If an alcoholic comes to an A.A.
meeting under the influence of alcohol, how
do you treat him or handle him during the
meeting?
Answer
Groups will usually run amuck on that sort
of question. At first we are likely to say
that we are going to be supermen and save
every drunk in town. The fact is that a
great many of them just don't want to stop.
They come, but they interfere very greatly
with the meeting. Then, being still rather
intolerant, the group will swing way over in
the other direction and say, "No drunks
around these meetings." We get forcible and
put them out of the meeting, saying, "You're
welcome here if your sober." But the general
rule in most places is that if a person
comes for the first or second time and can
sit quietly in the meeting, without creating
an uproar, nobody bothers him. On the other
hand, if he's a chronic "slipper" and
interferes with the meetings, we lead him
out gently, or maybe not so gently, on the
theory that one man cannot be permitted to
hold up the recovery of others. The theory
is "the greatest good for the greatest
number." (Yale Summer School of Alcohol
Studies, June 1945)
