Paul L

Hi all,
I am from the UK, i just like to thank you yanks for AA and of course Bill and Dr Bob, it saved my life.
I would like to know what your take is on smoking weed and sobriety, i have been sober for over 8 years, dry and clean through out, there does seem to be a lot of people who use weed and still announce to the group that they are sober, i dont see it that way how do you guys and ladies see it.

lostmdboy

I would not consider that sober. I really have to play by the rules or I think I would be drunk very quickly.

GrouchoTheCat

Nope, not sober in my book.

Around here they call it the "Marajuana Maintenance Plan".

Not reccommend.

Ted

caladan

Not sober in my book.

Pot would often make me anxious and paranoid when I smoked it.

So I drank........

That eventually made me anxious and paranoid......the morning after I drank.

So I drank some more..........

I became anxious and paranoid whenever I wasn't drinking.

See where this is going......

Today I'm grateful that any emotions I may experience aren't chemically induced.

GlassPrisoner

Classic post caladan ! Made me chuckle, but oh so true !

Yeah, MJ and I broke up a while ago.

barb dwyer

not.

concolor1

Not too many were talking about smoking dope back in 1980 when I got sober. Narcotics Anonymous hadn't arrived in my city at that point, but a couple of the shrewder AA members were privately telling me not to . . .

About four months after I quit drinking I was on the road and smoked a bowl just to be sociable . . . It really did nothing for me ("Quit working" is the expression), and I remember thinking "Here I am, f***ed up again . . . I went to an AA clubhouse, and others told me it would lead straight to the bottle...

It didn't, but two days later, a long ways from home I wound up standing in front of a bar thinking how good a double scotch would taste . . .

God only knows why I didn't drink. I found a cheap hotel to stay in that night with the help of an AA friend, and trust me, I surrendered . . .

I never hid what I did, but it always ate at me . . . So at some point down the road I knocked four months off and changed the date . . .

Fast forward to a bigtime relationship crisis around that critical "five year period" . . . I'm trying to "fix things," and I'm at a social event (and without too many meetings under my belt in the previous few months), and I step outside and a friend of mine is standing there with a doobie, and he hands it to me...

"There will come a time in his sobriety when an alcoholic is powerless . . . That defense must come from a Power Greater Than Himself."

It happened, folks. I was going to smoke it, and I didn't . . . I recall thinking how much pain I was in and just wanting out of it, but . . .

Yeah, the experience shook me up and I connected with my sponsor who suggested such "near misses" were "godsends that remind us to get back on track." I took his advice on that one . . .

More than 20 years later I know a whole lot about the physiology of addiction and that "harmless, non-addictive marijuana," and I don't know anyone who's continued to use it who has anything I want... People smoke pot to get high, and sobriety is the antithesis of getting high . . .

paulmh

Thanks concolor1, great post. I'd love it if you could expand on your "critical five year period", maybe in another thread.

Seems to me that there have been a few "critical" points along the way - like for instance the time I definitely "smoked a drink" about a year in. That did scare me a little, just how quickly I began to guzzle weed that particular night. As a result I realise that complusively trying to "catch a buzz" is my problem. So I don't smoke anymore. And I can also see myself doing it with food, shopping, gambling - when I'm not working my programme. But here's one for you. My sobreity date is when I stopped drinking. During the last, (almost) four years I've smoked dope a couple times, and I once took a cough medicine for two days without checking the label, and it had alcohol in it. If someone in my 3d recovery said I had to "reset" my sobriety date because of them then I would - hell, I don't "own" that time, it just marks when I went from being an active alcoholic to not being. But here's my question. I went through a year where I got obssessive about going to the gym. I was exercising and working out every single day. I know categorically that it was the same part of me that "is" an alcoholic that drove that compulsion. But I gave it licence because I felt great, I was really fit and full of energy and my mood was, for the most part, happy and optimistic. But I have no doubt I was "misusing" excercise. And after this long winter, if the compulsion to work out every day came back, I'd be delighted.

So should I reset my sobriety date? I'm an alcoholic, and as far as I can see I can misuse pretty much anything. That's why I try and work a programme of recovery - to watch out for those unhealthy compulsions that will, ultimately, harm me. But I'm an alcoholic - I mark my sober time from when I started to treat my drinking as a symptom of a more fundamental condition, rather than as something I just did.

I dunno. Just random thoughts. Ultimately, if I met someone who was a chronic alcoholic and who maintained many years of sobriety using weed, who am I to judge? I can no more guarantee my sobriety tomorrow than anyone else. And just like I can't say that anyone else is an alcoholic, how can I say that anyone else is misusing mood altering substances?

mike_mass

I don't know anyone in AA who would consider someone sober who is smoking marijuana.

SaTiT

If you read the BB, the verious editions has verious stories.
In the fourth edition in chapter 16 Acceptence is the Answer
There's drug abuse mention all over that chapter.
In the 3rd edition chapter 17 under Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict
It's the same story....the famouse page 449 quotes.

There's marijuana mentioned all over the place in the BB.
About people that stop using it to work the program

Quotes right out of acceptence is the answer
" I can't say " thy will be done" and take pills. i can't say
"I'm powerless over alcohol. but solid alcohol is okay"
I can't say God restore me to sanity, but until he dose,
I'll control myself with pills. Giving up alcohol was not enough
for me. I've had to give up all mood and mind affecting
chemicals in order to stay sober and comfortable"

Come on now....of course we have compulsive and obsessive behavior
But how the heck are we going to start address those issues or work on them if we're wack out of our freaken mind,
and still getting loaded. It's not that complicate. But if you're using , you like to put a spin on it.

