Can you clarify?

Are you saying that if someone smokes pot say once a week, not addicted to it, that they would be considered a sober member of your AA Group and can be secretary? I'm just trying to get what your saying.

Thanks.

~Chris

I'm saying that if someone smokes a few puffs a day, throughout the day, as needed, and they don't get totally high all the time, and they don't use before a meeting, and they haven't had a drink...I think they are sober.

As far as the secretary part, that was actually a rant that started the whole line of thinking, and I actually kind of agree to that. lol

So you think stoners ARE sober then? Huh. Guess I never thought of it that way. What about an infrequent meth user? How about a drunk that only drinks on the weekends and not before meetings?

Okay. Thanks for clarifying. To each his own I guess. I would not consider myself sober if I smoked a few puffs even once, never mind every day.

~Chris

Drafter, there is no need to be harsh here...I am trying to express a legitimate concern.

AA was started for people with problem with ALCOHOL...and there are many people out there that can not drink...but utilize other "mind altering" meds, AS PRESCRIBED, without negative effects.

I just strongly believe that if someone has quit drinking, after being on the verge of death and complete destruction of their life, they should be able to be proud of themselves for that, and get support from others with an alcohol problem, without being chastised.

Also, believe it or not, it is possible to utilize marijuana medicinally...and responsibly...without relapsing on the booze.

Call it a rationalization if you must, but I would challenge you to walk in my shoes (or my bones rather, which are way screwed up from birth), without utilizing some sort of strong pain med. I much prefer pot...as the hard core pain meds that are required to get me moving,(which I took AS PRESCRIBED) have all kinds of other side effects that cause me to take other meds, and literally loose my mind...

I stand by my 2 1/2 years without a drink...

I agree with Maat2008.
Nuff said

I think if I got the time to be judging your program I might aught to be looking at my own...

What's mine is mine and yours is yours...no reason the 2 can't coexist. If you want what I got, lets talk. If I want what you got I'll tap ya on the shoulder after the meeting.

My sobriety is not defined by zero drinks. I didnt drink for 7 years in the 90's. Miserable sonofabitch I was. No program.

I haven't had a drink in about 80 days, and 250 before my experiment in May, and I can't remember being more peaceful (ya, my experiment was necessary, unfortunate, but necessary).

If this were a contest I would still be drunk...or at best miserable.

out ;)

Thank you MINDLIGHT!!

And GPB1...I hear you...and I don't claim to be working my program right now and I am a bit of a dry drunk. While I believe in AA and I know it saved my life, I am not ready to take on my demons yet, nor have a found a suitable sponsor, who won't judge me.

Yes, It is MY program...and more power to you on yours.

Namaste all

Maat, I think with weed the operative term is "Taking marijuana medicinally". If it is administered by a medical professional for an indicated medical condition, with the exact (Exact is critically important in terms of sobriety) doses in the same way as any other medicine is administered, that is one thing. I mean most of us need to use opiates for surgery and such - I certainly do. But the trouble with marijuana is that it is an extremely addictive drug, only moreso these days with hydroponics and hybridisation. It's the line that can be crossed into USING, which is the important thing to remember. And in my view, that's not sober.

And you may have heard the term "swapping the Witch for the Bitch" - there is a long history in AA of people getting off the booze only to pump up their use of weed, which inevitably takes them back to alcohol.

I am a psychiatric patient and I have to take psych medication to save my life. I am scrupulous about the use of my meds and I drive my psychologist and psychiatrist crazy (excuse the pun) with constantly tracking what I am taking and I never take a single med out of turn or outside the presription of my psychiatrist. I have a HUGE advantage over many people on psych meds who aren't also in a 12 Step Program. AA keeps me in line, or I allow it to keep me in line if you like. I am highly motivated to stay sober, I have 11 years sobriety. I don't want to lose that by stuffing around with my meds - and of course the abuse of psych meds is very dangerous. But these things CAN be managed with real committtment and honesty.

