Last month Pope Francis made statements that he is against marijuana legalization. At a drug enforcement conference in Rome, Pope Francis stated that drug addiction is an evil, and with evil there can be no yielding or compromise. Pope Francis went on to say that attempts to legalize are highly questionable and fail to produce the desired effects. The comments drew criticism from marijuana reform activists and organizations almost instantly.
Pope Francis didn’t make any comments at the event in regards to medical marijuana. While I feel the Catholic Church (and every else for that matter) should support both legalization and medical marijuana, medical marijuana is especially a no-brainer to support in my opinion. The Catholic Church is supposed to support compassion, and that’s what medical marijuana is all about. It appears that my opinion and the opinion of the Catholic Church in the Philippines is the same. Per Sensi Seeds:
As the Church itself states, it supports the medicinal use of cannabis because it stands to help many people. The reasoning of the Church is focused on the more merciful aspects of the plant and it is not for nothing that the proposed bill is entitled “Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Act”. It was submitted in May of this year by Member of Parliament, Rodolfo Albano III.
The most amazing aspect of this is perhaps how clearly and vocally representatives of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines have spoken. In a press release, archbishop and chairman of the conference Sócrates Villegas expressed himself as follows: “Catholic health care ethics, in fact, considers as morally justifiable the use of marijuana for terminal cancer patients in severe pain.”
Medical marijuana should be legal around the world. There are suffering patients in the Philippines just as there are in every other country. If these patients can find some relief in medical marijuana, they should be allowed to do so. If these patients don’t want to ruin their organs by using harmful pharmaceuticals, and would rather use a safer alternative in medical marijuana, they should be allowed to do so.
