Originally Posted by
GerandTwine 
Hi Steve,
Does Michelle’s, Mark’s, and your book mention taking the once-in-a-lifetime, unretractible pledge of permanent abstinence?
GT
No, it doesn't.
But it says you can change your preference for substance use, and end up preferring abstinence, and carry that out easily once you've realized it offers you more happiness than substance use. It offers a benefits to benefits analysis as means to figure out if abstinence is for you. It also has 4 chapters questioning our culture's view of drugs as all-purpose magical elixirs. The purpose of that is to de-romanticize substances. Part of why we have exaggerated desires for substances is because we've exaggerated their powers/benefits. When you know the truth, that there's little or nothing to lose by giving them up, then giving them up begins to look less like a loss, and more like a gain.
The book doesn't argue for or recommend any particular substance use outcome though. We leave it up to the reader to reach their own conclusions and choices.