Origins
My
name is
James and for twenty five years
I was in the art business
owning different galleries in Central London.
That was through my twenties and thirties.
I was also a chronic Cannabis smoker. I write
more about my using experiences on other
pages, but this is about how I came to found
Clearhead and what it stands for.
In my forties I had finally come to accept
that my Cannabis smoking had turned from
a pleasurable activity to something that
was running my life.
This
website and the course that came out of
it were born from frustration.
When I
finally admitted that I had a problem with
Cannabis and that I was ready to stop, I
looked around for support and called The
National Drugs Helpline, now known as ‘Frank’,
only to be told that I couldn’t be
addicted to Cannabis as Cannabis was not
addictive.
Eventually I was advised to contact Narcotics
Anonymous.
After attending a few NA meetings,
I realised that I was finding it hard to
identify with
others in the group, their experiences were
almost exclusively with heroin and cocaine,
drugs with which I had no experience. Again
after sharing my struggles with Cannabis,
someone told me about Marijuana Anonymous.
When I arrived at my first MA meeting I
felt that I was amongst people who understood
my relationship with Cannabis and, with the
love and support I found at those meetings,
I was able to get through the hardest early
weeks and months, dope free.
After six months I began to man the telephone
line and took on more responsibility within
MA. Over nearly four years I counselled hundreds
of people on the helpline.
At
MA like all twelve step fellowships, there
is a certain amount
of pressure to ‘work
the programme’ which involves written
exercises under the guidance of a sponsor.
Although I was keen, I personally found that
although the 12 step programme delved deeply
into the phsychology of drug addiction, it
did not offer sufficient practical advice
specific to Cannabis abuse and the problems
of overcoming it.
I was finding it frustrating fielding calls
on the helpline from people all over the
country who were looking for help. Marijuana
Anonymous is almost exclusively London based,
and by strictly following the steps and the
traditions of the Marijuana Anonymous Programme,
I was becoming extremely limited in the help
I was able to offer.
It became very clear to me
that what was needed was one an information
based website
and two a practical course that would go
to the core of the dope smoker’s problems
and dilemmas.
I began to develop a practical course that
not only offered a time and a place for quitting,
but also on-going support and reinforcement
that make the decision positive and exciting.
The
course has been developed using procedures
from my own experience of dependence and,
just as importantly, of successful quitting,
from research and from my experience int
the field of personal growth. It uses techniques
specifically adapted to deal with Cannabis
addiction.
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