12 Steps of Marijuana Anonymous.

The practice of rigorous honesty, of opening our hearts and minds, and the willingness to go to any lengths to have a spiritual awakening are essential to our recovery. Our old ideas and ways of life no longer work for us. Our suffering shows us that we need to let go absolutely. We surrender ourselves to a Power greater than ourselves. Here are the steps we take which are suggested for recovery:

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

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

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

IV. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

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

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

VII. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

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

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

X. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

XI. 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.



Do not be discouraged; none of us are saints. Our program is not easy, but it is simple. We strive for progress, not perfection. Our experiences, before and after we entered recovery, teach us three important ideas:

That we are marijuana addicts and cannot manage our own lives;
That probably no human power can relieve our addiction; and
That our Higher Power can and will if sought.

What is Detoxing?

Detoxing is the way in which your body gets rid of the toxins accumulated from years of using. It happens the first few days or weeks after getting clean and/or sober. It is also the very beginning of getting used to dealing with reality and real feelings with no numbing agent.

Can there be physical effects from quitting marijuana?

In spite of numerous years of being told that there are no physiological effects from marijuana addiction, many of our recovering members have had definite withdrawal symptoms. Whether the causes are physical or psychological, the results are physical. Others have just had emotional and mental changes as they stop using their drug of choice. There is no way of telling before quitting who will be physically uncomfortable and who will not. Most members have only minor physical discomfort if any at all. This pamphlet is for those who are having trouble and wonder what's happening to them.

Why do some effects last so long?

Unlike most other drugs, including alcohol, THC (the active chemical in marijuana) is stored in the fat cells and therefore takes longer to fully clear the body than with any other common drug. This means that some parts of the body still retain THC even after a couple of months, rather than just the couple of days or weeks for water soluble drugs.

Can this affect a drug test?

The experiences of some members have shown that if you quit marijuana and expect to take a drug test you should not go on a crash diet at the same time. Fasting, or a crash diet, can release the THC into the bloodstream very rapidly and can give a positive reading. This has happened to several of our members, but each time only with crash diets and major weight loss, not with just eating less than usual.

What are some of the more common symptoms?

By far the most common symptom of withdrawal is insomnia. This can last from a few nights of practically no sleep at all, up to a few months of occasional sleeplessness. The next most common symptom is depression (that is, if you're not euphoric), and next are nightmares and vivid dreams. Marijuana use tends to dampen the dreaming mechanism, so that when you do get clean the dreams come back with a crash. They can be vivid color, highly emotional dreams or nightmares, even waking up then coming back to the same dream. The very vivid, every-night dreams usually don't start for about a week or so. They last for about a month at most and then taper off. "Using" dreams (dreams involving the use of marijuana) are very common, and although they're not as vivid or emotional as at first, they last for years and are just considered a normal part of recovery.

The fourth most common symptom is anger. This can range from a slow burning rage to constant irritability to sudden bursts of anger when least expected: anger at the world, anger at loved ones, anger at oneself, anger at being an addict and having to get clean. Emotional jags are very common, with emotions bouncing back and forth between depression, anger, and euphoria. Occasionally experienced is a feeling of fear or anxiety, a loss of the sense of humor, decreased sex drive, or increased sex drive. Most all of these symptoms fade to normal emotions by three months. Loss of concentration for the first week or month is also very common and this sometimes affects the ability to learn for a very short while.

What about physical symptoms?

The most common physical symptom is headaches. For those who have them, they can last for a few weeks up to a couple of months, with the first few days being very intense. The next most common physical symptom is night sweats, sometimes to the point of having to change night clothes. They can last from a few nights to a month or so. Sweating is one of the body's natural ways of getting rid of toxins. Hand sweats are very common and are often accompanied by an unpleasant smell from the hands. Body odor is enough in many instances to require extra showers or baths. Coughing up phlegm is another way the body cleans itself. This can last for a few weeks to well over six months.

One third of the addicts who responded to a questionnaire on detoxing said they had eating problems for the first few days and some for up to six weeks. Their main symptoms were loss of appetite, sometimes enough to lose weight temporarily, digestion problems or cramps after eating, and nausea, occasionally enough to vomit (only for a day or two). Most of the eating problems were totally gone before the end of a month.

The next most common physical symptoms experienced were tremors or shaking and dizziness. Less frequently experienced were kidney pains, impotency, hormone changes or imbalances, low immunity or chronic fatigue, and some minor eye problems that resolved at around two months. There have been cases of addicts having more severe detox symptoms, however this is rare. For intense discomfort, see a doctor, preferably one who is experienced with detoxing.

How can I reduce discomfort?

For some of the milder detoxing symptoms, a few home remedies have proven to be useful:

Hot soaking baths can help the emotions as well as the body.

Drink plenty of water and clear liquids, just like for the flu.

Cranberry juice has been used effectively for years by recovery houses to help purify and cleanse the body.

