Saturday, October 6, 2007

Three little anecdotes

These three things all happened the week that I marked my 15th anniversary clean and sober:

A young man came from the Kaiser Chemical Dependency Recovery Program in Oakland and told me about a session he had with his case manager. Now that he was in phase three of the program, he must "get serious" about his recovery. That means -- the case manager told him -- he must either get a sponsor and work the steps, or he must work the LifeRing Recovery by Choice workbook.

A not-so-young man came to the workbook study group, first time, and said that he had been busted for growing marijuana. His case fell under Prop. 36, the California law that mandates the option of treatment instead of prison for certain drug-related crimes. The judge told him that he could not sentence him to attend AA/NA because they were religious. Instead, he sentenced him to ten weeks of LifeRing.

The program director of a new inpatient treatment program in a nearby suburb telephoned the Service Center and said they had reviewed the LifeRing materials (they had ordered a set earlier) and found them excellent, and could we please arrange to hold a LifeRing meeting at their facility.

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