“We believe this proposition loses sight of our real purpose, which is to relieve pain and suffering and, if passed, could become a slippery slope to unintended uses of marijuana,” Elder Christensen said.
In appropriate circumstances, the Church supports the use of medicinal marijuana when it is distributed in a controlled way to people enduring chronic pain and suffering.
But the medical marijuana initiative that Utahns will vote on in November is not the right solution, it says.
The Proposition 2 initiative “goes far beyond what we consider the appropriate use of medical cannabis,” said Elder Craig C. Christensen, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Church’s Utah Area.
Elder Christensen, along with fellow General Authority Seventy Elder Jack N. Gerard and Sister Lisa Harkness, first counselor in the Primary general presidency, met with the Church News on Sept. 19 to discuss the Church’s opposition to the ballot initiative.