On July 12, the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) issued a statement condemning the initiative to legalize medical cannabis. The UCCRO, which includes representatives of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church as well as the schismatics, Uniates, Catholics, various Protestants and sectarians, and Jews and Muslims, emphasizes in its appeal that cannabis is a narcotic, with the same risks as other narcotics, and giving it “medical” status does nothing to change that. “There is as much real treatment in the use of ‘medical cannabis’ as there is in ‘medical alcohol,’” the UCCRO states. Recall that Ukrainian deputies first submitted a bill on legalizing medical marijuana in December 2020 after Epiphany Dumenko, the head of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” gave his support to the project. Conversely, His Grace Bishop Sylvester of Belgorod, rector of the canonical Church’s Kiev Theological Seminary and Academy, said at the time that the medical marijuana is essentially a cover scheme for drug trafficking.
Source: Orthochristian.com