The Jews Behind Ending Marijuana Prohibition

Jews are not the major force behind ending Marijuana Prohibition. But they are a significant force. I made a number of comments to this effect at my post Questions. I thought it might be a good idea (well it is something to write about) to turn them into a post. Eric also has a good one on how social change is not top down (government rules) but bottom up (the people rule) at “Drug reform is also being driven primarily by ballot initiatives, not governments.”

First thing is an ancient Jewish scholar, Hillel, on the subject.

If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?

Jewish pot activist Mason Tvert hits new high with marijuana legalization vote in Colorado.

Say what you will about Mason Tvert, the Jewish activist behind the marijuana legalization campaign that passed in Colorado, the man clearly has a sense of humor.

Some years ago, in his efforts to persuade the public that marijuana is far less of a health menace than alcohol, Tvert famously challenged both the mayor of Denver and the heir to the Coors brewing fortune to a sort of intoxication duel: Tvert would smoke pot while the others drank, and they would see who dropped dead first.

Neither man took up Tvert on his offer.

I think the Coors guy was really smart. Who would want to die to prove the other guy’s point? Of course by letting the challenge stand he also proved Mason’s point. Mason did a classical military maneuver by putting his opposition on the horns of a dilemma.

The Tablet chimes in with The Jewish Face of the Pro Pot Movement.

To find perhaps the most influential marijuana activist in the country, you have to go to Denver. Your journey starts near the Colorado statehouse, which in May passed legislation establishing a framework for the regulation and taxation of marijuana that, when it goes into effect next January, will be more permissive than Holland’s.

[snip]

SAFER’s executive director is Mason Tvert, a 31-year-old political operative who came to Denver nearly a decade ago with the objective of turning it into a test lab for relaxing marijuana laws in the United States, where it has been branded a Schedule I controlled substance since 1970. Last November, largely thanks to Tvert’s work, Colorado voters passed Amendment 64, which allows adults over 21 to possess small amounts of marijuana or pot-laced products for personal use. Starting next year, people will be able to set foot in Colorado, buy a sack of weed or artisanal edibles, and contribute tax revenue to the state.

On the sidebar to that article there is an article about Rabbi Kahn who is opening a medical marijuana dispensary in Washington, DC. I did an article on Rabbi Kahn last April when he visited Rockford, Illinois. Rabbi Kahn was my Rabbi in Rockford about 15 years back. You can read about it at: Rabbi Jeffery Kahn In Rockford. You can read more about Rabbi Kahn at Rabbi Ties Jewish Faith to Medical Marijuana.

Rabbi Jeffrey Kahn spent his 30-year career educating others and helping to ease human suffering, leading Jewish congregations in Australia, Illinois, his hometown of Miami and New Jersey.

Now, he is practicing his faith in a different line of work: Kahn runs a dispensary for medical marijuana. Call it a mitzvah — or one of God’s commandments.

“From the Jewish perspective, nothing is more important than the concept of healing and bringing sufferers relief,” said Kahn, 61.

“I was a congregational rabbi during the worst days of the AIDS epidemic and saw up-close and personal what people living with AIDS were dealing with and finding relief with medical marijuana,” he said.

Here are some Orthodox Jews running a dispensary in Berkeley California. For Berkeley Jews, medical cannabis is ethical imperative.

An Orthodox Rabbi in Israel chimes in.

An Orthodox rabbi in Israel, Rabbi Efraim Zalmanovich, recently ruled that smoking and distributing medicinal marijuana is kosher for Jews, but using it recreationally is forbidden. For medical purposes, Judaism has a legal concept of pekuach nephesh (health and life trumps all).

and from the same link:

It is presumed that liberal rabbinical leaders would decide similarly; the Union for Reform Judaism in 2003 passed a resolution supporting medical marijuana and its legalization.

And more:

Needelman contends that there are renowned rabbis in history that partook in drugs, including the Ba’al Shem Tov, the originator of the Chassidic movement, as well as modern minstrel Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who was rumoured to have used marijuana to better relate with young congregants.

