Pills Anonymous
Pills Anonymous (PA) is a twelve-step program founded in 1972 for people who seek recovery from prescription drug addiction.
As of 2013, there are several thousand PA members in the United States, Canada and other countries attending over 60 meetings per week.
[1] The only requirement for membership is "a desire to stop using pills", and members "meet regularly to help each other stay clean", where "clean" is defined as complete abstinence from all mood- and mind-altering substances (including alcohol).
Pills Anonymous "has no opinion on outside issues", including those of politics, science, or medicine, and does not endorse any outside organization or institution.
Members who attend the same meeting on a regular basis to establish a recovery network and reliable routine understand this to be their "Home Group".
literature regarding the issues involved in living life clean and sober which is written by and for members of P.A.
special interest) meetings, supporting a particular group of people based on gender, sexual identity, age, language or other characteristic.
In some meetings, and for certain anniversaries, medallions, which denote various amounts of clean time, are distributed to those who have achieved those milestones.
In some areas, the pill addict who is celebrating an "anniversary" will be able to conduct the readings for the meeting, and s/he will be the speaker to carry the P.A.
Then the pill addict celebrating his or her anniversary can share his or her experience, strength, and hope with the group on how they achieved their recovery.
"Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry the message to the addict who still suffers" (Pills Anonymous' Fifth Tradition).
The message of Pills Anonymous is hope: that there is another way to live and we can recover one day at a time from our addiction.
Individuals from various spiritual and religious backgrounds, as well as many atheists and agnostics, have developed a relationship with their own higher power.
also makes frequent use of the word "God"; some members who have difficulty with this term substitute "higher power" or read it as an acronym for "Good Orderly Direction."
program are based upon spiritual principles, three of which are honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness, embodied in the first three steps.
members often choose a sponsor with experience in applying the Twelve Steps of Pills Anonymous.
[4] On October 1, 2008, Pills Anonymous World Service was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization in the state of Arizona, as a result of two conferences held earlier that year.
One of the conferences was held in Las Vegas, Nevada in March, the other in Tempe, Arizona in September.
During the Tempe Conference, the Delegates voted to Incorporate Pills Anonymous World Service.
In June 2009, in Ontario, California, the Pills Anonymous Local Service Manual[5] was introduced and voted to be conference-approved.
The Manual is intended as a guide to help individual Groups form meetings, an important part of the PA program.
In October 2010, in Mesa, Arizona, the Pills Anonymous World Service Public Information Guide[5] was introduced.
[8] In October 2011, in Mesa, Arizona, the conference approved the formation of the Pills Anonymous World Service Office Board of Directors to incorporate the WSO and shepherd production of the PA Book and key tags.
In July 2012, the official PA logo received its trademark registration number.
