OR NOT? –

Nov. 26, 2024 – The song and the concept are called California sober: the idea that you can be considered drug free if the only substance you use is cannabis. (Booze, in moderation, sometimes gets a pass, too, depending on who you talk to.) It’s a popular notion — and a divisive one among people in recovery.

When Brooke Delgado was designing her study of sober musicians, she drew a hard line.

“I have had potential participants ask if California sober qualifies,” the CU Denver graduate student says. “And I say no. My study is on people living sober lifestyles, which is a lifestyle free of drugs and alcohol.

“You have to have some sort of criteria, and I was concerned [with] the conflict of someone in recovery versus someone who is California sober,” she says. “Can I compare the data?” 

Some of Delgado’s study participants were California sober “for a period of time,” she says.  

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