Off the Dope

Dr. Hope is a retired Professor of Psychology (also a recovered drug addict totally drug free for over twenty-one years). Write to him at PO Box 187 North Beach WA 6020. Real names are never used in this article.

If you want to smoke marijuana, that’s your business. However if you want to quit, perhaps I can help. After all I tried to quit hundreds of times before I found out how. We read pot is not habit-forming. As one cone-head said, "I can prove grass is not addicting, I’ve smoked it every day for fifteen years and it hasn’t got me hooked." Or maybe the bushes are following you down the street. Or you’re at a basketball game and the coach calls the team together to talk about you. Or a piece of pie in a shop says "hello." I went back next day to see if it was still talking (now that’s really paranoid.) Anyway it was time to quit. There’s nothing worse than a mild hallucinogen: you’re never there and never all there. OK, quit! Yes, quit. At last I was ready. But HOW?

Here are some tips it took me years to learn:

1. Better if you don’t try to quit alone. A pot-head alone is in bad company. If possible, get together with someone who has been able to quit. I can’t, we can.
2. Stay away from the old playground and the old playmates. Associate with people who don’t smoke pot. Make new friends.
3. Get on the right spiritual path. Every drug high is a substitute for a true spiritual experience. Prayer definitely helps. You don’t have to be religious, just don’t be a know-all.
4. Be willing to ask for help. Get humble. Pot-heads are notoriously arrogant. I thought I was God, hated God, and didn’t believe in God. You have to smoke a lot of dope to understand that logic!
5. Try helping others to quit. They may not get clean but you will stay clean.
6. Don’t substitute one drug for another. Switching the witch for the bitch won’t work.
7. Remember, it’s the first joint that does the damage. The only way to quit is to quit. If you could control it (smoke weekends only), you would probably not have read this far. Total abstinence is the way to go. Good Luck!

I know dozens of people who have quit. Age is no barrier. I’m in my sixties, clean many years. Roy, seventeen, totally clean four months wishes you well. J., from a well-known rock-group says marijuana affected his voice. He’s been clean thirty-three days and the voice is improving.

If you still can’t quit and want even more help, write to me and I’ll suggest a more heavy-duty program. There’s no use ruining your life over a bit of weed.

Dr. Hope (Charles Slack) has a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Princeton University and was an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at Harvard from 1955-1960. He is the author of numerous papers and one book.

© 1997 Charles Slack, MAIN LINE, Perth, Western Australia

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