effect.
Therefore, getting high is not a reason to smoke pot, but a reason not to.
Add to this the many other harms caused by ingesting the THC found in marijuana, and we end up with several reasons not to smoke pot to get high.
(End Part 1)
E. Christian Brugge
http://m.ncregister.com/blog/christianbrugger/is-it-morally-licit-to-smoke-pot
DIFFICULT MORAL QUESTIONS: Although it is sometimes morally licit to smoke pot for purposes of healing, it is never licit to smoke it to get high.
Q. Pot smoking is legal in my state. I know pot is a bridge drug to other worse drugs.
But I was wondering if occasionally smoking it is okay.
My parish priest says there’s nothing wrong with it, so long as I don’t get dependent.
What do you think? Thanks, Rahl.
I think your priest’s advice is misguided.
The simple answer to the title question is:
Although it is sometimes morally licit to smoke pot for purposes of healing, it is never licit to smoke it to get high.
YES
“Brain Altering Substances” (BAS)
Medicine uses the term “therapeutic” to refer to something related to facilitating good physical or psychological functioning.
Using BAS for therapeutic reasons is using them to obtain real human goods.
But most BAS also have harmful effects, which mustn’t be the reason we choose them. In the words of moral theology, we mustn’t intend those effects as ends or means.
We all use BAS sometimes for therapeutic reasons, and many of us use them daily. We drink a cup of coffee or cola for an energy boost;
We have a glass of wine to calm feelings of stress after a long day at work;
We take antidepressants to ameliorate blue mood, or melatonin or Ambien to help quiet the sleep centers in our brain;
We take analgesics to assist with back pain;
And occasionally we take very powerful narcotics such as morphine to help relieve severe pain.
Each of these can be done quite innocently, as each can be a way of realizing genuine human goods.
Marijuana is a BAS, which too, doctors tell us, can have therapeutic effects. Physicians sometimes prescribe it to aid discomfort from headaches, cancer, glaucoma or nerve pain.
But ingesting it also has bad affects.
Moral Norm
I may use a BAS — whether Advil, pot or morphine — for therapeutic reasons if two conditions are met:
a. First, I intend only the therapeutic effect:
My intended end is healing, my intended means is the substance’s ameliorating mechanisms, and I merely tolerate — as unintended side effects — the harms caused by using it;
b. Second, there must be no other reason for me not to use it.
What are other reasons not to use a BAS (including pot) therapeutically?
Whenever using it would be contrary to another moral obligation:
For example, such use is illegal where I live; or it places me in a near occasion of sin (e.g., I cannot use it with clinical moderation because of an addiction);
Or the unintended bad side-effects from using it would be manifestly disproportionate to the benefits;
Or it would unfairly harm someone else, for example, I’m a father and my therapeutic pot smoking is likely to influence my teenage son to think drug use in general is okay.
Church Teaching
These two elements — therapeutic use and fidelity to moral obligations — are noted in the teaching of Pope Pius XII on using paink**lers.
He taught:
“The Christian, then, is never obliged to accept pain for its own sake. …
The patient, anxious to avoid or calm the pain, can in good conscience make use of the means discovered by science and that in themselves are not immoral.”
In this way, the Pope continues, “he is seeking, in accord with the ordinance of the Creator, to bring suffering under man’s control.”
He goes on to say, however, that a person has an obligation not to seek to relieve suffering “whenever he is faced with the unavoidable alternative of enduring suffering or acting contrary to a moral obligation, either by an action or omission”
(Responses to three questions regarding analgesia, 1957).
https://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/es/speeches/1957/documents/hf_p-xii_spe_19570224_anestesiologia.html
NO Abusing BAS:
Some people use BAS, including pot, not for therapeutic reasons, but in order to alter their consciousness for the sake of the experience of the altered state itself — to get high.
Since the highness it causes, however pleasurable, is a bad effect, to intend it as an end or means is to intend harm myself (and to others if I support them in getting high).
This is never morally legitimate.
Why is highness a bad effect?
Because it entails an alteration and impairment of my sensory, rational and volitional faculties, making it more difficult for me to understand things clearly and to choose well.
Although I may tolerate such impairment as a side-effect of taking BAS for therapeutic reasons, to will it for its own sake is wrongful.
One might reply:
But when I get high, I do it for the pleasure it brings me.
Isn’t a pleasurable experience self-justifying?
No, pleasure of itself is no justification — is not a reason — for acting.
Pleasure is good if it arises from the pursuit of real human goods and bad if it arises from what harms human goods.
(Think of the pleasure of an athlete versus the pleasure of a sex trafficker.)
