If it’s medical it’s probably a grey area. I remember when Prozac came out, it was very controversial whether you were sober if you took it. Nowadays I’d say half of the people in meetings have taken antidepressants at one time or another. I don’t judge.

Alcohol has been legal for a long time, either way it's an altered state of mind. The groups I've been to have a number of AAs who also abuse pot, coke or meth.

.... has just about a 15% success rate. If there is a claimed higher success rate, chances are it came from the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book. I spent a year in a VA Rehab Center where AA meetings were mandatory. I had attended AA meetings in the past and after talking to my counselor he agreed to exempt me from those mandatory meetings. I was given a job as part of my rehabilitation in housekeeping, and was housed in an alcohol-free living environment. After one year, I hit the ground running, and never looked back. Ten years sober. I am 70 years old now, so I'm pretty confident I'm going to make it to............

I trusted him, a medical doctor, and he was right.

.... that I had after every AA meeting I attended was, "Damn, I could use a drink! It was sad, and me not being a religious person took exception to this organization's reliance on God and religion as the primary path to sobriety. My path to sobriety was hard work, some responsible counseling, and living in an alcohol-free environment. That is my own personal experience, and opinion concerning Alcoholics Anonymous.

He made AA his life and felt bad if he missed a meeting. A year of so later he made some big money on the sale of some collectible items. Took that $10K and bought an oz of coke and blew his heart out, dead.

My problem with it was the talk about drugs every day and the whole "higher power" thing.

Got new friends, went back to school and got my degree, started a business while working full time and moved on. Thirty years ago.

I'm sure it works for some, others not so much for me.

I owe it all to my psychiatrist.

Sorry you lost your friend. I know how you feel because I've been there myself with an old friend of mine.

30 years! Well done!

Sobriety around here means just that - and in the 13 years I've been in AA I have noticed that more people these days are cross addicted (drugs) than not. At one of my first meetings, the speaker said she initially tried "marijuana maintenance," so I asked someone what that meant. Apparently some, in an effort to avoid alcohol, tried marijuana instead, but that didn't work for them because they were still "under the influence" and not actually sober.

According to my sponsor, it's one thing if it's a prescription prescribed by a doctor - but when I had TMJ after dental surgery, my doctor prescribed hydrocodone for the pain in my jaw and my sponsor totally freaked out I only took it a couple of times since I couldn't get off the couch after I took it. But at the last meeting I attended, someone recounted taking hydrocodone as a supplement to drinking, so addictive prescriptions (that get you high) are to be avoided.

Though alcohol is my drug of choice by a country mile, recreational weed and abuse of pills is all part of my story as well. Even if a doctor prescribed weed or narcotic painkillers, even if I took it a prescribed, I can see the use triggering me. FOR ME, the use of medicinal weed/narcotics would have to be under only the most extraordinary or circumstances.

I personally try not to get caught up in "well, what if AA says THIS now?" jazz. I have been in and out of recovery since the late 80s. My hard-won lesson is this - I cannot use alcohol or recreational drugs safely, in any capacity. So in the spirit of "keeping it simple", abstention from all mind altering substances is the only way I personally can continue to work a program and stay sober.

Find what works for you. Leave the rest.