How Can We Explain Medical Marijuana to a Catholic Grandmother?

The Catholics have a history of making heroes out of those who suffer the most.  I really don’t know what kind of reaction this young man should expect from his “very Catholic” grandmother when she finds out he is using medical marijuana.

My patient is 27, on dialysis, and looking for a kidney transplant to stay alive.  He takes medical marijuana to increase his appetite and well being, as well as minimize the pain and anxiety of his situation.  I have promised that I will not stop trying to help him.  We will go as far as we need to, raising funds if necessary.  My help will likely include taking him “public,” using the media.

Sooner or later, his grandmother will need to find out.  Right now, she does not know about the marijuana; he thought she did not have to know.  Soon she will, and he told me that he will tell her.  He told me it will not be easy.  That is because she is, in his words, “very Catholic.”

I told him that I would try to research, to see what was official and what was not.  It didn’t take a lot of looking to figure out that the official stance of the Catholic church was to be about as anti-marijuana as any political right group could be.  Like this review, I have found that lots of marijuana related issues are reviewed in an articulate, educated manner in Cannabis Culture magazine.

This is not exactly a new position.  It looks as if from the 15^th century on, there has been a strong prohibition against herbs and anything that produces intoxication.  The head honcho then was none other than Pope Innocent VIII – what a wonderful name.  Of course, this was the guy who hung with Torquemada, who tortured folks. Remember that fun inquisition?  Mel Brooks did manage to make that funny, though.

The folks at Cannabis Culture do link to some modern Catholic dissenters; a curious state of being for those who profess that faith.  I do remember having heard somewhere the Pope was supposed to be some kind of infallible.  More recently in California, the Catholic Bishops have agreed not to take an official position.  This is not helpful to me or to my patient.

People are doing all kinds of things to develop medicinally effective forms of marijuana that can avoid intoxication.  Of the folks who come to see me for a marijuana recommendation, there is something I say that makes them most happy most often.  It is to try on a day off, and maybe work in a little bit of a transdermal preparation when it hurts.  There should not be enough getting into their circulation from a rub-in to make them sleepy or high or anything like that.  And they ought to be able to work.  If they complain about delicate foil packets of transdermal being overpriced at the dispensary, I tell them to find the recipe for edible marijuana butter.  Everyone seems to have it.  You just rub it into your skin where it hurts.  The stuff is wildly lipophilic, which I tell them is a fancy medical word of Greek origin meaning “fat-loving.”  It will go through the skin to where it hurts, and there is a very good chance it will stop things from hurting.  I get more thank you calls on this one than anything I say or do with patients. They want to be pain free without being intoxicated.  This is impossible to miss for anyone who actually talks to patients. Science has changed since the 15th century, and medicine, too.  Religious belief and spirituality may be immutable.  But here, we are literally promoting enhancing pain. NO.  I cannot facilitate this.  And yes, it is going to be hard for my patient to talk to grandma.