TITLE: Approve “For the Loved Ones of Marijuana Addicts” Pamphlet Revision

SUBMITTED BY: MA World Services Literature Committee

BACKGROUND/ORIGIN:

The MA World Services Literature Committee created small working groups in 2024 to focus on revising different pamphlets. The MA pamphlet “For the Loved Ones of Marijuana Addicts” has not been revised since its inception in 1998 and was in need of updates to better support recovering MA members and their loved ones.

The pamphlet subcommittee received some preliminary suggestions on improvements, such as adding more messaging from the point of view of the loved ones of marijuana addicts. Due to the ongoing service relationship between Marijuana Anonymous and Mar-Anon, we asked two Mar-Anon members to collaborate with us on the revision. They graciously agreed to provide their input. This collaboration helped immensely in guiding the revision. 

The Mar-Anon members provided questions that our loved ones typically want answered, guidance on how loved ones can help the addict, and also how they can express the impact addiction has on their relationships. Both Mar-Anon members provided a direct quote on what they want others to know about their experience and hope as a loved one of a marijuana addict.

After the working group completed substantial revisions, the pamphlet was shared with the full Literature Committee for feedback where additional edits were made. The proposed revision presents a better focused, more informative pamphlet.

MOTION: 

That the Conference Body approve the revised content of the “For the Loved Ones of Marijuana Addicts” pamphlet seen in Attachment 2 as Conference-approved literature for future publication, replacing the current pamphlet as seen in Attachment 1.

CONTENT:

Attachment 1: MA12.org/Conf2026/Item-D1

Attachment 2: MA12.org/Conf2026/Item-D2

TITLE: Approval of book content: Living Every Day With Hope

SUBMITTED BY: The MA Daily Reflections subcommittee and the President of the 2021-22 MAWS Board of Trustees

BACKGROUND/ORIGIN: Living Every Day With Hope is a collection of daily reflections written by MA members, for MA members, and those still suffering from marijuana addiction. The purpose of the text is to help marijuana addicts to stay free of marijuana and to help the marijuana addict who still suffers achieve the same freedom. This text contains a message of recovery for each day of the year. Submissions reflect individual MA members’ experience, strength, and hope in an attempt to help others to recover from marijuana addiction. The book is meant for all who are addicted to marijuana, regardless of their stage of addiction or recovery.

The Daily Reflections subcommittee, in conjunction with the Marijuana Anonymous World Services’ Literature Committee, worked with the Internet Committee to develop a submission form. In order to gather submissions, writing workshops were coordinated for members, and the form was widely distributed to the MA Fellowship on the World Services website for over two years. Submission guidelines were provided in order to create a structure for consistency, which included a topic based on quoted MA literature, a word count of 150-300 words, and a concluding personal thought.

The subcommittee has received over 400 submissions and reviewed all submissions, sometimes making minor edits. Some submissions that didn’t seem suitable for the book were forwarded to ANLP to include in the A New Leaf newsletter.

MOTION: That the Conference Body approve the content of the Living Every Day With Hope daily reader as Conference-approved literature for future publication.

CONTENT: MA12.org/Reader

Note: At the time of this motion, this link directed to a Google Doc.

TITLE: Annual Conference to be held Remotely

SUBMITTED BY: Lyle D., A Member of District 99

BACKGROUND/ORIGIN: Since Covid-19 the Conference has been held online exclusively. Our Service Manual has not been updated to reflect that reality. This motion seeks to make it clear that from now on the Conference shall be held online.

MOTION: That the following text be amended within Service Manual, version 8.1 page 51, Conference Charter, Section 9. The World Service Conference:

FROM:

The Conference shall meet yearly. [Additional] Special meetings [of the Conference Body] may be called when necessary. In the absence of action by the Conference Body two years in advance determining an in-person location, the [The] Conference shall be hosted by MA World Services and held solely remotely, using a virtual platform, accessible through computers, tablets, and smartphones. 

TO: 

The Conference shall meet yearly. Additional meetings of the Conference Body may be called when necessary. The Conference shall be hosted by MA World Services and held remotely, using a virtual platform, accessible through computers, tablets, and smartphones.

