Throughout human civilization, many different religions took varying positions on the use and cultivation of cannabis.

Cannabis appears frequently in scripts of world religions, historically and even in the present.

Leaders from Buddhism, ancient Hinduism to Christianity and Catholicism discuss cannabis in multiple contexts through their own respective scripts.

In modern times, Rastafari are known to use cannabis as a sacred herb in popular Western culture.

Meanwhile, some religions prohibit the use of intoxicants (such as Islam, Buddhism, Bahai, Latter-day Saints or Mormons).

These religions have opposed the use of cannabis by their religious members.

In the U.S., some religious groups have been vocal and active in movements against legalizing cannabis.

As cannabis becomes more accessible throughout North America and the rest of the world, followers of faith of any religion should stay educated about their respective religions’ position on using cannabis.

1. Bahá’í Faith



In the Bahá’í Faith, drinking alcohol and consuming drugs that may lead to intoxication, as opposed to medical prescription, is prohibited.

However, smoking tobacco is viewed as a personal decision, but strongly frowned on nevertheless.

2. Buddhism

In Buddhist religion, the Fifth Precept (or five rules of training; the important system of morality for Buddhist lay people) is interpreted as “[refraining] from intoxicating drinks and drugs which lead to heedlessness”.

However, the cannabis plant and other psychoactive plants are specifically prescribed in the Mahākāla Tantra for medicinal purposes (not recreational).

3. Catholicism

Is smoking weed a sin for Catholics?

Pope Francis had publicly spoken against legalizing recreational and medical cannabis in South America prior to becoming the Pope of the Catholic Church at the Vatican.

Francis stated in 2013 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that “a reduction in the spread and influence of drug addiction will not be achieved by a liberalization of drug use.”

The Catholic Church official position on cannabis is that, “their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense.”

4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Can Mormons smoke weed?

Among Mormons, there is prohibition against consuming intoxicating substances such as alcohol, cannabis and hard drugs.

In 1915, the LDS Church banned consuming cannabis, and a century later in 2016, the church’s First Presidency urged members to oppose legalizing cannabis use for recreational purposes.

5. Protestantism

Can a Christian smoke weed?

In 2016, the Arkansas Baptist State Convention voted to discourage a medical marijuana legislation.

In the same year, the Florida Baptist Convention declared that congregations should be encouraged to vote against the Florida Amendment 2 (2016), which expanded legalization of medical marijuana in the state of Florida.

However, other Protestant churches have taken a different route, endorsing the legality of medical marijuana, including the Presbyterian Church (USA), United Methodist Church, United Church of Christ, and the Episcopal Church.

6. Hinduism

During the time of the Hindu festival of Holi, people of the Hindu faith eat bhang which contains cannabis dry herbs.

In Hinduism, when the elixir of life was produced from the oceans by the devas and the asuras as described in the Samudra manthan, Shiva created the cannabis plant to purify the elixir.

Furthermore, wise drinking of bhang, according to the Hindu religion, is believed to cleanse sins, unite one with Shiva, and avoid the miseries of hell in the future life.

7. Islam

Can a Muslim smoke weed?

The Quran does not directly forbid cannabis per say.

There is a controversy among Muslim scholars about cannabis as some deemed it to be similar to khamr (alcoholic drink), thus believed it to be haraam (forbidden).

Other Muslim scholars, especially in Sunni Islam, consider cannabis to be halal (permissable) by the Bukhari laws.

In modern times, cannabis is still consumed in the Islamic world, sometimes in a religious context (particularly within the Sufi mystic movement).

8. Judaism

Can a Jew smoke weed?

Though the argument has not been accepted by mainstream scholars, some writers have theorized that cannabis may have been used ritually in ancient Judaism.

Today, Orthodox rabbi Moshe Feinstein stated in 1973 that consuming cannabis was not permitted under Jewish law, due to its harmful effects.

9. Rastafari

Rastaman in Barbados sporting a cannabis badge above a badge displaying Haile Selasie. It is not known when Rastafari first claimed cannabis to be sacred. However, it is clear that by the late 1940s Rastafari was associated with cannabis smoking at the Pinnacle community of Leonard Howell.

10. Sikhism

Can a Sikh smoke weed?

In Sikhism, the First Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak, stated that using any mind altering substance (without medical purposes) is a distraction to keeping the mind clean of the name of God.

According to the Sikh Rehat Maryada, “A Sikh must not take hemp (cannabis), opium, liquor, tobacco, in short any intoxicant.

His only routine intake should be food and water”.

However, there exists a tradition of Sikhs using edible cannabis, often in the form of the beverage bhang, particularly among the Sikh community known as Nihang.

11. Taoism

Weed in Taoism?

Beginning around the 4th century, Taoist texts mentioned using cannabis in censers.

Needham cited the (ca. 570 AD) Taoist encyclopedia Wushang Biyao 無上秘要 (“Supreme Secret Essentials”) that cannabis was added into ritual incense-burners, and suggested the ancient Taoists experimented systematically with “hallucinogenic smokes”.

A 6th-century AD Taoist medical work, the Wuzangjing 五臟經 (“Five Viscera Classic”) says, “If you wish to command demonic apparitions to present themselves you should constantly eat the inflorescences of the hemp plant.”

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Fun Facts: University of the Witwatersrand researchers in South Africa tested 24 dry herb tobacco pipes from William Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon property, and discovered that 8 tested positive for cannabis dry herb residue.