NEW YORK – A little less than two months before polls open, North Dakota’s Catholic bishops are urging the faithful to vote no on a state ballot proposal that would legalize marijuana for recreational use, citing how “individuals, families, and communities will be significantly harmed.”
Measure 5 will be on North Dakota ballots November 5, which, if approved, would allow adults 21 and over to grow, sell, possess and use Marijuana in the state for recreational purposes. North Dakota voters rejected similar ballot proposals in 2018 and 2022.
Bishop David Kagan of Bismarck and Bishop John Folda of Fargo took a stance against Measure 5 in a September 10 statement to parishioners. They anchored their opposition with the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which teaches that “the use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense.”
Kagan and Folda highlight that research shows that regular marijuana use impairs brain functioning, stunts brain development, damages the lungs, and can harm the immune system. They also note that regular Marijuana use is associated with mental health issues like depression, anxiety and suicide, and that it can serve as a gateway to harder drugs.
“Marijuana is not the harmless drug that some imagine it to be,” Kagan and Folda said.
Stephanie Dahl, president of the North Dakota Medical Association, has also come out against Measure 5, arguing that “marijuana use is not without risk.” Tim Blasl, president of the North Dakota Hospital Association, has said that legalizing marijuana shouldn’t be a top-of-the-line issue at this time.
“Instead of legalizing marijuana, we should focus on prevention, education, and providing adequate resources for those who need help with substance use and mental health issues,” Blasl said in a statement. “We continue to experience an epidemic in terms of behavioral health issues in our communities and the health and safety of our community must come first.”
Measure 5 is sponsored by New Economic Frontier, an advocacy group that solely exists to advocate for the legalization of recreational marijuana use in North Dakota. Primary to the group’s position are potential economic opportunities that can be created from legalizing marijuana, and the way the law change could potentially free up law enforcement resources. The group also argues that adult-use marijuana brings “a new level of clarity and safety to the workplace,” and that legalization would help regulate its use.
Marijuana is legal for recreational use in 24 states, and Washington, D.C. Back in 2012, Colorado became the first state to do so, and in the years since as more and more states have proposed and adopted laws to legalize marijuana for recreational use, Catholic leaders have spoken out against it at every turn.
However, while data on the possible negative health effects of marijuana is clear, data on whether or not legalizing marijuana for recreational use also increased health related issues remains murky. Research conducted by the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 2022 found that while residents of states where marijuana is legalized for recreational use use it 24% more frequently than those living in states where it remains illegal, the negative impacts of marijuana use had not increased at the same rate.
“Many social ills that opponents warned about a decade ago have not come to pass,” Brian Keegan, an assistant professor at the university who analyzes the chemical makeup of cannabis and the evolution of the industry, said at the time, noting in particular that studies have shown that opioid use and deaths actually decline in states following legalization.
Marijuana has also become a billion-dollar industry in Colorado since its recreational legalization.
Regardless, Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver published a pastoral letter on marijuana last year, where he takes a deeper look at what the legalization of Marijuana has done to the state, and emphasizes many of the aforementioned health risks. Aquila also highlighted data that shows that DUIs and driving related fatalities have vastly increased in Colorado since marijuana was legalized for recreational use.
“During the campaigns that advocated for the legalization of marijuana and other drugs, many pro-legalization arguments were made, and visions of the future were cast which downplayed any potential negative effects of the legislation,” Aquila said. “In Colorado, we are now a decade into this experiment. As more studies come out and more deaths from fentanyl pile up, we now have an overwhelming amount of data that reinforces what we have known to be true all along: the legalization of marijuana and cultural acceptance of drug use have been disastrous to our society.”
Back in June, Pope Francis also spoke out against the legalization of drugs.
“A reduction in drug addiction is not achieved by liberalizing drug use – this is an illusion – as has been proposed, or already implemented in some countries,” Pope Francis said.
Follow John Lavenburg on X: @johnlavenburg
