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Ex-pot smoker likes feeling alive Marijuana Anonymous chapter forms in Southern Oregon By PAUL FATTIG Sessions start Thursday The first local meeting of Marijuana Anonymous, a 12-step recovery program for people who need help to stop smoking pot, is set Thursday in Ashland. The session will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Suite 6B at 258 A St. The meeting place is upstairs from the Kolpia Outpatient Treatment Center. For additional information, call the Marijuana Anonymous World Service toll-free at (800) 800-766-6779 or the Portland office at (503) 221-7007. Information is also available at http://www.marijuana-anonymous.org ASHLAND -- She is a successful artist in her mid-30s, college educated and happily married. But until four years ago, she was a habitual pot smoker, having puffed her days away for 17 years. Now she is high on life -- and the fact that a Marijuana Anonymous chapter will hold its first meeting locally this week. "I'm very excited about that," said the woman, who asked that her name not be used. "Today I have no desire to get high. But I had a deep desire to help other people who continue using marijuana. I want them to know how great it really feels to be alive." The nonprofit Marijuana Anonymous is dedicated to helping people stop smoking marijuana and uses a 12-step program similar to those offered by Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous. It has chapters throughout California and in Seattle and Portland, but the Ashland group is the first for the region, said drug and alcohol counselor Steve Fogelman, director of Kolpia Counseling Services Inc., which has offices in Medford and Ashland. While some maintain that marijuana is not physically addictive, Fogelman said that's not necessarily true. "It is addictive both psychologically and physically" to those who have used it for an extended period, he said. "People do suffer from withdrawal if they've used it for a long time. "It's a great thing to have here," he said of the new group. "A lot of adolescents and teens feel more comfortable going to Marijuana Anonymous than AA or NA." Plenty of young people in the area began smoking pot as young as 12, he said. "When they start that young, it's often a good indication they will continue for awhile," he added. The woman, noting she was speaking only for herself and not the group, said she considered the drug addictive. "I don't know if the substance itself is addictive but the effect the substance had on my life was addictive," she said. Reared in Los Angeles, the woman said she began smoking marijuana when she was 13. She was visiting a young friend when the friend's mother offered her her a joint, she said. "I started smoking fairly regularly," she said. "It made me feel more comfortable with other people. It made me feel like I fit in. "I smoked before going to school in the morning, before eating, before watching movies, before spending time with friends," she added. Yet she would graduate from high school with good grades. She also went to college and earned a degree in art. "But I had planned to go into an academic profession, a science profession," she said. "When I was going through college I found I had not been able to remember academic things. But when I took art classes, I could get stoned and do art." Yet she is quick to observe that she prefers being a stone cold sober artist to one who is simply stoned. "My lethargy had become so extreme that I wasn't motivated enough to make enough money to live on," she said. "I was self-employed because it was too difficult to work for someone while smoking pot. Getting stone had been my first priority." The priority cost her relationships, she said. "I was stoned all the time so my emotional maturity had stopped," she said. "I got into a lot of arguments that didn't make sense. I blamed everyone else." She tried stopping several times, but never stayed off the drug. Finally, she went through a two-week program and sobered up. That was four years ago. "I've been sober ever since," she said, adding, "I'm enjoying what I've missed." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA