Carrying the Message

Thank you for publishing the article "Cure" by Charles A. Churan of the Iowa State Commission on Alcoholism (March Grapevine). It makes it clear what every alcoholic knows --that if 'cure' means an ability to drink socially, the alcoholic wants no part of it. The alcoholic has no use for 'social' drinking --he never had.

AA experience has shown that the alcoholic is powerless over alcohol --he always will be. "The compulsive drinker who was powerless over alcohol yesterday, is also powerless over it today." That an alcoholic, though powerless over alcohol, can ever drink alcohol again certainly is irrational --once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. Alcoholism can be arrested, but never cured.

In AA, we know that not only are we never cured, but that we need to practice continued vigilance, by following the AA principles faithfully as long as we live, one day at a time.