What is CA?

Cocaine Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other so that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from their addiction. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using cocaine and all other mind-altering substances. There are no dues or fees for membership; we are fully self supporting through our own contributions. We are not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or institution. We do not wish to engage in any controversy and we neither endorse nor oppose any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay free from cocaine and all other mind-altering substances, and to help others achieve the same freedom. We use the Twelve Step Recovery Program, because it has already been proven that the Twelve Step Recovery Program works.

Our Purpose

C.A. is concerned solely with the personal recovery and continued sobriety of individual drug addicts who turn to our Fellowship for help. We do not engage in the fields of drug addiction research, medical or psychiatric treatment, drug education, or propaganda in any form — although members may participate in such activities as individuals. Cocaine Anonymous is open to all persons who state a desire to stop using cocaine, including “crack” cocaine, as well as all other mind-altering substances. There are no dues or fees for membership. Our expenses are supported by the voluntary contributions of our members — we respectfully decline all outside contributions. We are not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution.

Our program of recovery was adapted from the program developed by Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935. Like AA (with which we are not affiliated), we use the Twelve Step recovery method, which involves service to others as a path towards recovery from addiction. We feel that one addict talking to another can provide a level of mutual understanding and fellowship that is hard to obtain through other methods. The fact that an individual has recovered from their addiction, and is freely passing this experience on to the next person, is a powerful message for someone who is desperately searching for an answer to their own addiction. There emerges a bond among us that transcends all other social boundaries. We hold regular meetings to further this fellowship, and to allow new members to find us and, perhaps, the answers they seek.

The 12 Steps of Cocaine Anonymous

1. We admitted we were powerless over cocaine and all other mind altering substances — that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him .

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him , praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Reprinted and adapted with permission of A.A. Grapevine, Inc.

The 12 Traditions of Cocaine Anonymous

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon C.A. unity.

2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority — a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

3. The only requirement for C.A. membership is a desire to stop using cocaine and all other mind-altering substances.

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or C.A. as a whole.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to the addict who still suffers.

6. A C.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the C.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

7. Every C.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

8. Cocaine Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

9. C.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

10. Cocaine Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the C.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, television and films.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

Reprinted and adapted with permission of A.A. Grapevine, Inc.

The Promises of Cocaine Anonymous

If we are painstaking about this phase of our development we will be amazed before we are half way through.

We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.

We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.

We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.

No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.

That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.

We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.

Self-seeking will slip away.

Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.

Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.

We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.

We will suddenly realise that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.

The Promises are reprinted with permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc