Twelve Questions

Marijuana
1
Twelve Questions
1. Has smoking pot stopped being fun?
2. Do you ever get high alone?
3. Is it hard for you to imagine a life without marijuana?
4. Do you find that your friends are determined by your marijuana use?
5. Do you smoke marijuana to avoid dealing with your problems?
6. Do you smoke pot to cope with your feelings?
7. Does your marijuana use let you live in a privately defined world?
8. Have you ever failed to keep promises you made about cutting down or controlling your dope smoking?
9. Has your use of marijuana caused problems with memory, concentration, or motivation?
10. When your stash is nearly empty, do you feel anxious or worried about how to get more?
11. Do you plan your life around your marijuana use?
12. Have friends or relatives ever complained that your pot smoking is damaging your relationship with them?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you may have a problem with marijuana.

The Twelve Questions of Marijuana Anonymous are reprinted with the
permission of Marijuana Anonymous World Services, Inc. Permission to
reprint the Twelve Questions does not mean that MA has reviewed or approved tthe contents of this website, nor that MA agrees with the views expressed herein

http://www.marijuana-anonymous.org/index.shtml

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Thank you for reminding us why we are here...

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Thanks to you and Cary for helping to shoulder the load these past few days.
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hi august,

with such dismay i read your last post to monkey.
imo. cary was not quite "shouldering the load".
rather cary brought a negative energy and mindset that i can only speak for myself in saying i'm done posting here (i know others are too).

the tone of this board changed from such a heartfelt place where i have felt safe to share the decent into my own recovery. apparently that isnt possible anymore.

yikes, i wouldn't thank 'cary'.

thanks for all your words of wisdom and good health to you august west!

best,
jane
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Hiya August,
That was good. I replaced marijuana for pills and unfortunately answered yes to many questions. Sorry I haven't gotten around to writing yet, I will soon, I promise. I hope your feeling good these days and that everything is going well for you. I really do miss you. But I'm glad to see your still posting. If you get a chance, you don't have to, but if you want can you read my post entitled questions/need advice and give me your thoughts on it? Take care August, I'll pop in again to say hello to you. Roe xo
If you have any opinions on it, or would care to comment, just drop me an email.
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AugustWest, thank you for your kind words.

I am posting the 12 Steps for consideraton by anyone posting or viewing on this site who has a willingness to try a new approach to sobriety or who is willing, however slightly, to re-consider or re-visit the approach to sobriety taken by countless others who have struggled with the disease of addiction over the last 60 years or so -- and have found answers to their delima.

Maybe it's an idea or a way of life that was rebuffed or discarded or dismissed long ago -- perhaps as a result of an old hurt or disappointment.

Now I will readily admit that it takes a person who has an open mind rather than a closed mind to all the possibilities available to them. And an open heart -- working with others is suggested, and eventually required.

Or a person who has a closed mind, but is willing to entertain the idea that the actions taken by others may just work for them, if they are willing to entertain the idea for a moment. Or a nan-o-second.

For the reader: please ask yourself two simple questions -- what do I have to lose ? what do I have to gain ?

The Twelve Steps of Marijuana Anonymous

The practice of rigorous honesty, of opening our hearts and minds, and the willingness to go to any lengths to have a spiritual awakening are essential to our recovery.

Our old ideas and ways of life no longer work for us. Our suffering shows us that we need to let go absolutely. We surrender ourselves to a Power greater than ourselves.

Here are the steps we take which are suggested for recovery:

1. We admitted we were powerless over marijuana, that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3, Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood God.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to marijuana addicts and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Do not be discouraged; none of us are saints. Our program is not easy, but it is simple. We strive for progress, not perfection. Our experiences, before and after we entered recovery, teach us three important ideas:

That we are marijuana addicts and cannot manage our own lives;
That probably no human power can relieve our addiction; and
That our Higher Power can and will if sought.


WANT TO KNOW MORE --- JUST ASK. Responses are sure to come.





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The Second Step is about possibility, about hope. With this Step, we come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. We are asked to open our minds to the possibility that help is available. Perhaps there is a source of assistance that can do for us what we have been unable to do for ourselves. We don't have to believe that it will happen, only that it could.

