Utah Mormons clash over medical marijuana legalization

(via Wikimedia Commons)

As Utah moves closer to voting on a medical marijuana ballot this November, members of the Mormon church and its leaders are split on the issue.

Mormon church leaders have become increasingly more outspoken against Utah’s Proposition 2 initiative as the vote approaches, the Los Angeles Times reports.

More than 60 percent of the state’s population identify as Mormon, and two-thirds of Utah voters support the medical marijuana proposal, according to a poll from the Salt Lake Tribune-Hinckley Institute of Politics.

“We’re talking about medical marijuana, which science time and again has shown to have benefits for people in pain and suffering,” DJ Schanz, a Mormon and the director of the legalization campaign, told the LA Times. “People are being prescribed pills but can’t use something natural.”

Under the church’s lifestyle guidelines called the “Word of Wisdom,” marijuana is not mentioned specifically, leaving many associated with the faith to seek guidance from church officials regarding the status of medicinal cannabis.

Despite the support for legalization, however, Mormon leaders praised a memo in support of prohibition…

Continue reading at Smell the Truth

About Smell the Truth