Marijuana Addiction
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Marijuana Anonymous is Help For Marijuana Addiction in Ann Arbor
Marijuana Addiction? A new support group in Ann Arbor aims to help.
Marijuana Anonymous, based on the same 12-step program as Alcoholics Anonymous, opened a chapter in the city last month.
It was started by a man who has been pot-free for three years after attending MA meetings in Ferndale and was looking to fill a need locally. He said the program is based on the concept of addicts helping other addicts.
"I certainly thought I wasn't the only person here in Ann Arbor who had an addictive relationship with marijuana," he said. "I think that for any mind-altering substance, there is going to be a certain proportion of users who will develop obsessive use patterns. As it becomes more readily available and socially accepted, I anticipate the number of people having an addictive relationship with it will increase."
A support group is now available locally for those addicted to marijuana.
An AnnArbor.com reporter was permitted to attend one of the group’s meetings on a recent Friday at First Baptist Church, provided that names of addicts not be used. The chapter's founder described how he became powerless over marijuana, smoking it daily for 25 years — since he was 12.
He drove across the country with suitcases full of pot, put his family in dangerous situations and skipped a friend’s wedding because he couldn’t go a weekend without weed, he said. He used other drugs, including crack cocaine, he said, but the only drug he couldn't stop using was marijuana.
"Being an addict is a crazy state of mind," he said. "I did a lot of stupid stuff…Staying in the day is really important for my recovery. We talk about one day at a time in these meetings.""
Two other men attended the meeting, including a 26-year-old graduate student who has been pot-free for 27 days. When he was 14, he said, he was diagnosed with depression and turned to marijuana. But the drug quickly took control of his life.
"It was just a vicious pattern of using and not being able to snap out of it," he said. "I wasn’t living up to my full potential. It was eating away at me, the guilt of not living up to what I should be."
"In retrospect it was really sad and pathetic just looking forward to getting high all the time."
An 18-year-old college student who attended the meeting described how drug dealers used to visit him at work, and he could have lost his job. He was failing his classes last semester because of his pot addiction, he said. Attending meetings has helped him stay clean for 20 days and step it up academically.
"I’m taking the exact same classes, and they’re incredibly easy now," he said.
The meeting opened and closed with the serenity prayer and included readings from MA literature. At one point, addicts put a few dollars on the table to help support the chapter.
Copies of the monthly MA publication, "a new leaf," were available. One recent meeting was attended by 12 people.
According to the Marijuana Anonymous World Services website, MA meetings are available in at least 35 states and a number of other countries.
The man who started the Ann Arbor chapter told the group he's been encouraged that young people have been attending the 5:30 p.m. meetings every Friday at the church on East Washington Street.
"For me, it really makes me feel good to see young people doing recovery," he said. "It's a beautiful thing because I could have used it a lot earlier."