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Major Religious Denominations Increase Pressure on Congress for Medical Marijuana
DRCNet | 6/18/04

Six major religious denominations have joined the fray over medical marijuana in the US Congress. In letters sent out to targeted congressmen and women this week by the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative (http://www.idpi.us), the churches are calling on Congress to end the Bush administration's persecution of medical marijuana patients. The letters target representatives belonging to the six denominations, and while they delineate the positions adopted by each of the denominations, each letter leads with the position of the targeted representative's own church.

The United Methodist Church's General Board of Church and Society, the Progressive National Baptist Convention, and the Unitarian Universalist Association have all signed on to a statement proclaiming that "seriously ill people should not be subject to criminal sanctions for using marijuana if the patient's physician has told the patient that such use is likely to be beneficial," IDPI reported. The Union for Reform Judaism, the Episcopal Church, and the United Church of Christ have all adopted similar position statements. Two other major denominations, the Evangelical Lutherans and the Presbyterians, while not adopting specific statements on medical marijuana, have signed a 2002 statement calling for a broad array of drug policy reforms consistent with support for medical marijuana.

"The politicians who oppose medical marijuana often make 'morality' arguments," said Charles Thomas, IDPI's executive director. "Yet six major denominations advocate legal medical marijuana, and no denominations have taken a position against it. Where did these politicians get their concepts of morality?"

Not from the holy writings, suggested Rabbi Peter Schaktman, president of the Greater New York Council of Reform Synagogues, which is in turn part of the Union of Reform Judaism, one of the denominations that has pronounced in favor of medical marijuana. "We are in the morality business," he told DRCNet. "At least in Jewish tradition, the duty to heal the sick and alleviate suffering is very much a moral issue. We've come to realize that when medical marijuana can be used in an appropriate fashion, it is probably immoral not to allow it to be so used," he said. "The relief of suffering and alleviation of pain is a very high value; our duty is to do whatever we can to comfort and cure the sick."

According to IDPI, one thing that Congress can do is pass a bill that would prohibit the use of federal funds to arrest and prosecute medical marijuana patients and providers in those states where it is legal under state law. Last year, a similar bill, the Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment, named after its initial sponsors, Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), failed to pass. This year, the bill is likely to be introduced as an amendment to the Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill.

"Medical marijuana is an issue of mercy," said Thomas. "Being seriously ill is stressful enough already. Patients who follow their doctors' advice to use marijuana shouldn't have to live in constant fear of arrest and jail. It is the duty of religious denominations to stand up for vulnerable people who are being wronged. We pray that Congress will have the compassion to stop the Bush Administration's War on Patients."

"The facts show that the plant has medicinal uses," said the Rev. Greg Stewart of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Nevada, "especially for people with HIV/AIDS, as well as other diseases. There is real relief for people who cannot find relief any other way, and that ought to be the government's priority. It is certainly the church's priority, and we need to take the lead instead of supporting the current regime," he told DRCNet. "If the church does not stand up for people unable to stand up for themselves, who will? As we have seen, certainly not the government."

Rev. Stewart's position is grounded in a deeper critique of drug policy. "This war on drugs has been dragging on for years and it hasn't been effective and it may even stimulate drug use, particularly among teens and young adults," he argued. "Personally, I would rather see a system of legalization, where there could be some accountability about how it is distributed. There are many of us looking for very intentional and wide-reaching reforms of these laws."

The letter to members of Congress is notable for the presence of the nation's largest African American denomination. "We got the Progressive National Baptist Convention to sign on," Thomas said. "This is the denomination Martin Luther King belonged to, this is Jesse Jackson's church, and the convention is still one of the main social justice-oriented denominations in the country," he pointed out.

And with it, they got the powerful rhetoric of the Rev. Dr. Arnold W. Howard of the Enon Baptist Church in Baltimore. In remarks prepared for a Baltimore press conference, the reverend constructed an elaborate metaphor of society addicted to the war on drugs, then drove it home: "Just like an addict can spiral out of control and begin to exhibit bizarre behavior, the federal government, in a despicable show of bravado to maintain this drug war addiction, is even arresting legitimate seriously ill patients who use medical marijuana with the approval of their doctor," he said. "The drug war mongers are in denial. They come out every year with a drug war battle plan that is basically the same as the year before. My brothers and sisters, it is time for an intervention," Rev. Howard declaimed.

"It's time to intervene in this war and share a compelling vision of policies that abstain from the addictive and damaging habits of punishment and coercion," Rev. Howard continued. "I understand that total abstinence from punitive approaches to drugs is not ready to be fully embraced by the powers that be." Still, he said, the church has "a moral imperative" to fight the "unconscionable excesses" of the drug war, first among them the attacks on medical marijuana. "If we are going to have a war on drugs, can we at least remove the sick and dying from the battlefield? Marijuana provides symptom relief for people suffering from the effects of chemotherapy, AIDS Wasting syndrome, multiple sclerosis, sickle cell anemia and other serious illnesses. If a doctor and a patient decide that marijuana is the best medicine for them, let's have some mercy on these people."

Some 180 legislators are receiving the lobbying letters, Thomas said. "Building support for medical marijuana among religious denominations and channeling it into specific federal legislative efforts already underway by different reform groups is one of our top priorities," he added. The group is also working on Higher Education Act and federal mandatory minimum sentence reform this summer, Thomas said. In the fall, IDPI will turn its focus to the states.

"Ultimately," said Thomas, "medical marijuana is an issue of mercy. It is the duty of religious denominations to stand up for people who are seriously ill and already suffering enough without having to live with the constant fear of being arrested. In Christianity, Jesus broke the law of his day by healing people on the Sabbath," Thomas said. "And as Martin Luther King said, when the law is unjust, it is no law at all."

__________________
"I believe in the near future, the government will use anti-drug hysteria to set up a police state."
-author William S. Burroughs, 1947

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Higher Self

It's nice to see formalized religions WAKE UP to the REALITIES of the INSANITIES that have been created over the FALSE MORALITIES used to perpetuate the War on Drugs.

As folks wake up to the idea of self-regulating/medicating, they will discover that recreational use and medicinal use are indeed quite frequently, one in the same.

Prohibitionists of the past have used a forced morality, the religious sense of SIN, as a means to color peoples behaviours. Religions are now waking up to the rediculousness of some of these notions. It is no longer fashionable to attack ailing beings, crushing their spirit of well being, in the name of enforcing someone else's view of some perverted concept of morality and godliness.

Dubya and Ashcroft are dug in, and stand firm in their personal convictions, too pridefull to admit they are wrong for persecuting humans to conform to their ideas of God and Morality.
How dare any human make themselves feel better...

Unless Jesus drops them a direct line, publicly, they are likely not to change.

For the LOVE of All-That-Is, what was the Divine creative force which caused the beloved cannabis to come into being in the first place? Did Satan inspire the Devil(lived) weed into being? NOT!

Cannabis is one of a myriad of Divine gifts intended for the enhancement on an individual's state of BEING. The sooner the CONSENSUS REALITY comes to accept this, the sooner things will improve. The idea that religions are no longer embracing the nobility of suffering as some form of moral fortitude is a SIGN of the changing times.

By the way, for all of you not currently suffering from some sort of 'official' physical malady, stamped with the approval of a doctor, and are still self medicating, SHAME ON YOU. HOW DARE YOU MAKE YOURSELF FEEL BETTER ABOUT THE PHYSCIAL CONDITION CALLED LIFE. Don't you know that cannabis consumption is strictly for the suffering, and your 'God' is very dissappointed in you. Just kidding... Wake up SHEEPLES, there is still plenty of work to do.

Higher Self

psthbng

This is astounding. Too bad it wasn't done years ago. This is a giant step in the right direction. Stay on top of it. Peace

WNB

Wow. You know your head is up your ass when even organized religion is more reasonable about an issue than you are. Drug warriors, take note.

__________________
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

Logos

This is spectacular news! I'm now waiting for the churches to state that Cannabis could be considered sacrement while not going against the grain of the bible.

On that day marijuana consumption becomes truly constitutionally protected. The 9th circut court has recently ruled that Rastafarians can use cannabis as sacrement.