Note: This is a excerpt and modification of a previous Conference motion for sample purposes

TITLE: Petition to form MA District for the DMV Region

SUBMITTED BY: MA DMV Regional Service Committee (RSC)

BACKGROUND/ORIGIN:

In 2005, MA members formed the DMV’s first known meeting, at the West Side Club in Washington, DC. For the next 20 years, the region maintained at least three meetings per week, helping hundreds of Marijuana addicts find recovery. The majority of meetings are based at DuPont Circle Club, and one meeting is based at Unity Club in Falls Church, Virginia. Both of these clubs are dedicated spaces for meetings of different 12 Step programs. 

Over the last five years, the region’s MA community has grown rapidly, roughly doubling its membership. Today, the DMV boasts six weekly meetings, with approximately 70 attendees per week and over 115 members on our WhatsApp group.

The Sunday and Wednesday evening meetings at DuPont Circle Club have been around for decades. Over the past several years, we’ve seen attendance grow from less than ten regulars, to about 20 regulars on average. Because those meetings have grown, a Friday evening meeting was started, followed soon after by Women’s and Men’s meetings on Thursday evenings. These newer meetings average under 10 regulars, but have outlasted past attempts to form new meetings. Each of these meetings has a Chairperson and a GSR, and most have Secretaries as well.

GROUP SERVICE STRUCTURE:

In accordance with MA’s fourth tradition, each group operates autonomously, with three to six elected service positions per meeting. All but one meeting in the region include at least a Chairperson, Secretary, and Group Service Representative. Meetings hold Group Consciences as needed, announcing them at least two weeks in advance.

There are also regular meetings in Maryland, but they have opted to not join the Region at this time.

At the RSC level, GSRs from each meeting meet once per month to discuss issues impacting their meetings and the region as a whole. The intergroup service structure includes a Chairperson, Treasurer, Secretary, and Literature Chair, as well as subcommittees for Hospitals & Institutions, and Inclusivity. For the last three months, at least 70% of GSRs have attended these meetings.

Monthly RSC meetings are announced in advance at MA meetings throughout the region and in our WhatsApp group; all are encouraged to participate.

Although, at this time, meetings based in Maryland have opted out of joining our district, the door remains open for us to allow them to join. We hope that becoming an official district will bring in resources to encourage more local groups to join in.

TREASURY/FINANCE:

All of the DMV’s MA meetings are fully self-supporting. All groups conduct seventh tradition collections at each meeting to cover expenses for rent, chips, and literature. 

The RSC is self supporting through contributions from the broader DMV fellowship. These funds are carefully managed by the Treasurer, with a regularly updated public ledger ensuring full transparency regarding balances and expenditures. The RSC has begun using its collective resources to support individual meetings and foster unity at the regional level. For example, the RSC proposed consolidating literature and chip inventories for the five meetings held at the Dupont Circle Club, enabling bulk orders at discount prices, and giving smaller meetings, without substantial prudent reserves, the ability to sell literature and give out chips. Additionally, the RSC organizes yearly potlucks on 4/20, using region-level resources to fund venue rental and purchase food.

Individual meetings have begun seeing the benefits of pooling resources at the regional level, and the RSC is eager to see these benefits extend to the world services level.

MOTION: 

That the Conference Body recognizes the MA DMV (DC, Maryland, and Virginia) Region as MA District 30.

TITLE:  Change the word ‘God’ to ‘Higher Power’ in the Steps

SUBMITTED BY: MA District 12 (San Francisco North Bay, CA, USA)

BACKGROUND/ORIGIN:

One question our district has discussed is why many people who initially come to MA don’t continue to attend meetings. We are concerned that some newcomers may be put off by how much the word ‘God’ is used in our books, literature, and meetings.

Many of our district’s members who have been sober for a while have no problem using the word ‘God’ as shorthand for ‘Higher Power’. We are fully onboard with the spiritual aspect of the program and the benefit and need of connecting with a higher power. However, we feel that the word ‘God’ may be causing some newcomers who otherwise might be open to the program to feel uncomfortable and to conclude that MA is not for them.

We believe that these proposed changes will help to bring the steps and the MA meetings into a more contemporary context and allow more newcomers to take advantage of the miraculous gift of recovery.

We do not undertake the suggestion of these proposed changes lightly. It seems to the members of District 12 that if we are to truly fulfill our primary purpose as stated in Tradition 5 – “Each group has but one primary purpose, to carry its message to the marijuana addict who still suffers,” that we need to make sure that we are not potentially alienating newcomers who may not feel comfortable with the repeated use of the word “God”.

