“Freedom from marijuana, alcohol, and all other mind altering substances”

Written by, Carol M.

There was quite a brouhaha about that statement a couple of years ago. Los Angeles County MA had incorporated and the four main groups of recovering pot addicts were unifying.  We had a meeting in Balboa Park and the Board of Directors were directed to add that to the By-Laws so there would be no question later as to what our definition of sobriety is.  The only requirement for membership in Marijuana Anonymous is a desire to stop using marijuana, but to take sobriety chips (as opposed to chips for “clean time”) and to be of service in certain commitments, there is a “sobriety”   requirement, defined above.  

There are some gray areas with that “all other mind altering substances”, but most of our members have been able to deal with that to their own satisfaction.  When your doctor (did you tell him you’re an addict?) gives you a prescription for pain after you’ve had surgery, that’s not a slip.  But when he gives you a prescription of ten pills, you take nine, and save the other one for “some time later”, you’re in a slippery place.  Later, when you’ve had a bad day and you take that pain pill just to numb out or go to sleep, I think you’ve had a slip.  

It is also my own personal belief that doctors are some of the biggest drug dealers in the country.  We addicts are able to manipulate them so well, and they are just not knowledgeable enough about addiction to recognize what they’re doing.  Sometimes the addict doesn’t notice what’s happening until after it’s too late, too.  Women are particular victims of the “here, have a pill” type of medical practice.  We go in with vague aches and symptoms and rather than tell us “I don’t know what’s wrong with you” , the doctor would rather appear wise, so we walk out with Valium, or Xanax, or some pain pill or muscle relaxant, and a year or so later, we find we can’t get through the day (or even part of the day) without our little magic pills.  

It’s up to us as recovering addicts to take responsibility for our recovery and be aware of the dangers of cross addiction.  We are marijuana addicts and have already proven that some substance got out of our control.  We can do it again and again until we’ve finally tried everything, or we can wake up and make sure we’re not putting anything in our bodies that we don’t have to, or that we don’t take it for any longer than is absolutely necessary.

Published in A New Leaf – July 1991