The case only gets stronger.

The truth shall set you free, or in this case, it will set the wrongly incarcerated cannabis plant free... THe rest will follow.

Well said HS!

Nice find GB.

Logos

__________________
Brother Logos
The more I learn, the less I know.
THC Ministry | The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ | The Reluctant Messenger of Science and Religion
True religion is real living, living with all one's soul, with all ones goodness and righteousness. --Albert Einstein

 

Dennis

Religious organizations are losing their congregations (along with offerings) to state and federal prisons, and they're getting mad as hell.

I want to point out this passage that should be emphasized throughout the marijuana legalization community:

"Just like an addict can spiral out of control and begin to exhibit bizarre behavior, the federal government, in a despicable show of bravado to maintain this drug war addiction, is even arresting legitimate seriously ill patients who use medical marijuana with the approval of their doctor," he said. "The drug war mongers are in denial. They come out every year with a drug war battle plan that is basically the same as the year before. My brothers and sisters, it is time for an intervention," Rev. Howard declaimed.

solutions

This is excellent news. Where I applaude people who find inspiration in their religion to be the best person they can be, I am generally sceptic of bureaucratic religious institutions. I am very excited the religious organizations in question got together and advocate a saner drugs policy. I hope to hear a lot more from the IDPI.

I apologize for the following being off-topic, as it deals with heroin addiction, not medical marijuana. It is about a man of faith defying public opinion and political pressure in his effort to help drug addicts, so I find it both appropriate and inspirational.

There is a Dutch Reverend, Hans Visser, who found inspiration in his faith to help one of the most vulnerable group in society. He reached out to homeless heroin addicts in the 80's and started inviting them to his church, even allowing them to use drugs there. He has been advocating regulated legalization of drugs and a policy based on compassion and information rather than repression ever since. In 1997 he made international headlines when he opened a space in his church where dealers could sell harddrugs. I'll quote an article by Peter Cohen:

I came across the transcript of an interview with Rev Visser from '93 at NORML Canada. There's another interview at that site, with Rev. Hans Weening, Exec. Sec. of the Society of Friends (Quaker Church), on Quaker philosophy and the Dutch Drug Policy.

I respect Rev Visser, and others who's faith brings them to help people, rather than those who condemn people for 'sinning'.

__________________
3 monkeys sitting under a coconut tree
discussing things as they are set to be
Said one to the other, now listen you two
there's a strange rumor that can't be true
they say man was descended from our noble race
but the very idea is a big disgrace
no monkey ever deserted his wife
or her baby to ruin their lives.
Damian Marley - Educated Fools

Mamabudz

News???

Judiasm has backed this concept for...lets see... 3,000 years. Now that's rather recent from the standpoint of archeology but not from a modern standpoint. Healing the sick is a moral obligation -- which is why Israel is on the leading edge of discoveries of uses for cannabis including findings for it's use in treating brain damage caused by trauma, stroke and nerve gas poisoning; MS; rheumatoid arthritis (both as an anti inflamatory and as a pain reliever); radiation sickness; and a myriad of other diseases and injuries.

The reform movement in the USA has been public about its support of the the use of medical marijuana for decades and was as a group instrumental in the GOTV (Get Out The Vote) for California Prop 215.

I don't know much about how the Christian movement is involved in the issue but this matter is merely "news" only because it is recently in the media -- again. But glad you caught it and brought it to everyone's attention

Hydrosan

Will these letters to congress have any impact in the elections? Have any of these churches/denominations said anything about campagne contributions for politicians who vote against it?

i.e. is there any meat in this individual sandwhich or does it just get added to the rising cocophany of anti-WOD stances?

Maybe I just feel specially cynical today, but I feel weight of religious procrastinations regarding any 'drugs' are all too often derogotory. We even have a (possibly ex) hard drug user taking the chief of police for Lambeth to court, to challenge his decision not to arrest people in possesion of small ammounts of cannabis. Brainwashed - erm.... I mean - Backed by his church, he was substituted for the local reverend so the tax payer foots the legal bill.

The religious types who oppose marijuana decriminalisation/legalisation often make 'morality' arguments, why are those arguments more valid?

San