This little bit of hope, this chink in the armor of despair, is enough to show that we are willing to move in the direction of healing. Once we recognize that the possibility of help exists, it seems worthwhile to explore a relationship with a Higher Power. A little willingness can go a long way toward making hope and faith an ongoing part of our lives. In the hands of a Higher Power, sanity and serenity become realistic hopes.

Today, I will open my mind to hope.



"Courage to Change" -- One Day at a Time in Al-Anon II
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Thank you for the copy/paste information taken off another website. I just wish some people would understand that many pot smokers are very anti-God types of people. I've known many, many, many people that if they were to have read this post, and seen the SEMANTICS involving God, they would have closed the website, and continued on for who knows how much longer. I'm not trying to put anyone down for using God as a means of recovery, or "part of" a means of recovery, more power to you. Several people look up research on the Internet to try and help themselves to stop quitting, they run across God mentioned in about 90% of these websites, and not even believing in God one bit, get very frustrated and start to think unless they change their entire view on life and start believing in God that they won't be able to stop.

I know that no one means to do these things, and people just want to share how they helped themselves in hopes it will help other people. One should be more aware of just HOW devestating semantics can be, especially on something as important as trying to help other people stop doing drugs.
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Dear Dokar

I share your concern as well, the 12 steps works for those who feel God or a higher power helps them. A great book called the Tao of Sobriety gives you the responsibility of your own sobriety by assigning the use of a mind manager. Then you have people like my wife and others who quit cold turkey felt they are intelligent enough to stop and did and remained that way and never looked back. Please take some time to read all of the threads in this board and you will find something that relates to you. 12 steps is just a formula for those who can relate to it. I feel that this message site is more about the 12 questions . Not everyone is going to be god centered, but I am sure those who are serious are here to stop their marijuana use . Best of Luck
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Even after I acknowledged that I had a problem with pot, I continued to believe that the issue was one of self-control. After all, I had managed to excel in academics and work based on my sense of focus and self-will. It was difficult for me to relinquish control to something other than my own resources.

I spoke about this in the second meeting I attended and I recall a young girl with green hair and a nose ring telling me that what she had heard me say was nothing more than a textbook definition of denial. I was just desperate enough at that point not to reject her comment outright, and to at least give it some consideration.

It would be several weeks before the discomfort of being off pot got so bad that I was really willing to seek relief by giving up my sense of control over the issue of smoking pot. I spoke about my reluctance to get into the "God thing" at length, and what I was told was that it was time to resign the debating society, and to simply develop the willingness to consider new possibilities. I was told that one concept would assuredly keep me in the darkness, and that concept was contempt, prior to investigation.

Little did I imagine at that point how greatly my life was about to change, and all of it for the better.

All the best,

August
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I agree that it's at least by far 5000% or more in terms of being EASIER to quit if you have some kind of outside help, be it God, a group, or a wife/husband/close friend.

It is possible to use your own strong-will to stop, but after years of smoking pot this will dies down and you need someone else to help, this holds true for MOST people. Being "God-centered" is by far the easiest way to handle the problem, being the fact most quitters are God oriented, so there is more support. I guess I'm just saying to everyone out there that......even some to the point of hating God, or anyone who has anyone to do with him, that you don't have to believe in God to get help, and I;m sure everyone here will try to help out regardless of your beliefs.
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Bob B. posted this on one of the other boards and I found it to be an accurate reflection of my personal journey out of the darkness. I thought it might be helpful for those who feel that the only issue at stake is one of will power. Happy reading!

Abstinence vs. Recovery
By: Charles N. Roper, PhD, LCDC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A familiar story among 12-step program members and within the alcohol/drug abuse treatment community is of an AA newcomer who approached an old timer and said, "You know, I'm starting to connect with these ideas and with you people, but there's one thing that I'm just not getting. What's this 'spiritual' part of the program that y'all keep talking about?"

The old timer scratched his head, thought for a moment, and then responded, "Well, I guess I could explain the spiritual part if you could tell me what the other part is."

Of course, there is no other part. Recovery is a spiritual process. But understanding that concept is not always easy, even for people who have been around recovery for some time. It is often not understood by helping professionals outside of the alcohol/drug abuse field, and even occasionally by some within the field. People, both those in or around recovery and those not, often mistake abstinence for recovery.