I think your playing word games, and looking for justification, or you bwouldn't be asking. Of courser many of us need medications legitamatly, and that doesn't mean we can't obtain sobriety. I think your a little confused too about many people having their own programes. In A.A. there is only one program, and that involves doing the steps that will bring you sobriety, and recovery if you work them as it's outlined, on a daily basis. Never mind what others opinions are, or their interpretations of things. Everything is in the big book, and the twelve and twelve. It's your recovery. You do what you need to do to stay sober, and live right. Things do vary from person to person in their lives, but the program is always the same. All the best. James

I thank you all for your words and your honesty with me. I agree with most of what you all say, and I also know there is a fine line between prescribed use (which is pretty much non existent in the world of medicinal marijuana, as it stands right now) and abuse. My smoking is not the same every day, because my pain is not the same. It also depends on the strength of the smoke, as some is stronger...but I generally know the grower and the strain.

As far as it not being an individual program, I hear what you are saying and you are some what correct. AA has given us suggestions and steps to follow, but throughout the literature, they say, "It's your program". We all work the steps in our own time and in our own way, with our own higher power and chosen fellows. Some people can wiz through them in a few weeks...others don't even start for years.

Bottom line for me is, I am thankful to not be drinking today and I have AA to thank. For me, the bottle was an express lane to my evil/naughty side and seriously rock bottom thinking. Today, I don't pray to die in my sleep...today, I don't have to hear what I did last night, from patrons at some bar, that I don't even know. Today, I don't have to worry about getting another DUI because I never drive under the influence of anything.

As far as me and AA go...we're cool. I'm just not ready to dive in all the way yet.

Namaste

Or how about someone on prescription meds such as xanax? Taking them routinely as needed for anxiety, but not abusing them? It's mind altering, but necessary.

You raise a good question. Hmm...trying to form an opinion. Addiction, including alcohol, is an obsession to use a drug / alcohol in spite of the very use of it disrupting / destroying a person's health and life.

Sober would have to be the opposite of that IMO, So, if you use drugs legal or illegal and you are not obsessed with them and they do not cause any damage in your life,,,you're sober.

Which raises the question...can you be high and still be considered sober? That doesn't sound right.

Hmmm....it will be interesting to see other's opinions on this.

chime in I must.

Alcoholics Anonymous is for BOOZE ONLY. All of thirr written material tries to stay out of that...a good publication howere is :AA and other medications.

Sorry...that's the rules.... The thought alone of someone looking at me to see if was on a pain pill...is soo ridiculous...it's bound to keep me out of meetings even longer.

The term "Shot yourself in the foot" somehow seems applicable

Namaste
ML

IMHO, its for each person to work their program, and not for others to judge. Personally, I am in MASSIVE amounts of physical pain due to an extruded disc which is impinging my sciatic nerve. I have no choice but to take meds to make it through the day. However, I have been honest and clear with my doc about my addictive issues, and so she has put me on non-narcotic meds, which are working pretty well. I have a bottle of narcotics on my shelf which I feel no temptation whatsoever to touch. Thats not an issue for me.

Smoking pot has also helped with the pain at times. I quit smoking years ago, after having had a period of abusing it. I have no temptation to use or abuse pot anymore. It just doesn't have the hold that alcohol has...

For me, sobriety is a state of clarity which is unobstructed by any mind altering substance. Even when I have smoked pot to alleviate pain, it still is a mind altering substance, and so I would not consider that a "sober" time. TO me, in order to be clean AND sober, I must refrain from all chemicals which alter mind-state, whether legal or illegal. Anything which alters the way that I think also threatens to interfere with my clarity where it concerns connecting to my Higher Power. Hope this makes sense.

Off topic, Maat, I should say, your hula hooping avatar is quite cute, however incredibly distracting, unfortunately.

I agree completely! Just because you have a problem with one thing doesn't mean you have a problem with something else.