Sober Isn’t Always Sober

For some of you, I may be delving into a controversial topic. For others and myself, there’s nothing controversial about it. Recently there has been a term relegated to a type or degree of sober. That term is called California Sober. Before I go any further, I want to make it very clear California sober is not how I view Sober. Before I delve too much into that and give you my opinion, let me give you the definition of sober, the urban dictionary definition, and the effect that marijuana has on the thinking process.

Sober is defined as not intoxicated or drunk, habitually temperate, quiet or sedate, marked by seriousness, gravity, as of demeanor or speech, subdued in tone. Some of the synonyms for sober are abstinent, serious, quiet, sedate, subdued, composed, dull, reasonable. When you consider the definition of these terms up to and including Sober is an indication of a sound mind. Compare California Sober to this I am sure you will quickly realize that California Sober is not sober. It is a version of being sober that is outside the formal definition of sober.

California Sober means to abstain oneself from all drugs with the obvious exception of copious amounts of marijuana and psychedelics. By definition, a person would not do cocaine or methamphetamine or even drink alcohol for their own personal or addictive reasons but does not have a problem with smoking marijuana or dropping LSD. I find it difficult if not impossible to equate being sober with California sober.

To me and others who believe in abstinence, California Sober is nothing more than exercising poly addiction. In true sobriety, abstinence is necessary to get to the root reasons why someone became addicted in the first place. Cross-addicting makes this a moot point.

Let me say, that if marijuana in Its varying forms is medically indicated or prescribed by a clinician and or physician, then of course a person should use it. I would not want to have knee surgery without adequate pain medication for my recovery, nor would I want to be a cancer patient who could hardly keep down food if marijuana would help me keep that food down If I have a psychiatric disorder to take a non-narcotic psychotropic drug I would take it as prescribed. This is not what we are talking about though when we talk about California sober.

California Sober is not sober. California Sober is a person’s perspective on how to stay high without facing the reasons that they became addicted in the first place.

For many people this viewpoint is controversial. To me, it is common sense. Once again, it all depends upon your view of sober. I have been around recovery far too long to believe that using another substance is an adequate substitute for finding what the cause of my getting high is.

Depending upon what research you read the short-term effects of marijuana will include impaired coordination, skewered sensory and time perception, difficulty thinking, concentrating, and solving problems, shortened attention span and distractibility, decreased alertness, impaired learning, and memory and euphoria. These are documented by Caron’s article entitled Hard Facts About Marijuana. Please look at the study for yourself if you don’t believe me.

Furthermore, marijuana has been known to cause disturbing thoughts and even worse and psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia. Marijuana use also poses a major threat to lung health people who engage in smoking marijuana, especially teenagers, can have the same respiratory problems as tobacco smokers. I could go on and on and on about the physical, mental, and emotional challenges that are a direct result of smoking marijuana.

I don’t even have to get into the allowance of psychedelics when it comes to so-called California Sober. The bottom line is this Sober is not Always Sober. So the next time someone tells you that they are sober ask them what their definition of sober is. If sober is not 100% abstinence then they are not truly sober. They may be sober from another substance, but they are not sober from the addictive effects of other chemicals or drugs.

I hope that this helps explain what it means to be sober and you will not accept a view that is not truly sober. California Sober is a crutch that people use because they have chosen to stay crippled.