Should Christians Drink Alcohol or Smoke Marijuana?
RELEVANT BIBLE PASSAGES
"And God said, 'Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.'" -Genesis 1:29
It appears God intended for humans to consume every plant he created. Naturally, drug enthusiasts take this to mean he intended for us to get high on marijuana.
"Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything." -Genesis 9:3
God reaffirmed his previous pledge to give man all of the plants to eat.
"Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more." -Proverbs 31:7
This passage is probably among the strangest in the Bible. It appears Solomon was recommending alcohol as a primitive anti depressant medication.
"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit," -Ephesians 5:18
Paul contrasted mind altering drugs, specifically alcohol, with the sobriety of being filled with the Spirit. He presented drunkenness and the Holy Spirit as zero sum options we must choose between.
"No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments." -1 Timothy 5:23
It seems Paul wasn't completely against drinking, he told Timothy to drink some alcohol for medical purposes.
"As for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." -2 Timothy 4:5
Can we be "sober minded" if we're getting drunk and smoking weed? Our brains are still being altered by them even if we're using these substances in moderation.
"But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober minded, dignified, self controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled." -Titus 2:1-8
It's difficult to reconcile "sober minded" and "dignified" with the consumption of alcohol and marijuana. Paul specifically warned against being a "slave to much wine." Perhaps sobriety, dignity, and self control can be maintained if very limited amounts of these substances are consumed, but, practically speaking, their presence almost inevitably leads to excess.
"Be sober minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." -1 Peter 9:8
The consumption of even small amounts of alcohol and mind altering substances has an effect on one's ability to make sound judgements. The impairment of the mind begins as soon as consumption begins, and it increases in proportion to the amount of the substance consumed. So the difference between moderate drinking and being drunk is only a matter of degree.
DOES MARIJUANA MAKE ONE DRUNK?
Would someone high on marijuana be described as sober minded? The short term effects include memory problems and severe anxiety (including fear one is being watched or followed), strange behavior, seeing, hearing or smelling things that aren't there, not being able to tell imagination from reality, panic, hallucinations, loss of sense of personal identity, lowered reaction time, increased heart rate, increased risk of stroke, problems with coordination (impaired safe driving).
"Cannabis and alcohol acutely impair several driving related skills in a dose related fashion, but the effects of cannabis vary more between individuals than they do with alcohol… Detrimental effects of cannabis use… are more pronounced with highly automatic driving functions than with more complex tasks that require conscious control, whereas with alcohol produces an opposite pattern of impairment."US law uses both alcohol and cannabis to charge people with Driving Under the Influence (DUI).
WHAT ABOUT MEDICAL USE?
Let's consider a scenario. You're a Civil War soldier about to get your leg amputated. The doctors have no pain killers, but they do have alcohol and marijuana. Should you use them before surgery? I think most everyone would conclude that in this extreme scenario the consumption of these substances is acceptable to God. The pain of getting one's leg severed probably has a greater chance of effecting sobriety and self control than smoking a joint.
Some studies suggest marijuana can reduce proscription opioid deaths. Opioid overdoses are becoming a massive problem around the country, and if marijuana could curb that phenomenon then I think most Christians would accept it's use in certain circumstances.
The link between marijuana and lung cancer is disputed. Some studies claim it does less harm to the lungs than tobacco, but other studies claim it causes more than twice as much damage to the lungs as cigarettes (especially regarding tar output).
CONCLUSION
In my opinion, getting high on marijuana is a form of drunkenness or non sobriety. Like alcohol, marijuana distorts a person's perception of reality in a way that causes a loss of mental and physical self control.
One could argue Jesus drank at least a little wine and therefore drinking a beer or taking a few drags on a blunt can't be morally wrong. However, we must consider that wine was widely consumed in the ancient world because it was necessary as a water purification tactic in an era when fresh drinking water wasn't widely available. Nowadays, alcohol consumption is an intentional and expensive choice that we have to inconvenience ourselves to make. Almost any consumption of alcohol and marijuana in today's society is an admission that we're seeking out the mind altering aspects of these substances because we have numerous beverage options that are easier to obtain and consume.
Some Christians have claimed alcohol and marijuana can't be ethically separated from coffee and caffeine, and that Christians have to ban coffee with alcohol in order to be morally consistent. However, coffee doesn't cause people to become "drunk" and lose their sobriety and self control. In most situations, coffee has the opposite effect of accelerating mental functions and improving our ability to process information. Furthermore, coffee isn't a carcinogen like alcohol and marijuana.
However, I do believe both alcohol and marijuana are acceptable for Christians to use if they have a personal or medical reason for consuming it that aligns with God's will. It's not the substances themselves that are evil but our intentions when using them.