Sorry if I repeat something, there was A LOT to read lol
In my personal experience, I deal with anxiety, OCD, and depression and I am very much against taking the insane medication that causes more harm then good in most cases. I smoke marijuana and it helps me stay calm. I used to go into "freak outs" where I would wake up early in the morning and spend ALL DAY cleaning, rearranging, scrubbing EVERYTHING and I would stay up till it was all done. It was the only thing that calmed me down, but it made me sick... I smoke and I don't feel the urge to clean to such an insane extent.
I also had a time period in my life where I got addicted to other, much more harmful substances and when I finally wanted to quit, smoking helped me work off the other stuff. So you could see it as good AND evil at the same time, because it all depends on the users intentions for it. I would say it was a sin when I was in high school because it opened me up to trying worse things and almost ruined my life because I was putting that stuff first (I believe that it should be treated the same as cigarettes though, I don't think a MINOR should be using the stuff because they are just too impressionable). But now, it isn't a sin to me. It helps me fight the urges of those other substances and helps me feel a little more in control of myself. I don't put it first, it is just there now.
Now,
One question that I do want more answers to is the question “is using marijuana a sin”. I myself do not believe it is. However, I do not buy some of the conceptions that it can help you grow spiritually. God does that, not a plant.
I haven't seen an instance of it being a sin in the Bible, but I could be wrong. From my understanding, a sin is something that separates us from God. I do believe marijuana CAN be a sin if it is leading you away from God and you are making it into an Icon or Idol. If you find yourself choosing to stay home and smoke over going to Church, you may need to evaluate if this is more of a problem than you thought.
As for "helping you spiritually", I don't think the plant itself does that, I agree, but my deepest discussions and revelations about God and the Bible have been while I was high. My husband and I tend to just start on something and look it up to get a little deeper into it, but correlation does not necessarily mean causation.
I used marijuana to help my aches and pains after a long day of physical labor and also to help me wind down before bed and help me sleep. I reguard it as something similar to alcohol-although chemically very different. The Bible says have a sober mind, yet men of God in the Bible consumed alcohol and the wisest man who ever lived (King Solomon) himself stated he used wine to cheer himself.
Genesis 1.29 says “
They drank maybe one or two glasses, unless they were really "partying". They weren't getting "lit" on tequila shots and whiskey sours lol Doctors have even been known to recommend one glass a day for your health.
God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed: to you it shall be for food.”
To be fair, I think this was before they ate of the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil". There are plenty of trees and plants we shouldn't eat, but there are animals that can eat those plants, so maybe He just meant that all of it is food to something.
When you can’t live without something to the point that you place it first in your life, you are sinning.
I totally agree. It helps a lot of people with different things. Another angle that people don't seem o get is that prescriptions are expensive! It's not always covered by your health insurance provider and then after you spend the money, you might find out that it doesn't help, it actually made things worse! At least with marijuana, you can spend $5 for a very small amount and if it doesn't work, there aren't lasting damages to it. I've heard of people getting paranoid and nauseous, but that goes away.
I read an article once about a woman that could not eat while she was pregnant because she couldn't hold it down and it was getting really bad. She was desperate and smoked a joint and was finally able to eat. It eased the nausea and she was able to hold it all down. I don't know if I would do that personally, but they found it didn't harm the baby at all and the baby was perfectly healthy.
I think it's all about how it's used. Sorry for the long post, there was a lot to cover
