AA is not a cult. And to let you know, Aa is for the most part still a voluntary program. Yes some are sent there by court order, but all of the people I know who go go because they want to. and after 6 years of AA I can tell you thats alot of people. See you keep nitpicking certain things about these programs. They arent perfect just as the people who created them arent. But they do help and they are constantly shifting and changing to be better. I know when I went to AA alot much of it didnt have to do with the liturature. Yes it was a nice guideline and alot of the things in it are hel;pful. But the fellowship is why so many people use this tool. Because they can see they are not alone in this and they cna see they can do well because others there are doing well too. Guess what. Everyone has to do things they dont like. Boo freakin hoo. I hate paying bills but i do it. i hate paying taxes but I do it. I hate driving the speed limit but I do it. Well heres a good example. Say your theory that no one should do anything they dont want to was put into effect. How do you think humans would handle that? Do you really think people would still follow rules? Hell no! They would do what they felt like and we would have a society where people could do drugs in the streets, drink when they want to all day, beat their children and wives (or husbands) in public and there would be no consequences to their actions. Do you believe that we belong in a lawless society? In a ego driven world? Well for the most part, we kinda do, just becaus ethe peope who make the rules break them the most, but without consequences for their actions people could do whatever they felt like. OUr society has rules for a reason. Do I think all of them are vaild? Of course not. I personally believe that pot is not a very dangerous drug. time will tell, but cigarettes and alcohol are way more dangerous than pot and they are legal. Now in my perfect world people would be able to smoke pot as a recreational drug such as alcohol. Or if their going to make it illegal why not make alcohol and cigartettes illegal too? Dont they kill thousands of people a year, not to mention cause the economy problems because of all the health problems each of those drugs cause? But our society is hypocritical and apparantly needs these things so much that even their own governments cant stop them. I mean there are always rules we dont like, but I'm not about to go out and break them just because i dont like them. Soem rules are there for a really good reason. like drunk driving rules, and the speed limit, and even paying your taxes. Not that the tax money always goes where I think it sould go, but that it the system weve got. That is how we pay for schools and roads. So when kids dont like the rules of the program and think they are nitpicky, that rule may be dumb but its there for a reason. Like in the program girls used to plug the toilets just cause they wanted to, so they made a rule that you couldnt have more than 7 sheets of paper at a time, as that is enough for one trip to the restroom. If you needed more you could ask. Now that may seem dumb to you cuz not everyone isgoing to clog the toilet, but to the person who keeps cleaning up that mess, it means alot to them. So the rule wasnt there to torture us or anything. It was there so that people didnt have to keep cleaning up other peoples poop. There are many other cases in life where the rule may seem dumb but it makes sense if oyu think about it. Like how some schools have uniforms. Kids get way too freakin caught up in cloths and styles and even kill each other over wearing the wrong thing. So schools thaught that if you wore the same thing that would eliminate alot of the need to single others out for their cloths and maybe those kids would focus on school (What a shocker considering thats why they are there in the first place.) and less on what they look like. Now I agree that a person has a right to express themselves in their clothing, but those who take it to an extreme ruin it for those who dont. I think they will express themselves better when they arent focused on their image or looking cool.