Since the pleasure experienced in pot smoking arises from something harmful to us, it is wrong to seek.
Moreover, ingesting marijuana is harmful to our mind and body in a host of other ways.
The NIH website lists the following:
https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/marijuana
a. Worsens memory, learning, problem-solving and verbal ability; impairs body movements; increases anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and causes loss of IQ points if heavy use begins in teens;
b. Causes hallucinations, delusions, paranoia and psychosis (from long-term use); leads to a decline in academic and career success;
c. Increases job absences, accidents and injuries; acts as a “gateway drug” to harder drugs; leads to lower life satisfaction.
Presumably pot smokers do not intend any of these effects; they only want to get high.
But we’ve already shown that this is a bad effect.
Therefore, getting high is not a reason to smoke pot, but a reason not to.
Add to this the many other harms caused by ingesting the THC found in marijuana, and we end up with several reasons not to smoke pot to get high.
(End Part 1)
Oct 20, 2018 14:39:20 #
10/17/2018 Is It Morally Licit to Smoke Pot? (Part 2)
E. Christian Brugge
http://m.ncregister.com/blog/christianbrugger/is-it-morally-licit-to-smoke-pot
Harms to Friendship
Moral theologian Germain Grisez provides (here, see question F, No. 5) another reason.
www.twotlj.org/G-2-8-F.html
He argues that any use of BAS precisely for the sake of the experience itself is harmful to our relationships.
We take the BAS to alter our conscious experience.
But our consciousness is affected only by first affecting our brain and nervous system.
We therefore use our bodies as an instrument — a mere means — for achieving a desirable state of consciousness.
If the brain effect were merely tolerated in order to heal ourselves — the bodily-spiritual unity that we are — then the act could be self-integrating.
But we don’t tolerate it to realize any human good; we act for it.
We seek the subjective experience, an experience that is incommunicable to any other person, even though we might prefer enjoying it in the midst of people.
In this way, we act not for the sake of our unified selves, but in a way that sets one dimension of ourselves (our consciousness) against another (our body).
Instrumentalizing our body in this way is self-alienating.
To enter into human communion — friendship in its various forms — I must have the capacity to give myself, integrated and unalienated, to other people.
But seeking the subjective experience damages my capacity to give myself to others.
And therefore it damages my pursuit of friendship, which is a basic human good.
Think of the relational mixed signals we get from stoners or alcohol abusers (effusively affectionate, coldly taciturn, unreasonably evasive, bitterly critical, dangerously amorous, pugnacious, etc.).
Even when they’re not inebriated, we learn not to trust their relational responses. This is because they lack integrity.
What About for Relaxation?
If it’s okay to drink a glass of wine to calm my feelings of stress after work, why not smoke pot for the same reason?
There are two things to say here.
a. First, to not be intending harm to myself, getting high must be no part of my motive for ingesting the marijuana.
Only relaxation.
But I expect this is usually counterfactual.
How many recreational pot smokers puff a joint or toke a bong with no interest in getting high?
Perhaps some. But I expect very few.
b. Second, even for this small population, it would usually always be wrong to smoke pot since there are other reasonable alternatives for relaxation without the harmful effects of ingesting THC:
e.g., lighting a candle and sitting in a hot tub, enjoying a glass of wine with a nice meal; quiet prayer; yoga; meditation; biofeedback; deep breathing; listening to calming music; massage; progressive muscle relaxation; visualization; aromatherapy.
Add to this that my smoking must not be an occasion of scandal to anyone,
Or a failure to bear Christian witness to the Gospel, or not contribute to the moral license that today surrounds pot smoking.
And the cases in which smoking pot to relax would be morally licit are extremely rare if not practically non-existent.
(EndPart 2)
E. Christian Brugge
http://m.ncregister.com/blog/christianbrugger/is-it-morally-licit-to-smoke-pot
Harms to Friendship
Moral theologian Germain Grisez provides (here, see question F, No. 5) another reason.
www.twotlj.org/G-2-8-F.html
He argues that any use of BAS precisely for the sake of the experience itself is harmful to our relationships.
We take the BAS to alter our conscious experience.
But our consciousness is affected only by first affecting our brain and nervous system.
We therefore use our bodies as an instrument — a mere means — for achieving a desirable state of consciousness.
If the brain effect were merely tolerated in order to heal ourselves — the bodily-spiritual unity that we are — then the act could be self-integrating.
But we don’t tolerate it to realize any human good; we act for it.
We seek the subjective experience, an experience that is incommunicable to any other person, even though we might prefer enjoying it in the midst of people.
In this way, we act not for the sake of our unified selves, but in a way that sets one dimension of ourselves (our consciousness) against another (our body).
