Is A.A. for people addicted to drugs or other things?
In short:
- A.A.'s own literature describes A.A. as a fellowship of alcoholics. The 1946 Long Form says A.A.'s membership "ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism" (p. 563). The 1939 Foreword and the later short form of Tradition Three give one requirement, a desire to stop drinking (pp. xiv, 562).
- An alcoholic with other problems is not shut out. In 1946 Bill W. wrote that if alcohol is an uncontrollable problem to a newcomer and he wants to do something about it, A.A. doesn't care "whether he has other complications or not" (P-17, "Who Is a Member of Alcoholics Anonymous?", 1946). P-43 (© 1971; this printing updated 2023) names drugs directly: Tradition Three makes no demand that members have no history of drug abuse.
- What A.A.'s literature does not claim is to know how to treat drug addiction. In 1957 Bill listed carrying A.A. into "dope addiction" among the early dreams that taught A.A. it could not be all things to all men, and today's group pamphlet calls it "misleading" to suggest that A.A. "knows what to do about drug addiction" (P-16, 2018).
- The 1939 text never speaks to someone whose problem is drugs and not alcohol. The A.A. pamphlet on that subject ("Problems Other Than Alcohol") is not in our sources, so this page doesn't report what it says.
What the 1939 text says
The book is about alcohol. The Foreword to the First Edition gives one requirement for membership, "an honest desire to stop drinking" (p. xiv), and the program chapters are addressed to the alcoholic throughout.
Other drugs come up as part of the drinker's decline. The "real alcoholic" of Chapter 2 starts using "a combination of high-powered sedative and liquor" to get to work, and a doctor may give him "morphine or some sedative with which to taper off" (p. 22). Bill describes drinking "both gin and sedative" (p. 7).
Two hospitals in the book treated both. Dr. Silkworth, who wrote "The Doctor's Opinion," directed a hospital "treating alcoholic and drug addiction" (p. xxvii), and Chapter 11 thanks an eastern hospital "for the treatment of alcoholic and drug addiction" (p. 162), whose doctor suggested A.A. to some of his patients. Those passages describe the hospitals. What the doctor writes about, and what Chapter 11 says members went there to do, concerns alcoholics.
Nothing in pages 1–164 says what a person addicted only to some other drug should do.
The 1946 Long Form and Bill's essay
- Tradition Three: "Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism." (p. 563). A.A. "may refuse none who wish to recover" (p. 563).
- Tradition Five: each group's one primary purpose is carrying its message "to the alcoholic who still suffers" (p. 564).
Bill's 1946 essay, which Tradition Three grew out of, is wide open about what else a member may be dealing with. Most early members, he wrote, would have been thrown out under the old membership rules, some "because they had mental as well as alcoholic difficulties" (P-17, "Who Is a Member of Alcoholics Anonymous?", 1946). His conclusion: if alcohol is an uncontrollable problem to a newcomer and he wants to do something about it, "that is enough for us" (P-17, "Who Is a Member of Alcoholics Anonymous?", 1946), whatever other complications he has.
Later texts (dated)
1957. In A.A. Comes of Age Bill recalls the early fear of the newcomer with "Complications, you know; alcohol mixed with other things" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), and how A.A. got over it. In the same book, explaining Traditions Five and Six, he lists the dreams of the early years: hospitals, public education, law reform, and "We would carry A.A. into the dark regions of dope addiction and criminality." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Experience ended those plans: "We of Alcoholics Anonymous could not be all things to all men, and we should not try to be." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). He then notes that groups dealing with gambling, delinquency, dope addiction and other problems borrowed from A.A., "but they made their own adaptations" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
1971 (this printing updated 2023). The Twelve Traditions Illustrated (P-43) says Tradition Three makes no demand that prospective members have no history of drug abuse: "All alcoholics are welcome." (P-43).
2018. The A.A. Group (P-16) says the General Service Conference has recommended that "alcohol and pill" meetings not be listed in A.A. directories. Its reason: "Experience with alcohol is one thing all A.A. members have in common." (P-16, 2018). And: "It is misleading to hint or give the impression that A.A. solves other problems or knows what to do about drug addiction." (P-16, 2018). The same pamphlet says open meetings are available "to anyone interested in Alcoholics Anonymous' program of recovery from alcoholism" (P-16, 2018), with nonalcoholics attending as observers.
What our sources don't settle
Read together, the texts say that A.A. is for alcoholics, that an alcoholic's other problems don't bar him, and that A.A. doesn't claim any special knowledge of drug addiction. They don't directly answer whether a person addicted to some other drug, with no drinking problem, can be an A.A. member. The 1946 essay says a member is a member "as long as he says he is" (P-17, "Who Is a Member of Alcoholics Anonymous?", 1946), and that he may join "on the mere suspicion" that he may be an alcoholic (same essay); the Long Form ties membership to alcoholism. The pamphlet that addresses the question head-on, "Problems Other Than Alcohol," is listed in P-16 and P-17 but isn't in our sources.
These texts describe what A.A. says about itself. They don't govern other fellowships, which, as Bill wrote in 1957, work their own fields.
Read it yourself
- "The Doctor's Opinion" (pp. xxv–xxxii): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_foreworddoctorsopinion.pdf
- Chapter 2, "There Is a Solution" (pp. 17–29): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt2.pdf
- Chapter 11, "A Vision for You" (pp. 151–164): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt11.pdf
- Appendix I, "The A.A. Tradition" (pp. 561–566): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendicei.pdf
- P-17, A.A. Tradition — How It Developed: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/assets/p-17_AATraditions.pdf
- P-16, The A.A. Group: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/p-16_0723.pdf
- Related: What is the only requirement for A.A. membership? · Tradition Five: what is a group's one purpose? · Where does "singleness of purpose" come from? Is it in the Big Book?
Sources
| Source | Pages | First published |
|---|---|---|
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Foreword to the First Edition; "The Doctor's Opinion"; Chapters 1, 2, 11 | xiv, xxvii, 7, 22, 162 | 1939 |
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix I, Traditions Three and Five (short and Long Form) | 562–564 | Long Form 1946; short form by 1950 |
| P-17, "Who Is a Member of Alcoholics Anonymous?" | — | 1946 |
| A.A. Comes of Age ("Unity") | — | 1957 |
| P-43, The Twelve Traditions Illustrated, Tradition Three | — | © 1971; this printing updated 2023 |
| P-16, The A.A. Group | 13, 18 | 2018 |
Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). Our copy of A.A. Comes of Age has no printed page numbers, so it's cited by book and year.
Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, A.A. Comes of Age, P-43 and P-16 are © A.A. World Services, Inc.; the P-17 articles are © AA Grapevine, Inc.
These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.