Abstinence begins when an alcoholic/addict quits consuming alcohol and drugs. It occurs at a point in time, as an event. Recovery, on the other hand, begins when an abstinent alcoholic/addict starts growing and changing in positive ways. It occurs over a period of time, as a process. Abstinence requires a decision; recovery requires time and effort.

It has been suggested that chemical dependency is a four-fold disorderone that affects its victims physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. If thats true, then for recovery to be real and lasting, it must occur on all of these levelsthat is, in all areas of one's life.

Physical recovery is the least complex of the four, even though it is often the most immediate. Physical recovery happens primarily as the result of abstinence alone. The body has an amazing ability to repair itself, especially when combined with medical attention.

Mental recovery is more complex because it includes not only issues associated with brain function and brain chemistry but also with issues of attitudes, belief systems, and rational, abstract thought.

Emotional recovery is more complex yet. It involves not only attitudes, belief systems, and rational thought, but also thoughts first cousinfeelings. Emotional recovery involves learning to deal with feelings openly, honestly, and responsibly. It includes learning to express and resolve feelings in appropriate and effective ways. For most people in recovery, emotional recovery takes years.

Abstinence alone seldom, if ever, encourages recovery on mental and emotional levels. Indeed, some individuals find abstinence alone to be a hindrance to mental and emotional recovery. This notion brings to mind the familiar "dry drunk" individual who is more "restless, irritable, and discontented" dry and clean than he/she is wet and using.

Spiritual recovery is the most complex of all because it involves all of the following:

It incorporates aspects of the other three life areas;
It occurs on a deeper human level that the others;
It takes a lifetime and is never completed; and
It is rather abstract and illusive in nature.

If a dozen spiritual "professionals" were asked to define spirituality and spiritual recovery, they would surely produce a dozen different definitions. Therefore, it may be useful to discuss spirituality and spiritual recovery as broad, generic concepts which incorporate several or perhaps many components.

In its broadest sense, spiritually is a way of life. It is an attitude toward life. And this attitude toward life is demonstrated through one's values, beliefs, and personal characteristics. If asked to list positive spiritual qualities, most people would include at least some of the following: Serenity, peace of mind, peace of conscience, goodness, honesty, genuineness, integrity, humility, kindness, generosity, courage, faith, tolerance, acceptance, discipline, etc.

Of course, each of these positive spiritual qualities has a negative counterpart. Hence, the not-so-obvious fact that spirituality has a dark side as well as a bright one, with negative spiritual qualities being the opposites of the positive ones. If spirituality is a way of life and an attitude toward life, then, negative spirituality might be exemplified by the attitude "Life's a b**** and then you die" and by personal qualities demonstrating that attitude.

These personal qualitiesboth positive and negativeall have something in common. They run very deep. Indeed, they are the essence of one's "being." Personal spirituality resides, and therefore spiritual recovery occurs, at that very deep levelat the alcoholic/addict's core.

Deep and profound alterations in one's "internal being" might take the form of the following transformations: From a place of fear to one of faith; from pride to humility; self-pity to gratitude; resentment to acceptance; dishonesty to honesty; cynicism to trust; isolation to connectedness; and from reliance on self-will to reliance on God's will.

Profound internal changes such as these typically occur quite subtly over extended periods of time. That's the way recovery works.

Internal changes don't stay hidden internally. They become visible externally. They manifest in behavior, which in the final analysis is the outward expression of what is within. They show up especially in the quality of one's relationships. Those relationships include all of the following:

The one with oneself, in terms of self-esteem, self-acceptance, and ones sense of meaning & purpose in life;

The ones with other people, in terms of openness, genuineness, and depth; and

The ones with Higher Power, in terms of faith, trust, and connectedness.

Fortunately, help with the process of spiritual growth and changewith recoveryis very readily available. The availability of help is fortunate because help is an essential ingredient in the process. Spiritually weak or spiritually bankrupt individuals don't recover just on the basis of will power alone. In fact, strong will power impedes spiritual growth more than it helps.

Structured treatment programs, substance abuse counseling, and 12-Step programs do help. They are not the only sources of help, but they are the most consistently effective, especially when combined in some systematic, consistent fashion.

Treatment and counseling provide structure, support, and intervention, encouraging insight and movement through denial, which blocks recognition of the need for both abstinence and recovery. Treatment and counseling facilitate trust by creating a supportive and accepting environment.

