The Marijuana program seeks to educate, empower, and support Muslims about marijuana for medicinal purposes. Includes fatwa or religious ruling.
As an American Muslim, growing up in America where a theocratic view of religion did not exist, I had more access to ponder through philosophical evaluation the diversity of how human beings approached the world around them.
My early career in the area of healthcare, which included medical, pharmaceutical and psychological healthcare, I have seen many positive experiences with marijuana arresting physical pain, reduction of cancerous tumors, and the relief of psychological ailments.
As a spiritual leader I had to deeply think about and the use of traditional medicines when modern pharmaceuticals did not alleviate my physical pain from arthritis, as well as the problems due to consistent side effects. In consultation with my physician, I was encouraged to use CBD oils derived from hemp.
Thus, from personal experience I provide you the following guidance.
Fatwas
Fatwa is an important element of the Muslim faith. In Arabic fatwa means “opinion.” The rules pertaining to fatwas are threefold: spiritual direction, must be legal, and modern.
Fatwas help guide the spiritual direction for a community or communities. As such, fatwas must fit with the law of the land and not promote something that is illegal.
In the case of this fatwa, for example, the spiritual direction is contained within its legal framework. For instance, it is not legal in every state of the United States. As such, Muslims who live in states where marijuana is illegal cannot take this fatwa as a spiritual direction since it would put them at odds with the law.
Fatwas must be current with the modern times and deal with the right-now instead of what was or what will be.
Marijuana
Marijuana can create changes in the human body, physically and psychologically. It originated in Asia, although clearly it has spread to all over the world. Marijuana is used for recreational, spiritual and medicinal purposes historically.
As in the past, modern medical practitioners have found in their research that marijuana does work in resolving numerous medical problems and results in providing relief where pharmaceutical treatments failed or were too harmful.
When Muslims consider the properties of many of their daily consumption of foods and drinks, they are not necessarily considering caffeine content in their drinks and its effect on their physical and psychological sides of their body.
Marijuana, therefore, just like caffeine, has positive purposes that should not detract us from its famous “drug” label.
Use of Marijuana
The recreational benefit, spiritual benefit, and medical benefits have been shown to help people alleviate their physical and psychological pain.
Recreationally, people throughout history have used the psychoactive part of marijuana to feel good about themselves, to relax, and to avoid stress.
Spiritually, marijuana was used in ancient Middle Eastern religions, religions in the ancient Americas, as well as in host of modern spiritual practices.
Medically, marijuana has been shown to alleviate pain physically and psychologically. More specifically, it has been shown to help with pain management, reducing the often-debilitating side effects of major diseases such as AIDS, MS, and cancer.
As stated above, using marijuana for medicinal purposes has positive results without causing unnecessary harms resulting from the debilitating side effects.
Recommendation
In my opinion, my preference is the use of oils and tropical applications, with the next level being digestion through incorporation into solid foods and tonics, and the last being other avenues of entry such as inhalation and smoking.
Although there may be unintended side effects of intoxication, it is commonly agreed as a general rule in the medical field in Muslim societies and supported by Muslim physicians, when a medicine has a low-level of alcohol or could cause intoxication, such side effects does not prevent doctors from prescribing these medications and medical treatments for their patients.
Therefore, the overall rule against willful intoxication does not apply when there is medical efficiency for improved health, and the increased good health for those who may suffer from this ailment is an improvement for the society.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Islam is about common sense. Islam is a global faith and Muslims live in different places and climates. It is not the same religion lived out in the desert lands of its origin.
Our common sense guides us based upon how we align our daily lives in unique ways. Therefore, each individual’s experience must be taken into consideration, and a broad range of possibilities gives them leeway to find the methodology that provides the greatest efficiency for their situation.
Marijuana has many good benefits, and as pointed out above, Muslims have a lot of uses to select from. For this particular guidance, the oils would be most preferred. If the oils were eliminated, then other forms could be used to gain the same relief, but also accept the potential of unintended side effects.
It is needless to say that humans will find excuses to abuse themselves through various forms, I recognize that some Muslims will also use and abuse marijuana.
Nonetheless, we cannot allow the potential of some abuse to prevent others from gaining physical and psychological pain relief. Doing so places our society and the position of being oppressive towards Muslim believers based upon a misguided opinion that all things on its face are haram.
Research
Here are some information from researchers on marijuana.
Marijuana for Physical Pain: “Cannabis is an extremely safe and effective medication for many patients with chronic pain. In stark contrast to opioids and other available pain medications, cannabis is relatively non-addicting and has the best safety record of any known pain medication (no deaths attributed to overdose or direct effects of medication).” –– (Webb & Webb, 2014, pp. 111)
Marijuana for Psychological Pain: “A double-blind randomized study compared the effects on anxiety induced by simulation public speaking test on healthy control patients and treatment-naÏve patients affected by social anxiety disorder (SAD) who received before the test a single dose of CBD (600 mg) or placebo. CBD significantly reduced anxiety, cognitive impairment, and discomfort in speech performance and significantly decreased alert in anticipatory speech” –– (Calapai et al., 2019, pp. 7).
Marijuana As a Prevention: “Considerable evidence from animal studies supports the use of marijuana as a preventative for the development of dementia. In contrast, no evidence suggests that using marijuana is beneficial to patients who are currently suffering symptoms of dementia associated with Alzheimer’s disease.” –– (Wenk, 2019, pp. 180).
References
For more information, read the following research.
Anderson, S. E. (2017). Using Marijuana as My Antidepressant and Now I Feel Better: A Call for More Research into the Viability of Marijuana as Treatment for Depression, Anxiety, and Bipolar Disorder. Oklahoma City University Law Review, 42(3), 335–365.
Calapai, G., Mannucci, C., Chinou, I., Cardia, L., Calapai, F., Sorbara, E. E., … Firenzuoli, F. (2019). Preclinical and Clinical Evidence Supporting Use of Cannabidiol in Psychiatry. Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine (ECAM), 1–11.
Rosi, P., & Sorbello, J. (2019). Medical Marijuana and Pain Management. Journal of Nurse Life Care Planning, 19(3), 20–24.
Teitelbaum, J. (2019). A Hemp oil, CBD, and Marijuana Primer: Powerful Pain, Insomnia, and Anxiety-relieving Tools!. Alternative therapies in health and medicine, 25(2), 21-23.
Webb, C. W., & Webb, S. M. (2014). Therapeutic benefits of cannabis: a patient survey. Hawai’i Journal Of Medicine & Public Health: A Journal Of Asia Pacific Medicine & Public Health, 73(4), 109–111.
Wenk, G. L. (2019). Your Brain on Food: How Chemicals Control Your Thoughts and Feelings (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.