Imam Sheraz Ali, head of the Nur-e-Islam Mosque in El Socorro says T&T must not make the same mistake with marijuana as the world did in the 19th century by using drugs such as cocaine, opium and morphine as medicine, which were only halted when it was discovered that they led to addiction.
With the passing of the bill for the decriminalisation of possession of up to 30 grammes of cannabis in Parliament on Wednesday, he was asked to comment on the following, during wars and conflicts, Muslims were exempt from fasting, were there any other extenuating circumstances when Muslims can use marijuana on medical grounds for pain or a terminal illness, or stimulants like during conflicts?
Isis fighters used amphetamines for fighting, combatants used the plant khat for its stimulant properties, modern militaries give their personnel amphetamine pills to stay awake and be more alert, Filipino Moros or juramentados in the 1900s affected the development of the Colt .45 pistol after the .38 round proved ineffective against the warriors when they went on suicidal killing rampages pumped up on drugs and 11th-century Hashashins, from where the word assassin comes from, reputedly smoked hashish.
Speaking to Guardian Media on Friday, Ali said, “All of these types of stimulants, even though they may be for something that might be a positive thing, but to use them to increase your ability for example to fight is not permissible.
“The only way it can be found permissible is as a curative agent where it was absolutely certain it will cure a disease.
“Even then there is a difference of opinion between the internal and external use of these substances. The external use of CBD oil is allowed, but not the internal use of it for medical purposes, some scholars are divided on this.
“With regard to the smoking of marijuana for medicinal purposes, it was not going to be allowed. It hasn’t been shown to have any curative properties, which are only contained in the extracted oil.”
The chairman of Concerned Muslims of T&T said as a believer these occurrences in the past would have had some positive effect, but will not be something people would go to readily in this modern world.
Ali said there was an analogy between medical marijuana with the use of opioids in terms of some of the drugs given to terminally ill patients and for pain, that some of these drugs were derived from also contained psychoactive substances and had the same effect from opium poppies as well as heroin.
He said cocaine, opium and other drugs such as morphine were used in remedies for coughs, colds and toothaches in the 19th century and the practice was only stopped because of their addictive properties.
Ali said similar caution should be applied to marijuana, CBD oil and its other derivatives as there was still ongoing research on the subject from Islamic scholars.
Criminologist Daurius Figueira, a Muslim said in Islam there was a prohibition against anything that intoxicated and changed the natural functioning of a person’s body and mind.
He said the initial prohibition was on alcohol, substances such as nicotine was also an intoxicant, stimulants were also intoxicants.
Figueira said there had always been a tradition within Islam where jihad (a struggle or fight against the enemies of Islam) was venerated.
He said in that pursuit, warriors were told they can suspend the moral prohibitions of Islam in the pursuit of jihad, however, the majority of people in Islam say that nothing gave them the right to do so.
Figueira said the marijuana decriminalisation issue in the country was “not Muslim business”.
“T&T was a secular society, not a Muslim state; what applied to Muslim was irrelevant to the wider society, people ate pork, ham was selling in the groceries,” he said.
He said Muslims had their moral order by which they abide, but they didn’t have the right or prerogative to hold non-Muslims in the society to the same moral order and cannot apply it to them.
