Mar 22, 1987 – WSC – Ratification of the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions of Cocaine Anonymous – Raw Transcript Excerpt

Cocaine Anonymous World Service Conference Volume II

Warner Center Mariott

Sunday, March 22, 1987

194 pages

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LIONEL: Johnny, you had your hand up?

JOHNNY: My name is Johnny S. I am a Trustee.

I would like to make a motion to propose and ratify — hold on one minute, please.

It has come to my attention that we have never up until this point ratified the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Cocaine Anonymous as applied from Alcoholics Anonymous, and I would like to make a motion to do just that.

AUDIENCE: Second.

LIONEL: Any discussion?

AUDIENCE: I would like to know what the first step is.

JOHNNY: First step of Cocaine Anonymous as accepted by the first Conference — we only accepted a step — was, “We admitted we were powerless over cocaine and all other mind-altering substances, and that our lives had become unmanageable.”

Why don’t I read the Twelve Traditions as we have them in Cocaine Anonymous — the Twelve Steps?

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

“Two – Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

“Three – Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him.

“Four – Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

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

“Six – Were entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character.

“Seven – Humbly asked Him to remove these shortcomings.

“Eight – Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

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

“Ten – Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

“Eleven – Sought through prayer and

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meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the Power to carry that out.

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

Those are the Twelve Steps.

Then the Twelve Traditions. The Twelve Traditions:

“One – Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends on C.A. unity.

“Two – For our group purpose, there is but one authority – a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants. They do not govern.

“Three – The only requirement for C.A. membership is the desire to stop using cocaine and all other mind-altering substances.

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

“Five – Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the addict who still suffers.

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“Six – 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 or prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

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

“Eight – Cocaine Anonymous should remain forever unprofessional but our service centers may employ special workers.

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

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

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

“Twelve – Anonimity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.”

AUDIENCE: Second.

LIONEL: Thank you.

Is there any discussion? Johnny, are you

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finished?

JOHNNY: All right. Thank you.

LIONEL: Is there any discussion? Bob?

BOB: I don’t want to change it.

Bob, addict-alcoholic, Trustee.

Is that the way the motion is, to ratify the Twelve and Twelve? That doesn’t seem to me to speak to what we are doing here.

LIONEL: To ratify.

AUDIENCE: It is too vague.

BOB: It just doesn’t. To adopt this fellowship that that is the basis, the principles which we believe in or something to that effect.

LIONEL: What is the objection?

AUDIENCE: It was just too vague.

LIONEL: As read. It is in the record, as read.

Is the amendment acceptable to you?

JOHNNY: As read it is acceptable to me, yes.

LIONEL: Is there any further discussion?

AUDIENCE: Call the question?

LIONEL: Is there a second to that?

AUDIENCE: Second.

LIONEL: Would all those in favor of calling the question please raise your hands?

Anybody opposed, please raise your hands.

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It is unanimous that we adopt this.

AUDIENCE: No, it is unanimous that we vote now.

LIONEL: I’m sorry. It is unanimous that we call a vote now.

All in favor, please stand.

GREG: It passes.

AUDIENCE: If you don’t stand, it means you didn’t do your fourth.

LIONEL: Please sit.

All those who are opposed, please stand.

GREG: Unanimous.

LIONEL: Gratification of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions is unanimous.

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