Can Catholics smoke pot? Here are some perspectives to consider

null / Pe3k via Shutterstock.

St. Louis, Mo., Nov 27, 2022 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Twenty-one U.S. states have legalized recreational marijuana over the last decade or so, despite the drug remaining illegal at the federal level. Significantly more states — more than three dozen — have legalized marijuana for medical use. 

The question of whether Catholics can morally use marijuana recreationally is likely to be a topic of conversation in social gatherings this holiday season, especially in Maryland and Missouri, where voters earlier this month approved ballot measures to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

Here’s what you need to know about the Church’s teaching on drugs as well as some perspectives on marijuana from a moral theologian and a Catholic apologist.

What does the Church teach about marijuana?

The Catholic Church’s position on drugs in general, as expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is clear: The use of drugs apart from strictly therapeutic reasons is a “grave offense.” The catechism also states in paragraph 2211 that the political community has a duty to protect the security and health of families, especially concerning drugs. Pope Francis, without mentioning marijuana specifically, has spoken out against even the partial legalization of so-called “soft drugs.”

Though the catechism doesn’t mention marijuana, Catholic leaders in the U.S. and elsewhere have spoken out against its legalization. The Catholic bishops of both Maryland and Missouri urged Catholics to vote against the measures, noting the Church’s teaching on the physical and spiritual harms of drug use and the adverse effects of drugs on society and the family.

Are there spiritual risks to marijuana use?

E. Christian Brugger, a Catholic moral theologian living in Virginia, told CNA that smoking marijuana to get high means putting your use of reason at risk. Human reason is necessary to commune with God and avoid sin, he said. 

“Like intentional drunkenness, getting high is the intentional altering of one’s consciousness. And when a person without necessity, and merely for the sake of pleasure, makes themself less able to use their reason … they do something that’s contrary to virtue,” Brugger said. 

Joe Heschmeyer, a staff apologist at Catholic Answers who has written on the topic of marijuana use, told CNA that he believes — speaking as someone who “has never personally touched marijuana” — that it is possible for people to temperately use small amounts of marijuana, perhaps in gummy form, to moderate anxiety or relax, the same reasons many people permissibly drink alcohol. 

“But if you’re being reckless, or trying to get stoned, that’s wrong,” he noted.

“Whether we’re talking about marijuana or anything else, the question is the same: Is what I’m wanting to do ‘in conformity with right reason’? And losing your reason for fun isn’t in conformity with right reason. And if you’re unsure where that line is, it’s safer to err on the side of caution.”

Is marijuana physically harmful?

Setting aside the purported medicinal or social benefits of marijuana, ample scientific evidence exists on the physical risks of using it, especially for the developing brains of young people. Reports from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) have found that marijuana impairs short-term memory and judgment and distorts perception, meaning it can impair performance in school or at work and make it dangerous to drive. 

Marijuana also affects brain systems that are still maturing through young adulthood, NIDA says, so regular use by teens may have negative and long-lasting effects on their cognitive development. Marijuana use is also associated with an increased risk of alcohol use disorders, nicotine dependence, marijuana use disorder, and other drug use disorders, NIDA found. 

Brugger said the fact that marijuana is physically harmful certainly makes it “something to avoid, unless there’s a good reason.”

The societal effects of legal marijuana are also not to be ignored. Colorado, which was one of the first states to legalize recreational weed in 2012, has seen demonstrably higher rates of teen marijuana usage, traffic accidents, homelessness, and drug-related violence since legalization. 

Research has also shown that pregnant women who use marijuana have a 2.3 times greater risk of stillbirth.

What about decriminalization?

Some people support the legalization of marijuana as part of a program of criminal justice reform, arguing that the harsh penalties imposed for marijuana possession have disproportionately affected nonviolent offenders, especially those belonging to minority groups. 

Brugger said there is “nothing suspect or inappropriate” about criticizing how people have been treated in the criminal justice system for marijuana offenses. That being said, “one can certainly criticize it without the need to destigmatize marijuana use entirely.” Catholics could advocate for lesser penalties for possession, he said, but making it entirely legal will likely lead to much greater widespread use. A “culture of sin that arises from inebriation is almost certain to increase following legalization,” Brugger said. 

For his part, Heschmeyer warned about the unintended consequences of overregulation of a societal vice like marijuana and said he believes Catholics can support its decriminalization. 

“Thomas Aquinas argues that it’s not the proper role of the government to outlaw all vice … One of Aquinas’ worries is that when you overregulate, you end up creating greater harms than you’re trying to solve,” Heschmeyer explained.

“That was certainly the case for Prohibition in the United States, where the attempt to stamp out the vice of drunkenness inadvertently helped to [empower organized crime]. And I think it’s proven true as well with the fight against marijuana. It hasn’t eradicated the usage (or even the abuse) of the drug, but it has meant arrest, imprisonment, and criminal records for a lot of nonviolent offenders … and created a lucrative black market for drug cartels.”

Seeking virtue, avoiding scandal

Brugger and Heschmeyer both urged Catholics to be cautious, for the sake of those around them, about appearing to endorse marijuana use. 

“[E]ven if something is morally permissible, it might be better for you to personally abstain from it as an act of charity to your loved ones,” Heschmeyer noted. 

Legalization sends the message — especially for young people — that marijuana is safe and socially acceptable. Brugger said legalizing a “method of inebriation” that youth will take advantage of “can hardly lead to greater self-mastery and virtue.”

Legality is in some sense irrelevant to whether a thing is morally upright, Brugger said, and Catholics should be mindful of the example they are setting for others.

“We have an obligation to be a witness to the good and to Christ and to purity of heart and virtuous actions,” Brugger noted, adding that even if someone doubts the other arguments, the danger of scandal is something every Catholic should bear in mind.