Twelve-Step programs, such as AA, NA, CA, Al-Anon, and Alateen, provide powerful blueprints for spiritual growth and change, which when followed, lead to a positive spiritual way of life. Furthermore, support groups offer fellowship and opportunities for service to others with similar problems.

Recovery is said to be simple but not easy. Simple, because spiritual concepts are simple. Truth is truth. Not easy, because work is work. Recovery requires effort and patience and then more effort and patience and then more.... It's worth the effort, though.

Recovery breeds greater recovery; growth and change open doors for more growth and change. Finally, as recovery deepens, abstinence simply becomes another of its many wonderful by-products.

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From the Medical Profession


Addiction is a Brain Disease

By ALAN I. LESHNER, MD

A core concept evolving with scientific advances over the past decade is that drug addiction is a brain disease that develops over time as a result of the initially voluntary behavior of using drugs. (Drugs include alcohol.)

The consequence is virtually uncontrollable compulsive drug craving, seeking, and use that interferes with, if not destroys, an individuals functioning in the family and in society. This medical condition demands formal treatment.

We now know in great detail the brain mechanisms through which drugs acutely modify mood, memory, perception, and emotional states.

Using drugs repeatedly over time changes brain structure and function in fundamental and long-lasting ways that can persist long after the individual stops using them.

Addiction comes about through an array of neuro-adaptive changes and the lying down and strengthening of new memory connections in various circuits in the brain.

The Highjacked Brain

We do not yet know all the relevant mechanisms, but the evidence suggests that those long-lasting brain changes are responsible for the distortions of cognitive and emotional functioning that characterize addicts, particularly including the compulsion to use drugs that is the essence of addiction.

It is as if drugs have highjacked the brains natural motivational control circuits, resulting in drug use becoming the sole, or at least the top, motivational priority for the individual.

Thus, the majority of the biomedical community now considers addiction, in its essence, to be a brain disease:

This brain-based view of addiction has generated substantial controversy, particularly among people who seem able to think only in polarized ways.

Many people erroneously still believe that biological and behavioral explanations are alternative or competing ways to understand phenomena, when in fact they are complementary and integrative.

Modern science has taught that it is much too simplistic to set biology in opposition to behavior or to pit willpower against brain chemistry.

Addiction involves inseparable biological and behavioral components. It is the quintessential bio-behavioral disorder.

Many people also erroneously still believe that drug addiction is simply a failure of will or of strength of character. Research contradicts that position.

Responsible For Our Recovery

However, the recognition that addiction is a brain disease does not mean that the addict is simply a hapless victim.

Addiction begins with the voluntary behavior of using drugs, and addicts must participate in and take some significant responsibility for their recovery.

Thus, having this brain disease does not absolve the addict of responsibility for his or her behavior.

But it does explain why an addict cannot simply stop using drugs by sheer force of will alone.

The Essence of Addiction

The entire concept of addiction has suffered greatly from imprecision and misconception. In fact, if it were possible, it would be best to start all over with some new, more neutral term.

The confusion comes about in part because of a now archaic distinction between whether specific drugs are physically or psychologicallyaddicting.

The distinction historically revolved around whether or not dramatic physical withdrawal symptoms occur when an individual stops taking a drug; what we in the field now call physical dependence.

However, 20 years of scientific research has taught that focusing on this physical versus psychological distinction is off the mark and a distraction from the real issues.

From both clinical and policy perspectives, it actually does not matter very much what physical withdrawal symptoms occur.

Physical dependence is not that important, because even the dramatic withdrawal symptoms of heroin and alcohol addiction can now be easily managed with appropriate medications.

Even more important, many of the most dangerous and addicting drugs, including methamphetamine and crack cocaine, do not produce very severe physical dependence symptoms upon withdrawal.

What really matters most is whether or not a drug causes what we now know to be the essence of addiction, namely

The uncontrollable, compulsive drug craving, seeking, and use, even in the face of negative health and social consequences.

This is the crux of how the Institute of Medicine, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Medical Association define addiction and how we all should use the term.

It is really only this compulsive quality of addiction that matters in the long run to the addict and to his or her family and that should matter to society as a whole.

Thus, the majority of the biomedical community now considers addiction, in its essence, to be a brain disease:

A condition caused by persistent changes in brain structure and function.
This results in compulsive craving that overwhelms all other motivations and is the root cause of the massive health and social problems associated with drug addiction.

