Overflowing the basement nursery of an Episcopal church on a warm April evening in Eugene, a rag tag group of folks sit in a circle sharing stories and drinking herbal tea.  A college-age girl with a pretty face and wooden beads woven into dreadlocked hair sits on a futon off to the side, hugging her knees and chatting to a scrawny guy in a loose, dingy white tank top.  An older woman with vibrant red hair and tattoos knits in silence.  A surfer dude slouches and chews on a straw.   But they are the exceptions, the room is mostly populated by older, white men with longish hair and casual dress who shift awkwardly in metal school chairs designed for preschoolers, waiting for someone to take charge.  They look like blue-collar workers: carpenters, house painters, pizza deliverymen and construction workers.  They are here for a meeting of “Up in Smoke” – Eugene, Oregon’s, Marijuana Anonymous group. 

Wait.  What?  Marijuana Anonymous?  Since when did marijuana, that kindly, fun-loving drug enjoyed by the likes of Cheech, Chong, Snoop Dogg, the Dude and the cast of Dazed and Confused, become a twelve-step-worthy addiction?  Really, who cares anymore about pot?  With the crack epidemic of the 80s, heroin chic reintroduced by grunge rock in the 90s, and now meth the center of attention in the War on Drugs, marijuana is passé.  Not since the 1930s with the release of Reefer Madness has marijuana been the subject of a major anti-drug campaign.

Gaining public acceptance of the existence, let alone the consequences, of marijuana addiction poses quite a challenge.  The National Institute of Drug Abuse says that less than 15 percent of the estimated 14 million Americans who smoke pot – whose ranks at one time included Al Gore (smoked pot in college and the army), Newt Gingrich (graduate school) and Bill Clinton (oh wait, he didn’t inhale) – could be considered addicts.  The most commonly used illicit substance in the world and the U.S.’s number one cash crop, marijuana is decriminalized in some form in 11 states, in Canada, in parts of Australia, and is sold in a de facto legal market in the largest cities of the Netherlands.  With a pop culture that comes just shy of endorsing it and a prominent movement to legalize it, marijuana seems to have lost any remnant of the “dangerous drug” stigma.  Next to meth, heroin and cocaine, weed is very much an also-ran.   But the tide may be turning.  In the recently published book, Cannabis Dependence: Its Nature, Consequences and Treatment, University of Washington Professor of Social Work  Roger A. Roffman, and Virginia Tech Associate Professor of Psychology Robert S. Stephens cite research asserting negative consequences of marijuana use that affect millions.  Many of these individuals “need and want help in overcoming dependence,” they write.

Between long, awkward pauses during which everyone stares at the floor or pretends to read the nursery rhyme posters tacked to the wall, the Eugene marijuana addicts talk about pot and how it’s destroyed their lives.  “You don’t overdose, but you do stupid shit when you’re high,” says one addict.  Another says he almost died in a car accident in which the driver was stoned.  Betsy, the redheaded, tattooed grandma, says smoking pot made her feel young and helped her cope with getting older.  Kate, the pretty girl with dreads, isn’t worried about her use now but fears its progression.  She doesn’t want to become Betsy.  Another guy says he’s not sure he’d be alive today had he not started going to MA meetings.  When they talk, most refer to addictions to other substances – cocaine and alcohol are the most common – but for many in the room tonight, marijuana is the drug of choice.

All those described with identifying characteristics consented to personal interviews, though names have been changed in some cases.