We believe that when a newcomer, after much struggle and heartache finally finds their way to an MA meeting, what that person hears during the course of that meeting has the potential to shape the trajectory of the rest of that person’s life. We are concerned that there may be a percentage of newcomers who feel that the repeated use of the word ‘God’ during the meeting creates a barrier to them feeling at ease about returning to meetings.

The Twelve Steps were conceived and written in the 1930’s at a time when religion was a much more prevalent part of most people’s lives.

The current data indicates that people in general and especially younger people are way less religious than previous generations. According to the data from the American Family Survey in the article cited below – 44% of Americans aged 18 to 29 identify as having no religious affiliation.

In District 12, we have an MA member who is a Marriage and Family Therapist. She has stated that she has had numerous clients who have balked at attending 12 Step groups due to the mentions of God. There is also a young woman in her twenties in our district who has stated that she has had numerous friends who have not returned to 12 Step meetings after initially attending, due to the repeated use of the word ‘God’.

We are concerned that all of the references to ‘God’ may be interfering with some newcomers feeling that MA is a good fit for them. If this is the case, and we are convinced that it is, then MA is failing to help as many newcomers as we potentially could. Given the miraculous transformations we have experienced ourselves through working the program of MA, we want to be sure that the MA program is as inclusive as possible and that we are not limiting the program to people who self select by their level of comfort with the word ‘God’.

Following are two articles that illustrate the decline in religious affiliation internationally and in the U.S.

The information below is from an online article in -Foreign Affairs Magazine titled-  “Giving Up on God – The Global Decline of Religion” – dated September/October 2020:

“From about 2007 to 2019, the overwhelming majority of the countries we studied—43 out of 49—became less religious. The decline in belief was not confined to high-income countries and appeared across most of the world.

“Growing numbers of people no longer find religion a necessary source of support and meaning in their lives. Even the United States—long cited as proof that an economically advanced society can be strongly religious—has now joined other wealthy countries in moving away from religion.”

The paragraph below is from a Wall Street Journal article titled, “Can Religion Still Speak to Younger Americans” – dated November 2019:

“The fastest-growing population on the American religious landscape today is “Nones”—people who don’t identify with any religion. Recent data from the American Family Survey indicates that their numbers increased from 16% in 2007 to 35% in 2018. Over the same period, there has been a dramatic decline in the share of the population who identify as Christian, from 78% of Americans in 2007 to 65% in 2018 according to a report by the Pew Research Center released this month. The rise of Nones is even more dramatic among younger people: 44% of Americans aged 18 to 29 are Nones.”

As stated in the MAWS Service Manual: The Conference Charter of Marijuana Anonymous Originally adopted at MA World Service Conference, 1989 (p64 Maws Service Manual v7.0):

3) CONFERENCE RELATION TO MA: The Conference will act for MA in the perpetuation and guidance of its world services and it will also be the vehicle by which MA can express its views upon all matters of vital MA policy and all deviations from our Traditions. Delegates, Trustees and Service Committee Heads should be free to vote as their conscience dictates and decide what questions should be taken to the group level, for information, discussion, or their own direct instruction. 

Any change in Article Twelve of The Charter, The Twelve Traditions of MA, or The Twelve

Steps of MA must be made with the written consent of three-quarters of the MA groups, as defined in the resolution adopted by the October, 1989 Conference*. 

MOTION:

That the Conference Body sends the following changes to all registered MA groups for written consent, and after no less than 6 months, those ballots returned shall be counted. A yes vote of three-quarters of the returned ballots shall be sufficient to meet the requirement of the Conference Charter to approve the proposed change(s). These changes are to be applied to every instance where the steps are used in MA literature, including the Life with Hope book, Life with Hope workbook, World Service Manual, all pamphlets, handouts, website, and the Marijuana Anonymous application.

Proposed changes to be voted on:

i) Step Three

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God [a Higher Power], as we understood God [Higher Power].

ii) Step Five

Admitted to God [a Higher Power], to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

iii) Step Six

Were entirely ready to have God [a Higher Power] remove all these defects of character.

iv) Step Seven

Humbly asked God [a Higher Power] to remove our shortcomings.

v) Step Eleven

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God [a Higher Power], as we understood God [Higher Power], praying only for knowledge of God‘s [a Higher Power’s], will for us and the power to carry that out.

vi) Tradition Two 

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

Contextual Statement from World Services Conference Agenda Committee: At the 2020 MA World Services Conference, a similar agenda item was ruled out of order due to a procedural error. The error was the omission of the procedure required to implement changes to the language of the 12 Steps. This error has been corrected in this submission.