About
What is Cocaine Anonymous?
A fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other so they may solve their common problem and help others recover from addiction.
C.A. has no president, no board that can tell a group what to do, and no professional staff in the room. It is people who could not stop, meeting weekly with other people who could not stop, doing together what none of us managed alone.
Who is a member?
Anyone who says they are. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using cocaine and all other mind-altering substances — including alcohol, which we regard as a drug like any other. You are a member the moment you decide you are one. Nobody votes on it.
Many of our members never had a particular relationship with cocaine at all. The name is a piece of our history, not a door policy.
What happens in a meeting?
Someone chairs. There are a few readings, then members share, one at a time, without cross-talk or advice-giving. An hour later it ends. Some people stay for coffee, some leave immediately, and both are normal.
An open meeting welcomes anyone — family, friends, students, clinicians. A closed meeting is for people who think they may have a problem themselves. Our Santa Fe meetings are open.
Anonymity
We use first names. We do not repeat who we saw or what they said. This is not secrecy for its own sake — it is what makes it safe for a person with a job, a family or a court date to walk in and tell the truth. It also keeps any one member from speaking for C.A. as a whole in public.
How recovery happens here
Through the Twelve Steps, worked in order, usually with a sponsor. A sponsor is not a counselor or an authority; it is another member a few steps further along who agrees to walk you through what they were walked through. Asking someone to sponsor you is free, and most people say yes.
Plainly stated
What C.A. does
- Hold meetings where members share what happened to them and what they did about it.
- Work the Twelve Steps, usually with a sponsor who has worked them first.
- Carry the message to the addict who still suffers, in Santa Fe and anywhere we are asked.
- Pay our own way, meeting by meeting, from the basket that is passed.
What C.A. does not do
- Keep membership records, take attendance, or ask for your last name.
- Charge dues or fees, or accept money from anyone outside the fellowship.
- Provide detox, treatment, counseling, housing, medical or legal advice.
- Endorse, oppose, or affiliate with any cause, religion, political view or institution.
- Tell anyone what to believe, or ask anyone to leave for what they believe.
We are here and we are free.
There are no dues or fees for membership. C.A. is fully self-supporting through the contributions of its own members, and declines outside contributions.
C.A. World Services