# Is marijuana kosher? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 21, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marijuana-kosher/434373 "2008-01-21T14:15:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marijuana-kosher/434373/1 "2008-01-21T14:15:28Z")
Purely hypothetical, of course. I teach in a Jewish private school, and I love every second of it. It’s a cultural exchange that’s done me a world of good. I’m picking up bits of Hebrew and Yiddish. I learn a little bit about the lives of observant Orthodox Jews every day, including kosher law, which I find fascinating, if a bit abstruse. So, I was showing off some of my newfound knowledge to my brother, and he, being my brother, had to stump me with the above question. My first instinct was to say that, yes, marijuana is kosher. It’s a plant, and from what I’ve seen, kosher laws are the most relaxed about plant “foods”. Then it occurred to me that the Jews I work with are scrupulous about following their host culture’s laws, and, well, marijuana is illegal. But, that may not fall under kosher laws. I’d like to ask one of the rabbis around me, but I fear I’ll give the wrong impression. Does anyone else know? ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marijuana-kosher/434373/2 "2008-01-21T14:24:54Z")
I’m not **religious** , but I am Jewish. So far as I know, **only** meat or other products of animal extraction can be non-kosher in and of themselves. Additionally, you may not mix dairy and meat. Plants and plant-derived products fall in neither group, so marijuana should be kosher. It’s still **illegal** , but it’s kosher. Now we both wait for a more observant specimen of Judaism to come around and knock my answer out of the water… :o ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marijuana-kosher/434373/3 "2008-01-21T14:43:43Z")
It may be kosher, but it could be argued that _smoking_ marijuana, like smoking tobacco, is hazardous to your health and is a form of self-endangerment. That doesn’t address the issue of marijuana as a drug. > **[Smoking in Jewish law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_law_and_history_on_smoking)** > > Halakha (Jewish law) addresses a number of topics applicable to tobacco and cigarette smoking. These include the health impacts of smoking; the permissibility of smoking on holidays and fast days, and the impacts of second-hand smoke on other people. > Until the late 20th century, the use of tobacco for smoking and in the form of snuff was common among Jews. It is speculated that a Jew named Luis de Torres, who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his expedition in 1492, settled in Cuba, learned t... ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marijuana-kosher/434373/4 "2008-01-21T15:47:26Z")
So long as you don’t roll it into a [roach](http://bible.cc/leviticus/11-23.htm) ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marijuana-kosher/434373/5 "2008-01-21T16:58:54Z")
As others have already pointed out, kosher laws are about ingestion, not inhalation. Jewish law says that one has an obligation to safeguard his or her health, but that does not render an activity non-kosher. You could put ground-up pork (for ground hog day, perhaps?) in a pipe and smoke it and not violate the laws of kosher. And, if one were to ingest marijuana, there’s no kosher restrictions on it differently from any other vegetation. Make sure there are no bugs on it, and yum yum (I guess). And Israeli-grown produce has certain restrictions on it that I’m not going to bother going into in this post, because it’s most likely irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marijuana-kosher/434373/6 "2008-01-21T17:05:24Z")
Well, that’s good to know. Thanks, guys!