Anyone Try Substituting Marijuana for Alcohol?

[zimmy]

I often use both I'm thinking if I stop drinking that I might continue smoking pot. Seems to cause fewer problems in terms of hangovers and other health effects.

[SoberForMySon]

That's like me subbing burning myself for cutting myself. Sorry, but that's how I see it. You need to address the issues that make you want to smoke or drink. AA works for many. There's other ways if that is not for you. It's great you want to stop drinking, but have you considered why you want to do any drugs at all?

[Dee74]

Please keep in mind this is a recovery site -there's a lot of people here who are on this site for pot addiction.

That alone should be a sobering thought.

I destroyed my life as totally on pot as I did on alcohol later, zimmy....I don't think it's a step forward at all.

It was a different boat maybe, but it was the same sea of crud.

My problem was I wasn't happy with *me* - I kept trying to escape myself.

Until I dealt with that, I doomed myself to stumbling from addiction to addiction.
D

[Sapling]

You know....There is something really wonderful about living with a clear mind....It took me about forty years to figure that out.

[instant]

I tried weed, over the counter sedatives, prescribed sedatives and probably a few things I have forgotten.

At times I did get periods off the grog- no lasting success

In the end I found I could not substitute myself to sobriety.

I now put ideas about other drugs in the same waste basket I put ideas about drinking.

Good luck with whatever you choose. I hope it works out, but for me despite my dread at the thought sobriety has turned out to be a fantastic way to live.

[soberbythesea]

I know myself well enough to know that if I tried substituting one for the other, I'd just end up with the same problems.

The answer is no, for me. I need to learn how to deal with my life without altering my state of mind.

[aeo1313]

I agree with the others- drugs/alcohol...they all end up the same- an altered mind.

[Notmyrealname]

I /facepalm'd when I saw this one because I knew it would not end well. But if substituting weed for drinking was all that you could manage, that would probably be a positive change. Booze is really bad on so many levels.

[Southerner]

I have never tried anything other than alcohol so cannot speak to how anything else would affect me (I was in a truly committed relationship with Allie Cohol). However I would encourage you to break away from the focus on manifestations (drinking or smoking are the manifestations of something else). Instead, why the need to use a mind altering substance whatever it might be? Seems you might want to address why you need something rather than which something you cling to.

[miamifella]

If you are addicted to one thing (in this case alcohol), you are more likely to be come addicted to other substances. Pot addiction can be pretty insidious and the effects last long. (As you probably know, pot tends to stay in the body longer than alcohol and other drugs.)

Why not just deal with everything? Substituting one addiction for another does not really get to the heart of the problem and just extends the time and energy you have to expend on that awful period of early recovery.

You can find plenty of people who will tell you that substituting pot for alcohol is fine. But I think you know what is really right.

[RobC420]

I tried that. It didn't work for me. I still kept going down hill, eventually hit bottom, and then pitifully dragged my ass to an AA meeting.

[nonblondechef]

Addictions are addictions, plain and simple. Sucks we have em - but feels good as we curb kick them forever.

[hillOH]

I know what you're saying OP, but it's not going to work. I think what SoberForMySon said was a tiny bit crass, but he's giving you the straight talk. Alcohol is a drug, dope is a drug, drugs are drugs.

Pot has a reputation for being innocent and natural imo, that organic stuff you might see some fat store clerk on TV selling along with the lines "It's allllll gooood". You can't cheat addiction that kind of way. Good people will respect you if you give them both the clear.

[Natom]

I tried substituting cocaine with speed. Admittedly it's not the same situation but it is exactly the same thought process. Just because something may appear to be a bit more acceptable doesn't mean it actually is. Like hillOH has said they are both drugs and they are both as damaging as the other. You need to try and identify the root cause of why you are compelled to take either of them and you have to do that with a sober head.

[MIRecovery]

As I sobered up I came to realize I always wanted to be somewhere other than where I was. Drugs, Alchohol, sex were what I lived for. Anything that would would get rid of the present. When I learned how to be happy with the moment I was in is when my world took a huge turn for the better. For me working the steps of AA is what was required