Instrumentalizing our body in this way is self-alienating.
To enter into human communion — friendship in its various forms — I must have the capacity to give myself, integrated and unalienated, to other people.
But seeking the subjective experience damages my capacity to give myself to others.
And therefore it damages my pursuit of friendship, which is a basic human good.
Think of the relational mixed signals we get from stoners or alcohol abusers (effusively affectionate, coldly taciturn, unreasonably evasive, bitterly critical, dangerously amorous, pugnacious, etc.).
Even when they’re not inebriated, we learn not to trust their relational responses. This is because they lack integrity.
What About for Relaxation?
If it’s okay to drink a glass of wine to calm my feelings of stress after work, why not smoke pot for the same reason?
There are two things to say here.
a. First, to not be intending harm to myself, getting high must be no part of my motive for ingesting the marijuana.
Only relaxation.
But I expect this is usually counterfactual.
How many recreational pot smokers puff a joint or toke a bong with no interest in getting high?
Perhaps some. But I expect very few.
b. Second, even for this small population, it would usually always be wrong to smoke pot since there are other reasonable alternatives for relaxation without the harmful effects of ingesting THC:
e.g., lighting a candle and sitting in a hot tub, enjoying a glass of wine with a nice meal; quiet prayer; yoga; meditation; biofeedback; deep breathing; listening to calming music; massage; progressive muscle relaxation; visualization; aromatherapy.
Add to this that my smoking must not be an occasion of scandal to anyone,
Or a failure to bear Christian witness to the Gospel, or not contribute to the moral license that today surrounds pot smoking.
And the cases in which smoking pot to relax would be morally licit are extremely rare if not practically non-existent.
(EndPart 2)
Oct 20, 2018 14:51:22 #
Doc110 wrote:
10/17/2018 Is It Morally Licit to Smoke Pot? (Par... (show quote)
Point?
Can we chop it up into bite sized pieces?
Oct 20, 2018 14:52:29 #
Oct 20, 2018 14:54:21 #
Doc110 wrote:
10/17/2018 Is It Morally Licit to Smoke Pot? (Par... (show quote)
C.S. Lewis spoke a bit about this in Mere Christianity. I'll quote Solomon.
Ecclesiastes 7: 16
"Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise-- why destroy yourself?"
Oct 20, 2018 14:55:18 #
Oct 20, 2018 14:55:44 #
Doc110 wrote:
Yes it is chewable
Excellent! Your point is "do we allow or no?" No?
Oct 20, 2018 15:06:06 #
Freewill my friend, It's all freewill.
It's a “Brain Altering Substances” (BAS)
I like to keep my head and brain free from any drug, period.
A good home cooked meal, and a good desert, thats all I need.
I drink coffee 2 or three times a week, and as Judge Kavanagh said, "I like Beer."
I have a Molson Golden Ale or a Guinness Draft beer once or twice a week and or a shot of Bailies in my coffee.
The THC percentage content is much higher but the smoke tar is more dangerous than smoking cigarettes.
That's a different topic all together.
Have you ever tried to stop someone hellbent on doing stupid things ?
You cant fix stupid.
In the Navy we were able to control alcoholics with taking Antibuse it would make the person vomit when ingesting alcohol.
Substance abuse, pot e.g. drugs were dealt with drug testing on urine samples and now mouth swabs.
At the Nuclear Power Plant we did mass spectrometry.
Unless it was prescribed by a Doctor we caught everyone doing drugs.
It's a “Brain Altering Substances” (BAS)
I like to keep my head and brain free from any drug, period.
A good home cooked meal, and a good desert, thats all I need.
I drink coffee 2 or three times a week, and as Judge Kavanagh said, "I like Beer."
I have a Molson Golden Ale or a Guinness Draft beer once or twice a week and or a shot of Bailies in my coffee.
The THC percentage content is much higher but the smoke tar is more dangerous than smoking cigarettes.
That's a different topic all together.
Have you ever tried to stop someone hellbent on doing stupid things ?
You cant fix stupid.
In the Navy we were able to control alcoholics with taking Antibuse it would make the person vomit when ingesting alcohol.
Substance abuse, pot e.g. drugs were dealt with drug testing on urine samples and now mouth swabs.
At the Nuclear Power Plant we did mass spectrometry.
Unless it was prescribed by a Doctor we caught everyone doing drugs.
Oct 20, 2018 15:10:35 #
Doc110 wrote:
Freewill my friend, It's all freewill. br br It's... (show quote)
Question:
Does God allow?
Answer:?