Really excessive sweating can deplete the body of potassium, a necessary mineral. A few foods high in potassium are: melons, bananas, citrus fruits, green leafy vegetables, and tomatoes.

Eliminate fat from the diet until digestion is better.

Greatly reduce or eliminate caffeine until the sleep pattern is more normal or the shakes are gone.

The old fashioned remedy for insomnia, a glass of warm milk before bedtime, helps some people.

Exercise not only helps depression and other unpleasant emotions, it helps the body speed up the healing process.

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Marijuana May Be The Least Dangerous Recreational Drug, Study Shows

Marijuana is far safer than alcohol, tobacco and multiple other illicit substances, researchers say, and strict, legal regulation of cannabis might be a more reasonable approach than current prohibitions.

Those are the findings of a new report published in Scientific Reports that compares the lethality of the recreational use of 10 common drugs, including marijuana, alcohol, tobacco, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamine, diazepam, amphetamine and methadone.

Researchers found that marijuana has the lowest risk of mortality and is safer than the commonly used alcohol and tobacco as well as the rest of the drugs in the study. They determined the risk of mortality by comparing the lethal dose of each substance with a commonly used amount of each substance.

The finding that marijuana has the lowest risk when compared with the other drugs is not surprising — previous research had found that marijuana is a substantially safer recreational drug than other commonly used recreational drugs examined in this study. That finding stands in stark contrast to the lethal risk of alcohol, which the researchers found to be potentially more deadly than heroin.

Marijuana is so much less risky than alcohol and tobacco that the researchers say their results point toward developing policies that prioritize managing the risks associated with alcohol and tobacco, rather than the illicit drugs in the study. Further, the low risk of cannabis use suggests government should use “a strict legal regulatory approach rather than the current prohibition approach” to manage the substance, the researchers write.


POLITICS
Marijuana May Be The Least Dangerous Recreational Drug, Study Shows
Feb 24, 2015 | Updated Feb 24, 2015
Matt Ferner National Reporter, The Huffington Post

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Marijuana is far safer than alcohol, tobacco and multiple other illicit substances, researchers say, and strict, legal regulation of cannabis might be a more reasonable approach than current prohibitions.

Those are the findings of a new report published in Scientific Reports that compares the lethality of the recreational use of 10 common drugs, including marijuana, alcohol, tobacco, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamine, diazepam, amphetamine and methadone.

Researchers found that marijuana has the lowest risk of mortality and is safer than the commonly used alcohol and tobacco as well as the rest of the drugs in the study. They determined the risk of mortality by comparing the lethal dose of each substance with a commonly used amount of each substance.

The finding that marijuana has the lowest risk when compared with the other drugs is not surprising — previous research had found that marijuana is a substantially safer recreational drug than other commonly used recreational drugs examined in this study. That finding stands in stark contrast to the lethal risk of alcohol, which the researchers found to be potentially more deadly than heroin.

Marijuana is so much less risky than alcohol and tobacco that the researchers say their results point toward developing policies that prioritize managing the risks associated with alcohol and tobacco, rather than the illicit drugs in the study. Further, the low risk of cannabis use suggests government should use “a strict legal regulatory approach rather than the current prohibition approach” to manage the substance, the researchers write.



Many world governments, including the United States, tend to have more restrictive policies around drugs such as marijuana than they do for alcohol and tobacco. The researchers note that their results confirm that the risk of cannabis “may have been overestimated in the past” and that the risk of alcohol “may have been commonly underestimated.”

Legislation around illicit substances often have a “lack of scientific basis,” the researchers say, and that’s a point that is reflected in U.S. drug laws.

Under the Controlled Substances Act, the U.S. has five “schedules” for drugs and chemicals that can be used to make drugs. Schedule I is reserved for drugs that the Drug Enforcement Administration considers to have the highest potential for abuse and are the “most dangerous.” Marijuana has been classified as Schedule I for decades, along with other substances like heroin and LSD. Cocaine is Schedule II. Alcohol and tobacco are exempted from the CSA.

But if science dictated drug policy, where would alcohol and tobacco be placed in the CSA?

“Of course alcohol and tobacco would be Schedule I,” said Mark Kleiman, professor of drug policy and criminal justice at New York University and co-author of Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs To Know.

“The whole scheduling system should be scrapped and replaced with something with more dimensions,” Kleiman said, but he added that common reforms to drug policy can also come with problems.

Decriminalization, while good at reducing criminal punishment for nonviolent drug users, can still leave the drug supply in criminal hands, Kleiman said. And while legalization is less of a “kludge” than decriminalization, it’s too early to tell if it is the most effective, at least with regard to marijuana, Kleiman explained. Four states, as well as Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational cannabis, and retail marijuana has been for sale for only a year in Colorado and Washington. Additionally, 23 states have legalized marijuana for medical purposes.

“For most currently prohibited drugs — except cannabis and the hallucinogens — it looks like smarter prohibition [is the answer]: less enforcement, more concentrated on bad illicit


Source: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/marijuana-safer-than-alcohol-tobacco_n_6738572.html