Prendergast: lessons of temperance needed with the legal recreational use of marijuana on the way



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The laws reflected somewhat what is healthy or moral. Not anymore. The government's approval of the personal use of cannabis, effective October 17, will not make magical safe or moral consumption.

Two generations ago, we had no evidence that smoking led to addiction, illness, and death. This resulted in a public health disaster. Government policies and trials have sought to contain the damage in the decades that followed. Ironically, our governments will soon endorse and even market another well-researched deleterious substance.

Physically, the damage caused by marijuana is similar to that of tobacco cigarettes. The American Lung Association reports similar respiratory exposure to toxins, irritants, and carcinogens, resulting in chronic cough, wheezing, phlegm production, and acute bronchitis.

Tar exposure is greater because marijuana smokers tend to breathe more deeply. Cannabis suppresses the immune system. Exposure to secondhand marijuana is dangerous.

Other methods of delivery are also at risk. Vaping damage to the lungs is still under study. Ingesting, with its slower psychotropic effect, led to larger doses than expected and dangerous disorientation. The children were poisoned by marijuana lollipops and brownies. Cannabis is addictive

High exposure leads to "use disorders" in approximately 30% of consumers. Cannabis greatly impairs judgment, motor coordination, and reaction times, making high-risk driving particularly dangerous

The dream, a necessary outlet for a healthy mind, is inhibited by cannabis

. continuum of substances that some people use to escape the burdens of life. It's misleading because this apparent leak makes the situation worse. It affects the ability to cope with life's problems and sometimes aggravates financial or relationship difficulties.

There is a link between high youth use and increased risk of mental disorders, including anxiety, paranoia, and lethargy. Cannabis use harms cognitive development during formative years, changing the structure of the brain. The process of maturation ceases, denominated development stopped.

There are negative impacts on learning, memory and impulse control. Cannabis use is strongly correlated with excessive consumption of alcohol.

Young people will be the main target market for cannabis sellers who want to attract "beginners". It is precisely this group that is most vulnerable and most vulnerable. its long-term consequences.

It will be essential for parents to teach teens to respect the needs of their bodies and brains by resisting the recreational use of this harmful substance. If the parents of a teenager prohibit the use of marijuana, another moral issue comes into play: that of disobeying God's command to honor his parents by following their advice.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2290 highlights the key principle applicable to recreational drugs to use: that of temperance. "The virtue of temperance allows us to avoid any kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco or drugs.These are guilty of serious guilt which, through drunkenness or the love of speed, endangers their own safety and that of others on the road, at sea or in the air. "

In response to the impending legalization, the leaders of the 39, Church on Temperance The guidelines for confessors should help guide penitents in this area, as they do with other contemporary plagues such as badgraphy.

By cons, when other options do work not, the use medically supervised – and not abusive – therapeutic cannabinoids. relieve symptoms such as nausea or loss of appetite of chemotherapy does not result in moral censorship of drug use

To manage our co rps, we must refrain from substances that impede our decision-making. This includes cannabis

– Terrence Prendergast is the Archbishop of Ottawa

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