Oct 20, 2018 15:11:43 #
I'm not questioning you as much as asking questions for those who don't know how to.
Oct 20, 2018 15:24:05 #
Mike for Native Americans, they use medicinal drugs, it's in their culture. Pot, mushrooms etc.
Who am I to judge.
Why did God make these drugs ?
Who am I to judge.
Why did God make these drugs ?
BigMike wrote:
I'm not questioning you as much as asking questions for those who don't know how to.
I'm not questioning you as much as asking questions for those who don't know how to.
Oct 20, 2018 16:51:34 #
Doc110 wrote:
Mike for Native Americans, they use medicinal drugs, it's in their culture. Pot, mushrooms etc.
Who am I to judge.
Why did God make these drugs ?
Who am I to judge.
Why did God make these drugs ?
Proverbs 31: 6-9
6 Alcohol is for the dying,
and wine for those in bitter distress.
7 Let them drink to forget their poverty
and remember their troubles no more.
8 Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;
ensure justice for those being crushed.
9 Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless,
and see that they get justice.
God knows why people use wh**ever...better than we know why. He put the stuff here for those who need it.
He gave free will to those who misuse it. Simple as that.
God also doesn't like us using addicts as a commodity in our prison system.
Oct 20, 2018 17:05:07 #
Mike,
Everything in moderation. food, and drink.
Jesus drank wine wedding Feast of Cana.
The last Supper on Holy Thursday. etc.
Paul says to 1 Timothy 5:23 Stop drinking only water and use a little wine instead.
What does Paul mean when he says to not let anyone judge us in regard to keeping the Sabbath?
Ezekiel 45:17
Colossians 2:16
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
The Colossian heretics had introduced various man-made prohibitions—such as “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle.”
(Colossians 2:21)
Against the enjoyment of physical things. They especially objected to the pleasurable aspects of God’s festivals—the eating and drinking aspects—that are commanded in the Scriptures.
(Deuteronomy 12:17-18).
When Paul wrote, “… Let no one judge you in food”
(Colossians 2:16)
He wasn’t discussing what types of foods they should or should not eat.
The Greek word brosis, t***slated “food,” refers not to the kinds of foods one should or should not eat, but to “the act of eating,”
(Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1985, “Food”).
The point is that the deceivers disdained feasting—any type of eating and drinking for enjoyment.
Paul instructed the Colossians Christians not to be influenced by these false teachers’ objections to eating, drinking and rejoicing on Sabbaths, feast days and new moons.
Now back to Paul’s main point:
The Colossian deceivers had no authority to judge or determine how the Colossians were to observe God’s festivals.
That is why Paul said, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days”
(Colossians 2:16-17
Notice that Paul tells them to reject false human judgment, not the judgment of God found in the Scriptures
Everything in moderation. food, and drink.
Jesus drank wine wedding Feast of Cana.
The last Supper on Holy Thursday. etc.
Paul says to 1 Timothy 5:23 Stop drinking only water and use a little wine instead.
What does Paul mean when he says to not let anyone judge us in regard to keeping the Sabbath?
Ezekiel 45:17
Colossians 2:16
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
The Colossian heretics had introduced various man-made prohibitions—such as “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle.”
(Colossians 2:21)
Against the enjoyment of physical things. They especially objected to the pleasurable aspects of God’s festivals—the eating and drinking aspects—that are commanded in the Scriptures.
(Deuteronomy 12:17-18).
When Paul wrote, “… Let no one judge you in food”
(Colossians 2:16)
He wasn’t discussing what types of foods they should or should not eat.
The Greek word brosis, t***slated “food,” refers not to the kinds of foods one should or should not eat, but to “the act of eating,”
(Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1985, “Food”).
The point is that the deceivers disdained feasting—any type of eating and drinking for enjoyment.
Paul instructed the Colossians Christians not to be influenced by these false teachers’ objections to eating, drinking and rejoicing on Sabbaths, feast days and new moons.
Now back to Paul’s main point:
The Colossian deceivers had no authority to judge or determine how the Colossians were to observe God’s festivals.
That is why Paul said, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days”
(Colossians 2:16-17
Notice that Paul tells them to reject false human judgment, not the judgment of God found in the Scriptures
BigMike wrote:
Proverbs 31: 6-9 br br 6 Alcohol is for the dying... (show quote)
Oct 20, 2018 17:37:20 #
Doc110 wrote:
Mike, br br Everything in moderation. food, and ... (show quote)
Yep. People like to make rules that make them look good.
Oct 20, 2018 17:40:07 #
Beware the questioner or the objector !
BigMike wrote:
Yep. People like to make rules that make them look good.
Yep. People like to make rules that make them look good.
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