Marijuana Anonymous
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Marijuana Anonymous
Marijuana Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women 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.
Purpose
The primary purpose of Marijuana Anonymous is to stay free of marijuana and to help the addict who still suffers achieve the same freedom. Marijuana Anonymous uses the basic 12 Steps of Recovery developed by Alcoholics Anonymous, because it has been proven that the 12 Step Recovery program works.
Who Can Join
The only requirement for membership in Marijuana Anonymous is a sincere desire to stop using marijuana. There are no dues or membership fees. Marijuana Anonymous is self-supporting through voluntary contributions by its members.
Marijuana Anonymous is not affiliated with any religious or secular institution or organization and has no opinion on any outside controversies or causes.
Who Is a Marijuana Addict?
Anyone who is a marijuana addict knows full well the answer to this question. But for those who are wondering whether or not they have a problem with marijuana, it may be instructive to look at the following.
Marijuana controls the individual’s life. As Marijuana Anonymous says, the person with a problem with marijuana loses all interest in anything else. Indeed, their very dreams go up in marijuana smoke. Addiction to marijuana is a progressive illness that often leads to addiction to other drugs, including alcohol.
All the marijuana addict thinks about is scoring marijuana, dealing it, and finding ways to get and stay high.
If someone is on the fence about whether or not marijuana is a problem in his or her life, the following 12 questions may help sort it out. Answer them truthfully.
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 of marijuana 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 the answer is yes to any of the 12 questions, he or she may have a problem with marijuana.
History of Marijuana Anonymous
Marijuana Anonymous started in several locations at almost the same time, between 1986 and 1987. It was, quite simply, a program whose time had come. In the very beginning, some of the first meetings weren't even called Marijuana Anonymous. Orange County, California had a group called Marijuana Smokers Anonymous. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the group was called Marijuana Addicts Anonymous. There were two groups called Marijuana Anonymous: one in Los Angeles, and the other in Seattle, Washington.
How the various groups came to become one group happened as a result of members of these different organizations traveling and moving about. They heard of the good work being done and, in 1989, some of the members from each of the groups got together to see if there was enough in common for them to form a single and united organization.
Delegates from the groups in Orange County, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area met in Morro Bay, California – since that was the half-way point for the three groups. They called the Seattle group during the meeting, which was designated the first “Unity Conference.” The name Marijuana Anonymous was selected since the Los Angeles group was already incorporated under that name. During that initial meeting, some of the basic ideas of Marijuana Anonymous were agreed upon.
A second meeting, called the first General Service Conference, occurred in October 1989. Delegates from the three California regions as well as the Washington group attended. During this meeting, the wording of the 12 Steps and Twelve Principles of Marijuana Anonymous was adopted.
Today there are meetings in 34 states and in 11 international locations.
How It Works
Marijuana Anonymous believes that the healing work of recovery occurs through practicing the Fellowship’s suggested twelve steps of recovery and by being guided as a group by the twelve traditions of Marijuana Anonymous.
Marijuana Anonymous uses the basic 12 Steps of Recovery founded by Alcoholics Anonymous. The reason is that it has been proven that the 12 Step Recovery program works.
Meetings
Meetings are the heart of the Marijuana Anonymous recovery program. All meetings are autonomous and meeting formats vary from one meeting to another. Sometimes there is a speaker. During other meetings, members study the Steps or other Marijuana Anonymous literature. In many meetings, there is a highlighted topic for discussion.
Anonymity is the foundation of the Marijuana Anonymous program. Anything that is said at a meeting is not to leave the meeting.
The 12 Steps of Marijuana Anonymous
Every 12-Step group has its own adaptation of the 12 steps originally developed by Alcoholics Anonymous, almost all of which are reprinted and adapted with permission of Alcoholics Anonymous. In Marijuana Anonymous, the practice of rigorous honesty, of opening individual hearts and minds, and the willingness to go to any lengths in order to have a spiritual awakening are essential to each member’s recovery. Each person must come to believe that their old ways and ideas of life no longer work. The fact of our suffering shows us that we absolutely must let that old way of living go. As such, Marijuana Anonymous members surrender themselves to a Power that is greater than themselves. They follow these steps to recovery.
1. We admitted we were powerless over marijuana, and 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.
Marijuana Anonymous has a profound message for each individual who wishes to embrace recovery. It is that no one should be discouraged, since we are all human and no one is a saint. The recovery program of Marijuana Anonymous is not easy, and yet it is simple. The goal is progress, not perfection.
The experiences of each member before and after entering recovery, teaches three important ideas central to recovery. They are that members are marijuana addicts and cannot manage their own lives; that probably no human power can relieve their addiction; and that our Higher Power can and will relieve their addiction if sought.
The Twelve Traditions of Marijuana Anonymous
In a similar manner to other 12-Step groups, Marijuana Anonymous utilizes twelve traditions. These comprise the organizational guidelines under which autonomous Marijuana Anonymous groups function.
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon Marijuana Anonymous unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority, a loving God whose expression may come through in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for membership in Marijuana Anonymous is a desire to stop using marijuana.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or Marijuana Anonymous as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose, to carry its message to the marijuana addict who still suffers.
6. Marijuana Anonymous groups ought never endorse, finance, or lend the Marijuana Anonymous name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every Marijuana Anonymous group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Marijuana Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. Marijuana Anonymous, as such, ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Marijuana Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the Marijuana Anonymous name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. The public relations policy of Marijuana Anonymous is based upon attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, television, film, and other public media. We need guard with special care the anonymity of all fellow Marijuana Anonymous members.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
--Suzannekane 18:31, 30 May 2011 (MDT)
