Quote Originally Posted by Angler
I've got to say that the Bible versus that have been quoted about pot have me wondering. The ones I have seen quoted say things like God put all seeds, herbs and plants here for man's consumption and sustenance. Yet there are other plants such as tobacco, opium etc. that are here and can be harmful to us... So I personally don't think these versus can be used as justification...

As a Christian, I personally think moderation in all things is a key and I have to be careful as to how much and when I am using marijuana.

What say you?
The Torah (esp. Exodus 34:6-7) commands observant Jews to treat the ill and injured with compassion, which argues strongly in support of medical cannabis in cases where conventional treatment has become ineffective, or where mmj is the treatment of choice. AFAIK, that is the position of all major Jewish organizations in America. At the same time, Halacha (Jewish law) is also pretty set against drunkenness and intoxication, so the recreational use of mj to get stoned is severely frowned on.

Halacha also puts a lot of credence in human law where it does not conflict with what's in the Torah. If secular law prohibits mj, then one must have strong justification to defy the law. Where it is legal or quasi-legal, such as exists now in Cali since the Governator signed the decriminalization law, there's a lot more grey area.

As for worshiping mj as the "tree of life" that I heard on NatGeo's "Drugs, Inc", no Rabbinical Council is likely to subscribe to that nonsense. OTOH, Genesis 1:29 does say "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is on 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 meat."

Elsewhere in Genesis and in Psalms more is written about plants and foods being for human consumption. There are strict injunctions about eating unclean animals and parts of animals, but I don't recall any injunction against specific plants. When the Torah was written mj may well not have been known in that part of the world. After all, the earliest records of mj in archeological finds are only about 2700 years old.

I'm no Rabbi, though, so treat my comments with reservation...