Some Jewish history experts see no reason for marijuana to remain illegal. Mark Washovsky, a rabbi and professor of Jewish law and practice at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio, wrote recently in the Jerusalem Post: “If the medical community determines that marijuana is an effective and indicated treatment for pain, Jewish law raises no barriers to its use for palliative purposes.

“From a halachic perspective, the burden would rest upon the civil authorities to show why the medical use of marijuana should continue to be illegal.”

My brother Jeff stayed at Rabbi Carlebach’s House of Love and Prayer in San Francisco for a while. I used to visit him there when I lived in Bezerkeley. Jeff later moved to Mill Valley. He and I watched what we could of Woodstock there (the Dick Caveat Show – if you watch closely the Airplane sing “fuck” on live TV – I loved it. Still do. Part 2 and Part 3 and Part 4 and Part 5).

Here is a Jewish sect opening a dispensary. Chabad Of Eastern Massachusetts Applies For Medical Marijuana Dispensary License. Chabad has a group here in Rockford.

Of course we can’t leave out our Christian brothers. This is the only one I have found so far. And I had to dig to find it. Calif. Marijuana Dispensary Owned by Evangelical Christian Family

A medical marijuana dispensary in California expresses evangelical Christian views and is known to hand out Bibles along with the controversial drug.

Canna Care of Sacramento, a family owned dispensary known for supplying medical marijuana and advocating for decriminalization, evangelizes and prays with its customers. Canna Care oversees group prayers in a typical day around 6:00 p.m. and has handed out an estimated 3,000 Bibles to those who come for their services.

Kris Hermes, spokesperson for the nationwide pro-marijuana legalization group Americans for Safe Access, told The Christian Post about its ties to Canna Care.

I have done a number of posts on Americans for Safe Access.

Here is where it gets sticky. While Jewish opinion as far as I can tell is nearly unanimous, a number of Christian sites opining on the subject sound like this:

Question: “Medical marijuana – what does the Bible say?”

Answer: There is no definitive biblical answer to the question of whether Christians should use medical marijuana, because marijuana for medicinal use is not addressed in the Bible. However, after a review of certain clear biblical principles, the answer to the question becomes clearer.

First, although many states have legalized medical marijuana, its use is still illegal according to federal law. Paul exhorts us to obey the law of the land under our government in this way: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves” (Romans 13:1-2).

In addition to the fact that it is illegal, smoking marijuana can be extremely harmful to one’s health. The most potent argument against the use of marijuana to treat medical disorders is that marijuana may cause the acceleration or aggravation of the very disorders it is being used to treat. Smoking marijuana regularly (a joint a day) can damage the cells in the bronchial passages which protect the body against inhaled microorganisms and decrease the ability of the immune cells in the lungs to fight off fungi, bacteria, and tumor cells. For patients with already weakened immune systems, this means an increase in the possibility of dangerous pulmonary infections, including pneumonia, which often proves fatal in AIDS patients. The use of marijuana as a medical therapy can and does have a very serious negative effect on patients with pre-existing immune deficits from AIDS, organ transplantation, or cancer chemotherapy, the very conditions for which marijuana has most often been suggested as a treatment.

I can say definitively from decades of study that the above is “Reefer Madness”. So are they mistaken about medical cannabis or are they lying?

Their “follow the law” advice runs up against an ethical dilemma. Nazi Germany. Now letting people die is not the same as killing them. But it is close. The above Jews have tackled the law question head on. They are working to change it. But in American law “medical necessity” is a defense against breaking the law. Although with marijuana not many cases have been won with that defense. Here is one case where that defense worked.

An influence on Jews is probably the fact that the premier researcher on cannabis and medical cannabis (at least in the early stages of the work) is Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Mechoulam is still doing work on the subject.

Well, I could go on with Ethan Nadelman and Lester Grinspoon who wrote Marihuana: The Forbidden Medicine, and many others. But that is enough for now.