Marijuana Anonymous

What Is Marijuana Anonymous?

Marijuana Anonymous (MA) is a free fellowship of people who help one another stop using marijuana and stay stopped. It runs on the same 12-step model as Alcoholics Anonymous: members work the steps, lean on a sponsor, and meet regularly to share what’s working. There are no dues, no sign-up, and no one turned away. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using marijuana.

If you’ve tried to quit on your own and keep going back, MA was built for exactly that. It exists because cannabis addiction is real, it can be genuinely hard to stop, and doing it alongside other people who get it works far better than white-knuckling it solo.

What Marijuana Anonymous Is, and Who It’s For

MA is open to anyone who wants to stop, whether you smoke, vape, dab, or eat it, and whether you’ve used for a year or for decades. It describes itself as a fellowship of people who share their experience, strength, and hope so they can solve a common problem and help others recover from marijuana addiction.

You don’t need to hit some threshold of “bad enough.” If you can’t imagine your day without being high, or you keep promising to cut back and don’t, that’s enough to walk in.

What MA Is Not

A few misconceptions keep people away, so it’s worth naming what MA isn’t. It isn’t a treatment center, a religion, or a place anyone judges you. It doesn’t take a position on whether marijuana should be legal, and it has no opinion on outside issues at all. It simply offers a path for people who’ve decided that, for them, marijuana has become a problem they want to put down.

Marijuana Anonymous grew out of several local groups that came together in 1989. Delegates from Marijuana Smokers Anonymous in Orange County, Marijuana Addicts Anonymous in the San Francisco Bay area, and a Los Angeles group already called Marijuana Anonymous met in a crowded motel room in Morro Bay, California, and agreed to become one unified program. Within months the young fellowship heard from a group in New Zealand, and it has been growing worldwide ever since.

How Marijuana Anonymous Works

MA is two things working together: a program of action (the 12 steps) and a community (the meetings). You don’t have to understand it all to start. Most people just go to a meeting, keep coming back, and let it unfold.

The 12 Steps and 12 Traditions

The heart of MA is the 12 steps, the same sequence AA uses, adapted word for word for marijuana.

Members usually work them with a sponsor, and the arc is straightforward:

• Early steps — honestly admitting marijuana has become unmanageable and becoming willing to change.
• Middle steps — a searching look at yourself and repairing the harm done along the way.
• Later steps — daily maintenance and helping the next person.

Alongside them sit the 12 traditions, the principles that keep the fellowship itself healthy, self-supporting, non-professional, anonymous, and focused on its single purpose.

Life with Hope and the Literature

MA has its own foundational book, Life with Hope, which lays out the 12 steps and 12 traditions written specifically for marijuana, a doctor’s view of cannabis addiction, and recovery stories from members who got clean. There’s a companion 12-step workbook and a daily reader called Living Every Day with Hope. The fellowship offers these as free digital downloads, so cost is never a barrier to getting started.

Meetings, Sponsors, and Anonymity

Day to day, MA runs on four simple things:

• Meetings — where members share what they’re going through and how they’re staying clean.
• A sponsor — someone with solid clean time who gives one-on-one guidance and a phone number for the rough moments.
• Anonymity — members go by first names and what’s said in the room stays there, which is what makes the level of honesty possible.
• Service — making coffee, chairing a meeting, sponsoring someone new; many members find this is itself part of how they stay clean.

Together they turn quitting from a lonely fight into a shared one.

Is Marijuana Really Addictive, and Does Marijuana Anonymous Work?

Two fair questions, and they deserve straight answers.

Marijuana Addiction Is Real

Cannabis is not harmless to quit, and you don’t have to convince anyone in MA that it’s “as bad as” other drugs to belong. Regular, heavy use can build into a genuine cannabis use disorder, the inability to stop despite wanting to.

Stopping can bring on real withdrawal that peaks in the first week or so:

• Irritability and anxiety
• Trouble sleeping
• Low appetite
• Restlessness

Those symptoms are part of why so many people quit and then quietly start again. The reassuring part: they’re uncomfortable, not dangerous, and they pass, usually within a couple of weeks. That short, rough stretch is exactly what a fellowship is built to carry you through, and it tends to be far milder than the misery people brace for.

What the Evidence Says About the 12-Step Approach

MA itself hasn’t been studied as much as AA, but the 12-step model it’s built on has strong evidence behind it. A 2020 Cochrane review, the gold standard of evidence synthesis, pooled 27 studies covering more than 10,000 people. It found that structured efforts to engage people in Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs were as effective as, or more effective than, established treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy at keeping people abstinent, with the benefit holding for up to three years, while also lowering healthcare costs^[1].

Research also finds that this kind of peer mutual aid works best when it lines up with, rather than competes with, any professional treatment a person is getting^[2].

Marijuana Anonymous vs Narcotics Anonymous

People who want to stop using cannabis often wonder whether to go to MA or Narcotics Anonymous (NA). Both are free, anonymous, 12-step fellowships, and either can help, so the real answer is to try a meeting and see where you feel at home. The difference is focus.

If marijuana is the one thing you’re trying to put down, an MA room tends to feel tailor-made, everyone there knows the specific grip it has. If your use spans more than cannabis, or there’s no MA meeting near you, NA welcomes you just the same. Many people start with whichever meets first and end up using both.

Find a fellowship and recovery support that fit you →

How to Find a Marijuana Anonymous Meeting and Get Started

Getting started is genuinely low-stakes. Meetings are free, you can sit quietly and just listen, and you can leave if it’s not for you.

The official Marijuana Anonymous website has a meeting finder listing online, phone, and in-person meetings worldwide, so you can almost always find one happening today.

A few things to know before you go:

• Online and phone meetings mean one is available even if the nearest in-person group is far away.
• You don’t have to have quit already.
• You don’t have to say a word your first time.

Showing up is the whole ask.

Written by

Jessica Miller

Editorial Director

Jessica Miller is the Editorial Director of Addiction Help. Jessica graduated from the University of South Florida (USF) with an English degree and combines her writing expertise and passion for helping others to deliver reliable information to those impacted by addiction. Informed by her personal journey to recovery and support of loved ones in sobriety, Jessica's empathetic and authentic approach resonates deeply with the Addiction Help community.

Reviewed by

• Fact-Checked
• Editor

Kent S. Hoffman, D.O.

Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer

Kent S. Hoffman, D.O. has been an expert in addiction medicine for more than 15 years. In addition to managing a successful family medical practice, Dr. Hoffman is board certified in addiction medicine by the American Osteopathic Academy of Addiction Medicine (AOAAM). Dr. Hoffman has successfully treated hundreds of patients battling addiction. Dr. Hoffman is the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of AddictionHelp.com and ensures the website’s medical content and messaging quality.