DRUNK WITH POWER – Rogue AA group in Syracuse exposed after 1 year investigation
How Rogue AA groups proliferate the US landscape – thanks to these journalists and AA members who investigated this group for a year. Thank you to Marnie and Patrick! – We hope to see this story go national.
Editor’s note: This is Episode 3 of “Drunk with Power,” a four-part investigation.
Syracuse, N.Y. — The Syracuse Group is one of more than 50 Alcoholics Anonymous groups in the area, but its leaders found a way to stand out: They are one of the few to allow smoking.
That’s inviting for addicts trying to kick drugs and alcohol. They often lean on cigarettes as they struggle through the cravings.
It’s been one of the group’s shrewd marketing moves that draw unsuspecting addicts into their risky brand of alcohol and drug counseling.
Smoking. Frequent meetings at all hours to appeal to shift workers. A feisty, almost evangelical atmosphere. Help with a place to sleep.
“You could smoke and it was kind of rowdy … you could swear,” said Mark Fancher, a former member of the Syracuse Group. “Coming from the bars and that kind of life, it was comfortable.”
The Syracuse Group has called itself Alcoholics Anonymous for three decades. The window bears the AA logo. But from the start it has been a rogue group that breaks AA guidelines, operating under the radar while dispensing dangerous advice, a Syracuse.com | Post-Standard investigation reveals.
The anonymity and secrecy built into AA have prevented AA’s leadership or anyone else from doing much to stop the group, which other AA groups refer to as “The Butternutters” for their home on Butternut Street.
Thousands have passed through the doors of the Syracuse Group. At first, the group’s message sounds great, former members said: Sobriety comes through spiritual purity and helping others.
But the group pushes members to “surrender” in a way that is not like mainstream AA, and twists those values into something darker, former members said.
A person who takes medications for mental illness is not spiritually pure, or sober. And helping others can include the dangerous practice of holding people against their will overnight to force them to sober up, say former members who witnessed or participated in that tactic.
The AA logo as seen from inside the Syracuse Group headquarters at 732 Butternut St.
Former members of the Syracuse Group describe a militant level of control that reaches into every aspect of daily life — from the mundane to the life-changing. The group tells some members where to live, where to work and whom to date, say members with first-hand experience.
The direction is imposed by sponsors. In mainstream AA, a sponsor is a trusted adviser for a newly sober person. In the Syracuse Group, a sponsor wields an almost unquestionable power, former members said.
This is not how it’s supposed to be. AA’s guidelines are clear. A sponsor: “Never tries to impose personal views on the newcomer … Does not pretend to know all the answers, and does not keep up a pretense of being right all the time … An AA sponsor does not offer professional services such as those provided by counselors, the legal, medical or social work communities.”
Phyllis Perrone, a Syracuse mental health counselor who worked in a rehab center in the early 2000s, tried to guard her clients against the Syracuse Group’s controlling ways.
