Excerpts from Life with Hope: A Return to Living Through the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions of Marijuana Anonymous (third edition)

Contents

Foreword

A Brief History of Marijuana Anonymous

Preamble

Who is a Marijuana Addict?

The 12 Questions of Marijuana Anonymous

The Story of the Lotus Eaters

A Doctor’s Opinion About Marijuana Addiction

The Steps of Marijuana Anonymous

Step One
We admitted we were powerless over marijuana, that our lives had become unmanageable.

Step Two
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Step Three
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood God.

Step Four
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Step Five
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Step Six
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Step Seven
Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

Step Eight
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Step Nine
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Step Ten
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Step Eleven
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out.

Step Twelve
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to marijuana addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The Traditions of Marijuana Anonymous

Tradition One
Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends on MA unity.

Tradition Two
For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority, a loving God whose expression may come through in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

Tradition Three
The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using marijuana.

Tradition Four
Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or MA as a whole.

Tradition Five
Each group has but one primary purpose, to carry its message to the marijuana addict who still suffers.

Tradition Six
MA groups ought never endorse, finance, or lend the MA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

Tradition Seven
Every MA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

Tradition Eight
Marijuana Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

Tradition Nine
MA, as such, ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

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

Tradition Eleven
Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, TV, film, and other public media. We need guard with special care the anonymity of all fellow MA members.

Tradition Twelve
Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

Our Stories

Started Off With a Bang

A Slave to Marijuana

I Came to Life

Freedom to Be Me

I Found MA Online

I’m Not an Addict

I Needed it to Feel OK

Growing Pains

A Life Worth Living

My Best Thinking Got Me Here

Lightweight

Mommy Was Doing Drugs

You Are Never Alone

Coming Home

The God Thing

Appendices

How It Works

Dangers of Cross Addiction

Acknowledgements

Purchase The Book

Marijuana Anonymous has licensed sales of Life with Hope through Hazelden Publishing


Copyright © 1995, 2001 by Marijuana Anonymous World Services. All rights reserved.

First Edition: First Printing, December 1995, Thirteen Printings from 1995 to 2001, Second Edition: First Printing, October 2001, Twelve Printings from 2001 to 2010

Marijuana Anonymous World Services
340 S Lemon Ave #9420
Walnut, CA 91789

Printed in the United States of America

12 Steps and 12 Traditions reprinted for adaptation by permission of A.A. World Services, Inc.