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Is the Marijuana plant a type of forbidden form of Kitniyos?

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Also see: mi.yodeya.com/questions/6839/kitniyos-hanaah/6847#6847 (Yahu's comment about injecting Kitniyos would apply here...) –  yydl Apr 14 '11 at 18:37
Either way, the halakha of Haza"l permits it on Pesah. =) –  Aman Apr 2 '12 at 17:36
I think most likely there are larger considerations at play with the use of marijuana. Not the least of which is the legality of it. If it is for medicinal use, then the same rules would apply as with other medications - CYLOR and doctor to determine the level of need and how that affects the ability to overturn a Minhag Yisrael (assuming you are from the camp that considers it such). No joke, but even if it is not Kitniyoth, you would probably need to check every leaf/shred (or whatever it's called) prior to Pesah to ensure there are no 5-Species grains in it. –  Seth J Apr 2 '12 at 18:43
@SethJ check every leaf?? Do you have any reason to believe that it was grown and/or processed with grain??! –  Baal Shemot Tovot Apr 20 '12 at 3:31
@vram I'm going by what people say to do for rice and quinoa even when not grown near the 5 grains. And duuude, like, chill out, man. –  Seth J Apr 20 '12 at 4:17

2 Answers 2

Generally, things that do not have the tradition of being kitnyot, are not kitnyot. A good example of this is quinoa. It is similar in many ways to other types of banned kitnyot, yet the generally accepted halakhic authorities do not classify it as kitnyot, partly because it was not included in the original custom. Based on the tradition of kitynot, there is no way marijuana would be defined as kitnyot. Practically speaking, marijuana for recreational purposes would be forbidden (as Barry noted in referencing Reb Moshe's teshuva on it). I haven't heard or read anything about using it for medical purposes.

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Hello Sam, welcome to Judaism.SE and thank you for this answer! If you know of any sources that are relevant to your answer, please do edit them in. Again, welcome, and I hope to see you around the site! –  HodofHod Apr 3 '12 at 2:07
@HodofHod: I will see if I can get the sources. What I wrote is based on a short shiur/discussion from our Rav at shul about kitnyot, so I'll ask him for the source. –  Sam Goldberg Apr 3 '12 at 20:40

It seems the answer is yes according to this article which I think has been fetured here before.


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You didn't read the article you posted, did you? If you had, you would have seen that A) Marijuana is NOT kitniot (as it's in the same class as tobacco - it's used for smoking, not eating) and B) authorities such as Rabbi Feinstein have declared that it should be forbidden regardless of whether it's Passover or not (probably for the effects it has on a person's health). –  Barry Hammer Nov 28 '11 at 13:01

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