AMERICA/MEXICO - “Drugs are drugs even when sold as medicines”: the Catholic stance

Tuesday, 27 October 2015 healthcare slavery development

MEXICO

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Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) – "A drug is a drug even when sold as a bland medicinal balsam. Feeble Mexican imitators are attempting to follow in their neighbours’ footsteps putting on the table of ‘healthy democracy’ a debate that is bleak, absurd and counterproductive": we read in the editorial of Desde la Fe weekly published by Mexico archdiocese, and sent to Fides.
Starting from tomorrow, 28 October, Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice will discuss the legalisation of marijuana, a question which the local Catholic Church has proposed should be treated together with an in depth study of the problems raised by the consumption of marijuana. In the face of several campaigns appeared in recent days, the archdiocese of the capital proposed a very clear statement on the position of Catholics on the matter (see Fides 21/10/2015).
The archdiocese urges people to open their eyes to the situation: “There are experts who believe that the step towards free marijuana can be fundamental for reinforcing a free and democratic state, asserting that the plant is as healthy as a bottle of vitamins...they dare to claim that this can attenuate the effects of the violence generated by the drugs-war and create a State free and safe … poverty, for example, is a detonator for trafficking and consumption of drugs, and now they think of transferring this debate to the major question of justice and wellbeing for the presumed benefits of the plant which creates dependence".
The text concludes: "Marijuana for enjoyment is a placebo to placate complaints about the social destruction in which we irreparably find ourselves. The Church teaches that such irresponsible use of freedom leads to effects exactly opposite to those desired. What is illegal is thought to be normal and therefore moral. Should the drug become legal it is not a question of just one product, but what is at stake is the very life and destiny of people".
(CE) (Agenzia Fides, 27/10/2015)