Question: Can you explain to us in what way marijuana is worse than alcohol, which is legal, because there is a big debate going on that marijuana is no worse than alcohol?

Sri Chinmoy: Marijuana is not as old as alcohol in the experience of the Western world. I am not justifying alcohol, which is very bad, but if my great-grandfather formed a bad habit by eating something, and he taught that habit to my grandfather, who taught it to my father, then to some extent it becomes normal in the family. It is in the family blood. Then it is accepted out of necessity. There are many practices which are wrong from the spiritual point of view, but they have very ancient origins, so gradually they have become something normal. From the spiritual point of view, once we know what is wrong, it has to be extinguished, eradicated from our life. But the government and society are not paying attention to alcohol just because it has a very long-standing origin. Millions of people have been drinking alcohol for centuries.

But this marijuana business has just sprung up in the last few years; therefore, it is not yet a chronic disease. But it can become a chronic disease like the other one. Alcohol has been accepted for so long that now we are unable to get rid of it. But marijuana is something new with the present generation. The children take it and the parents violently object. They feel it is something wrong. Right now opposition is there. So while it is still something new and there is opposition, it is easier to pay attention to the right thing and get rid of this bad habit before it also becomes impossible to break.