NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/alt/drugs/21246

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-21 | 1.9 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!darwin.sura.net!guvax.acc.georgetown.edu!bierbach
From: [e-mail]
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: Narcotics Anonymous = a cult?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 21 Jan 93 19:46:56 -0500
Distribution: world
Organization: Georgetown University
Lines: 27

A friend of mine got busted for possession of marijuana last summer in
Pennsylvania. The good news was, it happened a week before his 18th
birthday, and so he went through the juvenile system. Because he was a
first-time offender, they told him that he would not have to go to
court or get sentenced or anything on the condition that he go to 3
Narcotics Anonymous meetings and give them the slips proving he was
there, which he did. He invited me along to one of the meetings, which
I didn't mind, since I got to sit around chain-smoking like the rest
of the people there and listening to someone tell his tale of woe and
"How Drugs Ruined My Life", etc. Now, I am entirely convinced that NA
is effective in helping people, but the one thing that really
disturbed me about the whole thing is how it occurred to me afterwards
how frighteningly cult-like NA is. I heard people standing up and
saying things along the lines of "Now I have been clean for six
months, and I go to three different NA meetings every day of the week,
and I have met the best people here, which is why I avoid anyone who
is not NA because they might lead me back down the path to addiction,"
etc. etc. (slightly exaggerated to make a point)
    Has anyone else with any experience with NA ever had the same
suspicions about it that I seem to have?

--
Jeremy Bierbach                                          Georgetown University

This posting does not reflect the opinions of the National Security Agency, and
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