To the Editor:
Thank you for your April 10 article “Students confront substance dependency.”
During my college days in the mid-1970s, I was one of those students with a budding alcohol and marijuana problem. If there was an on-campus place to turn, I was unaware of it, nor did I ask. Brown is fortunate to have a dean of chemical dependency and other similar resources.
My drinking progressed until it was a daily activity by the second half of my sophomore year. The key word here is “progressed.” One of the major aspects of addiction is that it only gets progressively worse. My marijuana usage progressed at a slower rate — I saw myself as an alcoholic and a social pot smoker.
By the time I was 25, I signed myself into rehab, determined to quit alcohol. Run-ins with the law, estrangement from family and friends and an inability to sleep or eat with any normalcy had taken their toll. My job was in jeopardy and the local police had impounded my car. I’d had enough.
However, I still thought I was a social pot smoker. My plan was to do whatever I had to do to not drink, including Alcoholics Anonymous, counseling, etc., and to still smoke pot now and then, just like I had throughout my drinking career.
After five months of successful abstinence from alcohol, albeit with occasional marijuana use, something clicked. All of a sudden I was smoking marijuana on a daily basis. It wasn’t the same as my drinking days. While drinking, it was easy for me to stay away from marijuana because I always had alcohol to fall back on. Now there was no such safety net. This went on for eight months until I hit bottom again, this time with marijuana. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but I had to admit to myself that I could do no mood- or mind-altering drug safely. I applied what I had learned in AA to my marijuana addiction and successfully recovered from it too.
Today, after 32 years of true sobriety, it’s hard to believe I’m the same person. Married 25 years, two children in their 20s, never unemployed. But, two years ago, when a loved one ran into difficulties with marijuana, with little corresponding use of alcohol, I wondered what could be done. That was when I discovered Marijuana Anonymous. It’s essentially the same as AA, but attendees are free to openly discuss their marijuana addiction, which isn’t always the case at AA meetings. There were several such meetings in the Boston area, but none in Rhode Island. After I attended a few of the Boston-area meetings, at first alone and later with this loved one, it became apparent that Rhode Island could use such a group. So I started one. It started slowly, but now averages about eight people per week. It’s geared toward beginners, but there are always some old-timers there who know what they’re talking about. We meet for an hour in Barrington on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. Providence-area people regularly attend and are willing to give rides to anyone. Or take RIPTA #60 to the White Church and someone can bring you back to campus.
Oh, and by the way, the loved one now has 14 months of clean time.
Bill W.
Barrington
Due to the sensitive nature of this letter, the editors have decided to honor the author’s request for partial anonymity.
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