The Case Against Marijuana

What does Islam say about marijuana?

As we further slip into this age of darkness and confusion, the widespread use and advocation of narcotic, psychotropic, and hallucinogenic drugs has grown exponentially since the ‘free sex and drug (hippie tippie) movement’ of the mid to late 60’s. While most will not deny that cocaine, LSD, and heroine are indeed illicit and extremely harmful drugs, due to gross medical, historical, socio-religious, cultural, and medicinal misinformation coupled with the casualness and popularity of its use (recreational and otherwise), ‘marijuana’ has conveniently escaped such classification. To this day there is a vast multitude of the general worldwide populous who insist for recreational, social or even religo-spiritual reasons that marijuana use is not only harmless, but beneficial, leading to a clearer perception of reality and a closer relationship with God.

“It is haram [religiously forbidden] to use narcotics in any way because it results in considerable adverse effects in terms of personal health and social cost. By the same token, it is haram to deal in narcotics in any way, i.e., carrying, transporting, storing, selling, buying, etc.” –Sayyid Ali Khamenei, marja, religious authority, and the current head of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Q. Why ‘the case against marijuana?’ I mean, isn’t marijuana essentially a harmless, recreational herb (drug)?

A. With the total legality of marijuana just around the corner, and the public’s ever growing acceptance of its use, the time has finally come for ‘marijuana’ to be tried and found guilty of being precisely what it is...a very dangerous, addictive, and mind-altering herb (drug). In ancient China where scientist believe the earliest known use of the cannabis plant has been found dating back over 10,000 years, the use of marijuana came under heavy attack with the arrival of Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century B.C. traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. Bodhidharma perceived the constant use of intoxicants including marijuana as ‘pandering to the lower self,’ and falling victim to the appetites of ‘the false ego.’ The 5th Precept in Buddhism enjoins people to abstain from ingestion of all intoxicants.

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