Q: I think a friend is using, and maybe even selling, marijuana. He has no father and a poor family life, and I want to help him stop. What’s the best way for me to approach this?

A: This may sound cruel, but getting caught may be the best thing that could happen to your friend. He needs to suffer the consequences of his behavior. When he recognizes what he’s doing to himself, and possibly others, hopefully he’ll realize that smoking marijuana isn’t worth damaging friendships or his future. The most important thing you can do is tell him how his behavior affects you, how you see it changing him and what your concerns are. Ultimately, you have to be willing to end this relationship if he continues to use marijuana. It is only through these cumulative consequences and losses that he’ll make the connection between marijuana and the negative impact it’s having on his life. I encourage you to be loving and supportive, and perhaps even help him find a drug treatment program or support group, such as Marijuana Anonymous. You could also alert an adult who has a significant influence on his life. But be prepared to pull away from him if he continues to use or sell drugs. He needs to feel the consequences of his behavior—anything short of that and you are continuing to enable his disease. [link in the original]

Q: What is the effect of marijuana on pregnancy?

A: Marijuana Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues including medical advice or opinions. MA does not know what effect marijuana may have on pregnancy. Some members may have more experience in that area than others, but no more so than the general population. That is a medical question best answered by medical professionals.

Q: What physical side effects does the use of marijuana cause?

A: The pamphlet “Detoxing from Marijuana” that is on this web page [sic: it’s on this other page] does not contain medically based knowledge, but empirical knowledge based on the experiences of many MA members who took the time to fill out extensive questionnaires regarding their own early days of abstinence from their drug of choice. This pamphlet should answer most of your questions on common physical side effects.

Q: Why do I need MA to quit using marijuana?

A: Maybe you don’t. “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.” If you haven’t crossed over the line from using to abusing to addiction, you can probably quit using it any time you’d like....

Q: How can there be marijuana addicts if marijuana is not addicting?

A: ...Based on our own experiences, we who seek recovery in MA generally consider ourselves to be marijuana addicts. Whether or not our addiction is psychological, physical, or both, matters little. When it comes to the use of marijuana, we have lost the power of choice. It is strictly up to the individual to decide whether he or she feels addicted to marijuana. MA has no opinion about marijuana itself one way or another....

Q: What is MA’s opinion on the legalization of marijuana?

A: The Tenth Tradition of Marijuana Anonymous states:

“Marijuana Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the MA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.”

This tradition protects the integrity of the organization. “Anything that can disrupt our unity, and interfere with our primary purpose of carrying the message to the marijuana addict who still suffers, should be avoided” (Life With Hope, p. 93). Therefore, MA has no opinion about the legalization of marijuana. [bold in the original]

Labels: DruPo, MorPa, Sc

Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 11:41 AM

 Matt left this comment at July 18, 2008 8:17 PM  
You have no idea what you are talking about. Dr. Drew is a board certified doctor and an addiction specialist. He runs a rehab clinic is more qualified to answer a question like this than many other MD's.

 Brian Sorgatz left this comment at July 18, 2008 9:09 PM  
I’m not impressed by Pinsky’s credentials at all. His clinical evidence is anecdotal, which means that it isn’t enough to empirically establish any particular claim of harm caused by marijuana. If my complaint about anecdotal evidence means nothing to you, then your opinion means nothing to me.

 roger left this comment at September 16, 2008 1:27 PM  
i din't get u.

http://www.marijuanaaddictiontreatment.com

 Brian Sorgatz left this comment at September 16, 2008 4:41 PM  
I wouldn’t trust the guys at that site, Roger. I bet those hypocrites are toking their balls off. They’re so baked they don’t know what fools they make of themselves with circular reasoning like this: “Remember if Marijuana would be so ‘innocent’, you would not read this website now.” If a website somewhere says that Sarah Palin fucked a chicken, it has to be true.

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