New York Area

Wednesday, November 16, 1983 – Inception date for New York C.A. It was recognized as a C.A. Area: February 8, 9, 1986, 1st World Services Conference, San Diego, California. It was one of 16 C.A. Areas represented at this first World Services Conference.

In January of 1981, I went into Roosevelt Hospital (Smithers) for treatment of cocaine addiction, even though at the time they did not believe that cocaine was addictive. When I came out I went to Pills Anonymous and AA. I tried NA but the meetings I went to had much lower bottoms than mine and I could not relate. Maybe I had “terminal uniqueness”. For 2 years I stayed sober never feeling like I “belonged”. My best friend Ami was still out there and making fun of me for being sober. Finally she almost died and ended up under an assumed name in Bellevue Hospital. She was there for 3 months and I visited her every day -12- stepping her. I told her there were lots of cute guys in AA and she should come to a meeting with me. I took her to 79 Street Workshop. Halfway into the meeting she said, “You lied, there are no good looking guys here!”

I didn’t want Ami to go back out so I told her we would find the “guys” we used to hand out with and sobriety would be fun. At the time, I was in school to become an alcoholic counselor and needed to do a thesis. Hospitals were desperately looking for ways to treat cocaine addicts, so I chose “Treating the Cocaine Addict” as my topic. I realized that cocaine addicts might feel like me, like they really didn’t belong anywhere. Cocaine Anonymous had been started in California the year before (11/18/82). I contacted them and started a CA meeting as part of my project.

The first meeting was just 4 of us; me, Ami H, Danielle W (the third member was a friend in sobriety), and we knew Andy W (the fourth member from other 12 step fellowships). When we approached Andy, he didn’t care about the traditions and started announcing our first meeting in other fellowships. That was the start! Go Andy! If I recall correctly, Ami and Andy went out for a drink after the first meeting. They didn’t tell me of course. Luckily for me and CANY they came back.

Our first meetings were held in Andy’s apartment in Kip’s Bay, an east side neighborhood in Manhattan. When people started coming, we found that some were dealing coke in his bathroom, so we decided we had to find a meeting hall. I went everywhere but no one wanted us! They said, “We have AA, NA, PA, we didn’t need another _A!” One guy at a treatment center thought it was so ridiculous to start another type of meeting that he said, “The next thing you will want to start will be Vodka Anonymous.”

Finally, right before Thanksgiving, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church @ 73rd St and Madison Avenue accepted us.

I was thrilled! The first official meeting was on Wednesday night, 11/16/83. CA New York was born.

After I graduated, Smithers (now The Addiction Institute of NY) agreed to let us have a meeting on Thursday nights. One night in the Seventh Tradition basket there was a $100 bill. It was from a member who knew he would buy a gram if he had it when he left. Shortly after that we started the first CA meeting on Long Island at South Oaks Hospital. Meetings at St. Vincent’s and NY Hospital soon followed.

I remember feeling for the first time in sobriety that I was “home”, I cried because that’s how it felt to be a member of Cocaine Anonymous and to be in a CA meeting. It was a feeling of ahhhh, finally, I fit in! – Jennifer R (10/17/13)

Dates that Matter

November 16,1983 – First CANY Meeting
Winter 1984 -First Long Island Meeting (Sherman Oaks Hospital)
November 1987 – First Queens Meeting (Booth Hospital – “The Last Straw”)
May 1989 – CANY Hosts World Service Convention (“Steps To Liberty”)
July 1991 – CANY Office Opens
1992 – First New Jersey Meeting (Old Bridge – “New Freedom Group”)
February 1993 – Assorted Staten Island Meetings (“Real Deal”, “Living Sober”)
February 1993 – Assorted Brooklyn Meetings (“Growing Pains”, “Hanson Group”)
May 2001 – CANY Hosts World Service Convention (“A Grace Odyssey”)
August 2013 – CANY Office Closes
September 2013 – Displaced CA Meetings (Spread out over Manhattan)
November 16, 2013 – CANY 30- Anniversary