Tazman53

Good topic, AA, NA, or any other recovery program I doubt very seriously would consider one sober/clean/straight if they are using a mind altering substance for pleasure/escape/entertainment.

pleasure/escape/entertainment I feel are the key words here, it is one thing if you are sick and take a medicine that contains alcohol or a DP to help with depression, and a totally other thing to take them for pleasure/escape/entertainment.

I am an alcoholic and my DOC is beer, I know that if I did smoke a few jays that this old drunks stoned commitee would be having a big meeting in my head telling me "DUDE!!!! This is cool, let's go get some beer and do this right!"

If I was a recovered coke head and started drinking again and a friend came up and offered me some blow..... well if you are a recovered coke head you know what is going to happen.

CarolD

Hi Paul....Welcome!

While I personally would not consider them sober...
the only sober time in AA is my own.

That is not my business how others count.
However...I will not validate their actions.

Paul L

Good stuff

BrandiK

This is a great topic! I have enjoyed reading the responses, as this is a regular point of conversation with some in my community (non-recovery).

Personally, pot gives me asthma ... so it's not something I've used over much. Not worth the giggles to have trouble breathing for days after. lol but I have met people who say "I have X days sober with alcohol and X days sober with ______ " (name your drug) Made me wonder if they are to be seperated.

I agree with keeping my own date and being in charge of that, and everyone else in the program can do their same. My days under my belt have kept mefrom drinking a bunch of times. If I went and used some cold remedy to help me sleep ... or even if I smoked once somewhere in my recovery, and someone said my days are toast and strip them ... I don't know that I would make it again. Does that make sense? If I drank, if I purposfully took some medicane or ate chocoletes containign alcohol, or if I smoked dope or used any other drug in replace of alcohol ... then I personally would change my date.

But if someone came along and stripped them from me, I'd be toast and I know that. That is part of being responsible for my own program ... trusting in my own responsibility for my own self and trusting in others responsibity for their own selves.

We commun together, we help each other. We don't declare and judge each other, at least, that is my opinon. Meaning, when someone says to me 'my sobriety date is Feb 1' and I know that they smoked last Thursday .... I would not correct them. If they were using often, I might suggest looking at that ... but that is as far as I would go. I know it is their inventory, not mine, and I trust in my HP to guide others as I have been guided. Does that make sense?

Speaking of mind altering sustances .... maybe it's time for some more coffee... my brain is still foggy.

(Coffee and chocolete ... are those drugs that could also effect sobriety? )

paulmh

It's very easy for me to judge other people and to say that what they're doing is wrong. It takes my critical mind and my critical eye off myself. It's very easy for me to thump the BB and to say "here is where I get my authority to judge other people" - not that I'm suggesting that that is what people in thsi thread are doing. But it's all very well saying that people can't be sober and using, and that the BB tells us so, and to forget that Bill W not only was an infrequent user of LSD himself, but also encouraged many other sober people to try it. Now, this was in the day when LSD was legal and it's use was considered potentially therapeutic - a little like MDMA (ecstasy) in the late 80s. Nonetheless, people using it now would be considered to be getting "high", so they couldn't be sober.

I know what works for me. I don't drink odaat, I don't do drugs, I'm not on anti-depressants. I have been known to take Kalms, herbal sedatives, very ocassionally. I do what I do to maintain my sobriety. Some people take anti-depressants. Not for me to say they're wrong. Some people take weed. Not for me to say they're wrong. Some people, like Bill W, take LSD and I'm afraid I can't find it in myself to admire the man any the less for it.

BrandiK

<<It's very easy for me to judge other people and to say that what they're doing is wrong. It takes my critical mind and my critical eye off myself. It's very easy for me to thump the BB and to say "here is where I get my authority to judge other people" >>

One thing that came flying at me in my 4th work stuff is that the majority ofmy resentments have the word 'judgemental' attached to them ... and isn't it funny ... the majority of my 'wrongs' or my part in this have the word 'judgemental' attached to them.

You worded that so well, thank you!

came2believe

Hi Paul,
Personally I could not begin smoking pot and consider myself to be sober. Pot was never my drug of choice... like someone else said it always made me paranoid... but THAT would lead me straight to liquor.

As for your other question, I think most alcoholics are obsessive by nature. And I think if I can make my obsessive nature work FOR me instead of against me... that is OK. Eating obsessively, gambling obsessively, watching TV obsessively... not good. But, for instance, painting obsessively... gardening obsessively... running obsessively... reading obsessively.... AS LONG AS you do not destroy your relationships in the process, and lead a balanced life. You might even get healthy~!

I knit obsessively these days. The only side effect is that I have a lot of scarves to give away. hehehe

paulmh

And equally came2, if I was smoking weed I wouldn't be sober. But I'm just not sure that what's true for me is true for every recovering alcoholic.

And I think I feel the same way about truning our obssessive nature to our benefit. But I think, if I understand the programme correctly, that if we are doing anything obssessively we are, in effect, white knuckling.

tiburon88

I would consider someone still sober as long as they didn't get drunk.

nolonger

Hi Paul L, welcome to the boards...

If smoking leads an alcoholic to drink again, it is a disaster. If smoking weed keeps you from drinking, that's good, but I think each person also has to weigh it up on its own terms, on your own terms.

I used to smoke a fair bit of weed years ago. I didn't smoke it obsessively - I would often leave an eighth in a drawer somewhere and not go near it for weeks, even forget about it entirely. That was never ever the case with alcohol - if I had beer in the fridge, I would know precisely how many beers I had there. And they wouldn't last long, that's for sure.

I liked smoking every now and again - it was a very pleasant hobby. But as I got older, I couldn't even smoke recreationally anymore. It made me nervous in a way it never did when I was younger. Life seems more frightening anyway as you get older, I think, and the last thing I wanted was something to make it even more so. So it just sort of dwindled out of my life.

But I don't think there's a hard and fast law about it. Each to his own.