Why Don’t More Religious People Support Legalization?

A new study about religious people and their views on cannabis legalization found that those who believe the Bible to be the literal word of God are much less likely to support legalization than those who believe the Bible is just a book of fables.

In fact, those who believe the Bible to be the word of God are 58% less likely to say they support legalization than those who don’t. The study also found that the more often people attend religious services, the less likely they are to support legalization.

Study author Daniel Krystosek, a graduate student in sociology at the University of Nevada, pooled together the data of three national surveys from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago conducted in 2006, 2008 and 2010.

Other findings from the study show that those who support legalized abortion are more likely to support marijuana legalization, as are those who hold mostly liberal political viewpoints. Older people were also less likely to support legalization; all things we have come to expect from different groups on this subject.

Since older people and people with more conservative viewpoints tend to be more religious and go to church more, it is no surprise that they are not as likely to support cannabis legalization. But it is interesting to note that those who believe the Bible to be the word of God are less likely to believe something He created should be legal.

“As people get older, they start families, and many parents do not want their children experimenting with drugs,” Krystosek wrote in the study. “Therefore, they might oppose the legalization of marijuana.”

This could mean that the stigma that surrounds cannabis – created over the decades by a never-ending drumbeat of propaganda and lies – is stronger than a religious person’s instinctual trust in what God created. They believe God can do no wrong yet they think something he has created was a mistake that needs to be corrected by humans, who are flawed. It’s an interesting set of positions to hold simultaneously.

In any case, most people support legalization and the momentum in terms of law reform is clearly with those who want to see marijuana prohibition ended. Most people realize that cannabis legalization is not a religious issue, it is a human rights issue. It’s about the right to do what you want as long as you don’t infringe on the rights of others.

It’s about gaining back some of the freedom that has been taken from us over the years.