The Definition of Addiction

In updating our national discourse on drug abuse, we should keep in mind this simple definition:

Addiction is a brain disease expressed in the form of compulsive behavior.

Both developing and recovering from it depend on biology, behavior, and social context.

It is also important to correct the common misimpression that drug use, abuse and addiction are points on a single continuum along which one slides back and forth over time, moving from user to addict, then back to occasional user, then back to addict.

Clinical observation and more formal research studies support the view that, once addicted, the individual has moved into a different state of being.

It is as if a threshold has been crossed.

Very few people appear able to successfully return to occasional use after having been truly addicted.

The Altered Brain - A Chronic Illness


Unfortunately, we do not yet have a clear biological or behavioral marker of that transition from voluntary drug use to addiction.

However, a body of scientific evidence is rapidly developing that points to an array of cellular and molecular changes in specific brain circuits. Moreover, many of these brain changes are common to all chemical addictions, and some also are typical of other compulsive behaviors such as pathological overeating.

Addiction should be understood as a chronic recurring illness.

Although some addicts do gain full control over their drug use after a single treatment episode, many have relapses.

The complexity of this brain disease is not atypical, because virtually no brain diseases are simply biological in nature and expression. All, including stroke, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and clinical depression, include some behavioral and social aspects.

What may make addiction seem unique among brain diseases, however, is that it does begin with a clearly voluntary behavior- the initial decision to use drugs.

Moreover, not everyone who ever uses drugs goes on to become addicted.

Individuals differ substantially in how easily and quickly they become addicted and in their preferences for particular substances.

Consistent with the bio-behavioral nature of addiction, these individual differences result from a combination of environmental and biological, particularly genetic, factors.

In fact, estimates are that between 50 and 70 percent of the variability in susceptibility to becoming addicted can be accounted for by genetic factors.

Although genetic characteristics may predispose individuals to be more or less susceptible to becoming addicted, genes do not doom one to become an addict.

Over time the addict loses substantial control over his or her initially voluntary behavior, and it becomes compulsive.

For many people these behaviors are truly uncontrollable, just like the behavioral expression of any other brain disease.

Schizophrenics cannot control their hallucinations and delusions. Parkinsons patients cannot control their trembling. Clinically depressed patients cannot voluntarily control their moods.

Thus, once one is addicted, the characteristics of the illness- and the treatment approaches- are not that different from most other brain diseases. No mater how one develops an illness, once one has it, one is in the diseased state and needs treatment.

(continued)
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Addiction is a Brain Disease (continued)

Environmental Cues

Addictive behaviors do have special characteristics related to the social contexts in which they originate.

All of the environmental cues surrounding initial drug use and development of the addiction actually become conditioned to that drug use and are thus critical to the development and expression of addiction.

Environmental cues are paired in time with an individuals initial drug use experiences and, through classical conditioning, take on conditioned stimulus properties.

When those cues are present at a later time, they elicit anticipation of a drug experience and thus generate tremendous drug craving.

Cue-induced craving is one of the most frequent causes of drug use relapses, even after long periods of abstinence, independently of whether drugs are available.

The salience of environmental or contextual cues helps explain why reentry to ones community can be so difficult for addicts leaving the controlled environments of treatment or correctional settings and why aftercare is so essential to successful recovery.

The person who became addicted in the home environment is constantly exposed to the cues conditioned to his or her initial drug use, such as the neighborhood where he or she hung out, drug-using buddies, or the lamppost where he or she bought drugs.

Simple exposure to those cues automatically triggers craving and can lead rapidly to relapses.

This is one reason why someone who apparently overcame drug cravings while in prison or residential treatment could quickly revert to drug use upon returning home.

In fact, one of the major goals of drug addiction treatment is to teach addicts how to deal with the cravings caused by inevitable exposure to these conditioned cues.

Implications

It is no wonder addicts cannot simply quit on their own.

They have an illness that requires biomedical treatment.

People often assume that because addiction begins with a voluntary behavior and is expressed in the form of excess behavior, people should just be able to quit by force of will alone.

However, it is essential to understand when dealing with addicts that we are dealing with individuals whose brains have been altered by drug use.

They need drug addiction treatment.

We know that, contrary to common belief, very few addicts actually do just stop on their own.

