“Marijuana Anonymous is a fellowship of people who share our experience, strength, and hope with each other that we may solve our common problem and help others to recover from marijuana addiction.”

– Preamble, Life with Hope, third edition, page xvii

“Slowbriety” is not a real word—but maybe it should be. I took a long time to get sick and even to think about getting clean. If you were like me, you were getting high one day at a time thinking, “maybe tomorrow I’ll get clean.” Now, I’m staying clean one day at a time and rarely thinking I might get loaded tomorrow, but I know it could happen.

I have been in the program over 30 years and have slowly gotten better over time; slowly gotten better at dealing with life’s difficulties and better at sharing about my successes. I have a lot more success the longer I stay clean and apply the program in my life. I hope I never lose my enthusiasm for recovery. There’s a big difference in simply quitting getting high versus becoming a recovering addict and dealing with life’s difficulties.

Final thought: Today, I will realize I am staying on the path of recovery and slowly getting better.