Download Positions of Religious Groups that Support Marijuana

Positions of Religious Groups that Support Marijuana Decriminalization
Several major denominations and other religious groups adopted official positions opposing criminal
penalties for possessing marijuana for personal use. These positions are detailed below (all bold emphasis
added). We encourage anyone working on this issue to utilize this support. Please contact us to find out how
to put this information to good use.
National Council of Churches
The NCC (a coalition comprising 36 denominations) adopted the Challenges to the Injustice of the Criminal
Justice System official policy statement in 1979, which includes the recommendation of “decriminalization
(removal of criminal sanctions) of certain public and private acts where there is no intent to harm or injury
to another person or group of people.” This presumably includes marijuana possession, as the NCC explicitly
stated in a 1973 motion.
United Methodist Church
The Equal Justice resolution adopted in 2000 advocates for the “repeal of some criminal laws against
certain personal conditions or individual misconduct. Examples are criminal prohibitions of vagrancy,
personal gambling, public drunkenness, drug use, and prostitution. Together, these charges alone account
for more than half of all arrests in some jurisdictions. They result in little social good, but great evil in class
discrimination, alienation, and waste of resources needed for other purposes.”
United Church of Christ
The UCC’s General Synod passed resolutions that included these recommendations: “Seek to reduce the
punitive and harmful effects of various societal responses to substance abuse and abusers, including a
reduction in the use of incarceration for minor offenses” (1997); and “Shift its emphasis from a law
enforcement paradigm in favor of a policy that treats drug use as a health problem with social and
economic implications” (2003).
Presbyterian Church (USA)
In 1993, the General Assembly passed a Freedom and Substance Abuse resolution urging
“decriminalization of possession with judicial focus on drug manufacturers and suppliers.”
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
The UUA’s Alternatives to the War on Drugs statement of conscience (2002) recommends: “Remove
criminal penalties for possession and use of currently illegal drugs, with drug abusers subject to arrest and
imprisonment only if they commit an actual crime (e.g., assault, burglary, impaired driving),” and “Establish
a legal, regulated, and taxed market for marijuana. Treat marijuana as we treat alcohol.”
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
The Philadelphia Yearly Meeting passed a statement in 1978 declaring that it “strongly opposes the
imposition of criminal sanctions [for] the use and possession of small amounts of marijuana.” The American
Friends Service Committee and the Friends Committee on National Legislation also adopted several
supportive positions in the 2000s.
Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union for Reform Judaism
In 1972, the CCAR passed a resolution urging the government to adopt the recommendations of the National
Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, including: “Possession in private of marijuana for personal
use would no longer be an offense.” The Union for Reform Judaism’s Religious Action Center passed a
resolution in 2001, opposing “incarceration for personal use.”
Other denominations
The Episcopal Church’s 1970 Executive Council resolution recommended “more appropriate
comparative legal penalties for the possession of specific drugs such as marijuana.” In 1975, the Episcopal
Diocese of New York voted to support “the immediate decriminalization of the possession in private of
marijuana for personal use.”
The Church of the Brethren’s General Board adopted a 1975 Criminal Justice Reform report
recommending “that more appropriate and helpful means be found to deal with offenses such as vagrancy,
drug use, drunkenness . . . and prostitution.”
The American Ethical Union’s 1972 Annual Assembly passed a resolution calling for laws “permitting
the use, possession, manufacture, sale and transfer of marijuana by adults similar to…tobacco and alcohol in
American society.”