Observing that there are very few heroin addicts in their 50s or 60s, people frequently ask what happened to those who were heroin addicts 30 years ago, assuming that they must have quit on their own.

However, longitudinal studies find that only a very small fraction actually quit on their own. The rest have either been successfully treated, are currently in maintenance treatment, or (for about half) are dead.

Consider the example of smoking cigarettes: Various studies have found that between 3 and 7 percent of people who try to quit on their own each year actually succeed.

Science has at last convinced the public that depression is not just a lot of sadness; that depressed individuals are in a different brain state and thus require treatment to get their symptoms under control.

It is time to recognize that this is also the case for addicts.

The Role of Personal Responsibility

The role of personal responsibility is undiminished but clarified.

Does having a brain disease mean that people who are addicted no longer have any responsibility for their behavior or that they are simply victims of their own genetics and brain chemistry? Of course not.

Addiction begins with the voluntary behavior of drug use, and although genetic characteristics may predispose individuals to be more or less susceptible to becoming addicted, genes do not doom one to become an addict.

This is one major reason why efforts to prevent drug use are so vital to any comprehensive strategy to deal with the nations drug problems. Initial drug use is a voluntary, and therefore preventable, behavior.

Moreover, as with any illness, behavior becomes a critical part of recovery. At a minimum, one must comply with the treatment regimen, which is harder than it sounds.

Treatment compliance is the biggest cause of relapses for all chronic illnesses, including asthma, diabetes, hypertension, and addiction.

Moreover, treatment compliance rates are no worse for addiction than for these other illnesses, ranging from 30 to 50 percent.

Thus, for drug addiction as well as for other chronic diseases, the individuals motivation and behavior are clearly important parts of success in treatment and recovery.

Alcohol/ Drug Treatment Programs

Maintaining this comprehensive bio-behavioral understanding of addiction also speaks to what needs to be provided in drug treatment programs.

Again, we must be careful not to pit biology against behavior.
The National Institute on Drug Abuses recently published Principles of Effective Drug Addiction Treatment provides a detailed discussion of how we must treat all aspects of the individual, not just the biological component or the behavioral component.

As with other brain diseases such as schizophrenia and depression, the data show that the best drug addiction treatment approaches attend to the entire individual, combining the use of medications, behavioral therapies, and attention to necessary social services and rehabilitation.

These might include such services as family therapy to enable the patient to return to successful family life, mental health services, education and vocational training, and housing services.

That does not mean, of course, that all individuals need all components of treatment and all rehabilitation services. Another principle of effective addiction treatment is that the array of services included in an individual's treatment plan must be matched to his or her particular set of needs.

Moreover, since those needs will surely change over the course of recovery, the array of services provided will need to be continually reassessed and adjusted.

We believe holistic approaches ranging from brain wave biofeedback to yoga and acupuncture are an important part of the "array of services" to which he refers.

Recommended Reading
J. D. Berke and S. E. Hyman, "Addiction, Dopamine, and the Molecular Mechanisms of Memory," Neuron 25 (2000): 515~532 (http://www.neuron.org/cgi/content/full/25/3/515/).

H. Garavan, J. Pankiewicz, A. Bloom, J. K. Cho, L. Sperry, T. J. Ross, B. J. Salmeron, R. Risinger, D. Kelley, and E. A. Stein, "Cue-Induced Cocaine Craving: Neuroanatomical Specificity for Drug Users and Drug Stimuli," American Journal of Psychiatry 157 (2000): 1789~1798 (ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/157/11/1789).

A. I. Leshner, "Science-Based Views of Drug Addiction and Its Treatment," Journal of the American Medical Association 282 (1999): 1314~1316
(www.drugabuse.gov/MedAdv/99/NR-1012.html).

A. T. McLellan, D. C. Lewis, C. P. O'Brien, and H. D. Kleber, "Drug Dependence, a Chronic Medical Illness," Journal of the American Medical Association 284 (2000): 1689~1695 (jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/284/13/1689).

National Institute on Drug Abuse, Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-Based Guide (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, July 2000) (165.112.78.61/PODAT/PODATindex.html).

National Institute on Drug Abuse, Preventing Drug Use Among Children and Adolescents: A Research-Based Guide (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, March 1997) (165.112.78.61/Prevention/Prevopen.html).

