Heroin Anonymous (HA)

HA Resources

What is Heroin Anonymous (HA)

Heroin Anonymous is a non-profit fellowship of men and women who have found a solution to heroin addiction. HA is a fellowship of complete abstinence from all drugs and alcohol. We are recovered heroin addicts who meet regularly to help each other stay sober. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop suffering from heroin addiction. There are no dues or fees for HA membership. HA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy and neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other heroin addicts to achieve sobriety.

Heroin Anonymous is concerned solely with the personal recovery and continued sobriety of heroin addicts who turn to us for help. We do not provide drug counseling, medical or psychiatric treatment, chemical dependency treatment, or therapy of any form. Our members consist of individuals who have found a better way of life. We have recovered from our heroin addiction and simply wish to offer help to those who suffer. We are fully self-supporting, we accept voluntary contributions from our members for our expenses, and we respectfully decline outside contributions. Our program of recovery was adapted from the program developed by Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935. We apply the Twelve Steps as done in AA (although we are not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous), which involves one heroin addict helping another to achieve freedom from their heroin addiction.

In our Fellowship you will see one heroin addict helping another, freely passing on their experience to the next person who is desperately searching for an answer to their own heroin addiction.

The History of Heroin Anonymous (HA)

Paul F., a sober heroin addict, in AA, received a phone call on July 26, 2004 from Mike S., a fellow heroin addict. Mike asked Paul, “How come there is no Heroin Anonymous?” At that moment it was decided to start HA so we heroin addicts could have our own fellowship where we could be with others who truly understood our experience with heroin addiction. On July 28, 2004, Paul and Mike located a place for a meeting and began distributing fliers to all of the heroin addicts they knew in the other 12 step fellowships. They found several sober heroin addicts who were enthusiastic about having their own program.

The first HA meeting was held on Thursday, August 12, 2004 at the Hope House, a half-way house for alcoholics and addicts located at 316 N. 11th Way in Phoenix, Arizona. Present were Paul F., Mike S, Nancy R., Tom M., David T., Rebekah B. and Mark T. In that first meeting, Paul F. was elected as the Literature Chairperson and he began writing pamphlets and meeting formats for our fellowship. In no time, more and more HA meetings were forming and the Phoenix HA Intergroup was established on November 11, 2004.

Ever since, HA has grown into a fellowship that spans multiple countries. Thousands of heroin addicts have found sobriety, started new meetings in new places, with new ideas and perspectives. International dialogue is taking place via correspondence, and the fellowship is finding its footing and coming to know itself. Our membership represents a fair cross-section of the population, demonstrating the fact that recovery is available to all, and that we have found a way out that works!

The Twelve Steps of Heroin Anonymous (HA)

1. We admitted we were powerless over heroin - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to heroin addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The Twelve Traditions of Heroin Anonymous (HA)

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon H.A. unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for H.A. membership is a desire to stop suffering from heroin addiction.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or H.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose - to carry its message to the heroin addict who still suffers.
6. A H.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the H.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every H.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Heroin Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. H.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Heroin Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the H.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

Find Heroin Anonymous Meetings

To find a local HA meeting, contact your local HA office, use the HA worldwide website, or use our HA meeting finder.

RecoveryHQ.com is not affiliated with HA or any of its subsidiaries. This information is provided as a resource for those seeking third-party information.