We go now to Jim in Brighton, Michigan, listening on Ave Maria Radio, Jim, you’re on with
Jimmy Akin.
Hey, thanks for taking my call.
I have not heard a whole lot—we’re in Michigan, and I assume it’s gonna be on
the ballot here about legalization of marijuana—but also the medical marijuana exists here in
our state, and I don’t see a lot of response or any kind of, well, opinion from the Church—maybe
they’re not putting it out yet, but is there a position at this point from the Catholic
Church yet on these two areas?
On medical marijuana and recreational marijuana, and should they be allowed legally?
Well, I should say, does the Church have a position on them?
For example, if I was a patient that had some type of illness where my doctor said, “You
should be consuming marijuana,” is that acceptable within the Church?
Okay.
Well, so, assuming that your doctor is right, yeah.
I mean, now, in assessing that somebody should be pursuing a particular course of treatment,
there need to be several facts that are verified: number one, that there’s a genuine condition,
medical condition that the person has; number two, that this treatment will effectively
address it; number three, that there aren’t better alternatives, such as alternatives
that are more effective or less expensive or have fewer side effects.
But assuming that those conditions are fulfilled, then…the medical advice is sound, and the
Church doesn’t have a problem with sound medical advice.
Now there’s a question, when it comes to marijuana, about, well, how effective is it,
and what conditions might it be appropriate for?
It is obviously a substance that affects the way your mind works, but there are lots of
substances that do that; I mean, morphine does that, and doctors give patients morphine
all the time, because it’s a pain reliever and there are conditions in which you need
serious pain relief.
And so morphine has some side effects, but there are situations where it’s appropriate
to use morphine; and in the same way, hypothetically, there could be situations where the medical
use of marijuana is appropriate.
However, because the medical marijuana movement in this country has been part of a broader
movement towards pushing for its recreational use, there’s some question about, well,
how effective is it, really?
Is this just a cover for recreational use?
And that’s something that is—whether there are legitimate uses for it medically—is
an empirical question.
And it’s one that, I’m not a doctor, I haven’t studied the evidence, I can’t
give you an opinion on that.
I can sketch out the principles that are involved in when use of a treatment, including a narcotic,
is appropriate; but then there are appropriate situations, medically, for the use of narcotics—like
morphine, to mention just one.
In terms of recreational use, the problem there is that…when people use marijuana
or alcohol or anything in a way that deprives them of their ability to make moral decisions,
then they are—and they’re doing it just for fun, not because there’s a compelling
reason, like “I need to have surgery,” but they’re doing it just for fun, and they’re
depriving themselves of the capacity for moral reason—that’s something that, of itself,
is sinful because it puts you in the proximate occasion of committing sins, potentially even
grave sins; like when a person gets drunk on alcohol and goes out driving, okay.
That would be an example.
In terms of marijuana, I’m not aware of a specific position paper that’s been taken
on this; however, the Church, in general, opposes the legalization of recreational use
of narcotics.
And so that’s the calculus that would likely be applied in this situation.
Now there can be situations where a law, even though it’s a good idea in principle, could
be producing really bad effects in society; for example, when the United States tried
to outlaw alcohol, you know, in almost all circumstances, during prohibition.
That produced some really negative consequences, including the rise of organized crime.
And so…now, the use of alcohol is not, in principle, problematic, as long as it’s
used in moderation; but the United States experienced the problems of a law that a lot
of people thought had a good moral justification, but it had really bad consequences and ended
up getting repealed.
So the question of legalization of recreational use of marijuana, or any other narcotic, is
something the Church is going to be opposed to in principle; however, if there were really
horrendous problems being caused by it, then there could be some discussion of that question.
We’ll have to leave it there, Jim.
I hope that was helpful.