E. J. Nestler, "Genes and Addiction," Nature Genetics 26 (2000): 277~281 (www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/ng/journal/v26/n3/full/ng1100_277.html).

Physician Leadership on National Drug Policy, position paper on drug policy (PLNDP Program Office, Brown University, Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Providence, R.I.: January 2000) (plndp.org/Resources/resources.html).

F. S. Taxman and J. A. Bouffard, "The Importance of Systems in Improving Offender Outcomes: New Frontiers in Treatment Integrity," Justice Research and Policy 2 (2000): 37~58.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alan I. Leshner is the former director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at
The National Institutes of Health.
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Hey August..just checking in on you. Miss you.

Cowgirl
16

From Marijuana Anonymous -- FAQ

Q: Do you have to believe in God to quit smoking marijuana?

A: This quote from Marijuana Anonymous' book Life With Hope, page 7 (Step Two) sheds light on this question:

"It is not necessary to acquire a major God Consciousness to be able to cease using. All we need is to maintain an open mind and a hopeful heart. It is not necessary to say yes. It is, however, important to stop saying no. Observe the reality around you and the recovery taking place within MA. One only has to stop fighting. Higher Power means different things to different people. To some of us, it is a God of an organized religion; to others, it is a state of being commonly called spirituality. Some of us believe in no deity; a Higher Power may be the strength gained from being a part of, and caring for, a community of others. There is room in MA for all beliefs. We do not proselytize any particular view or religion. In MA each of us discovers a spirit of humility and tolerance, and each of us finds a Higher Power that works for us."

http://www.marijuana-anonymous.org/index.shtml

_____________________________

Not sure what several of you are trying to say by your posts, because you haven't offerred alternatives for long term sobriety. You only point out that some marijuana users and addicts have a distaste for God and some addicts are turned away by the concept or reality of a higher being or creator or even the word "God." That will always be the case. That will never change.

Readers come here looking for help in dealing with their disease of addiction.

Please be helpful to posters here and offer an alternative that works, then detail what path or paths an addict should take.

Most are not coming here looking for a reason not to try 12 Steps recovery, treatment, etc. They are looking for help and advice and real answers because they are desperate and hopeless -- their way of life has failed them and they know it.

If you have an alternative, please write about it and post it. But, please give sound, accurate advice to those struggling, not speculation, etc., or what can't be.

One thing I can say with certainty, and without fear of contractiction, there have been more than a few addicts and alcoholics, who, on the advice of a good, solid, seasoned sponsor, have gotten on their knees in a dark room and begged -- begged -- a Higher Power or their God and creator to take away the addiction and the mental obsession and the physical cravings and the depression and the lack of motivation and the hopelessness.

And you know what ? They have been relieved of those things. Still take it one day at a time, but THEY HAVE FOUND RELIEF ! Good, solid, stable and reliable long term relief.

And not only relief, but a wonderful, fulfilling, positive, joyful, exciting, clear-headed, free, active and high-spirited way of life.

Gotta quit saying no, wait, only after, if only, etc. And start saying, "you know, you just might be right. You just might have something there. I'll consider it."

What do you have to use ?
17
Twelve Rewards Of Sobriety and Spiritual Awareness

1. Hope instead of desperation

2. Faith instead of despair

3. Courage instead of fear

4. Peace of mind instead of confusion

5. Self respect instead of self contempt

6. Self confidence instead of helplessness

7. The respect of others instead of pity and contempt

8. A clean conscience instead of a sense of guilt

9. Real friendship instead of lonliness

10. A clean pattern of life instead of a purposeless existence

11. The love and understanding of our families instead of their doubts and fears

12. The freedom of a happy life instead of the bondage of an addicted obsession


18
Hey Cowgirl, hope you are well!

August
19
To Cary and the other contributors to this site,

I recently contacted Marijuana Anonymous and requested permission to post some of their web site content on this site. They kindly consented, but requested that we post the following when we do so:

"The foregoing was reprinted with the permission of Marijuana Anonymous World Services, Inc. Permission to reprint the Twelve Questions does not mean that MA has reviewed or approved tthe contents of this website, nor that MA agrees with the views expressed herein."


Thanks to all of you for your wonderful contributions!

August
20

Thanks, AugustWest. Will do.

I aimed at that by posting their website address, but yours is surely the better way.