NA and the marijuana meeting: "Hugs Not Drugs," surrender of will literalized

texture · 9 Nov YDAU

• When: 9 November YDAU (a Monday NA Beginners' Discussion Meeting, the night after the joint Interdependence Day picnic)
• What: The recovery apparatus extended to Narcotics Anonymous, and to marijuana specifically. Staffer Johnette Foltz takes Erdedy and Kate Gompert to metro Boston's only NA meeting devoted to grass, to show them how "nonunique and unalone" they are in being brought down by "nature's humblest buzz" — the litany of THC-detox symptoms with clinical depression/anhedonia hanging unnamed over the room ("marijuana destroys slowly but thoroughly," echoing event 10's alcohol formula). NA's differences from AA (no raffle, "Just For Today," the mandatory closing hug-fest) frame the scene's comic-but-load-bearing climax: reformed Brighton dealer Roy Tony grabs the hug-averse Erdedy and roars the surrender-of-will doctrine in its bluntest form — "We done motherfucking surrendered our wills in here" — the abstract event 10 principle enforced as a headlock. (Whether this clean Roy Tony is the Brighton Projects predator/dealer of the street scenes, 008/040, the text never asserts — same name, no stated identity; held open, as printed, for the theory pages.)