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Skip to content. Start Your Recovery Today. CALL Although addiction affects each group differently, there are some similarities, such as: Both groups provide support for those experiencing issues with alcohol abuse, whether their own or that of a loved one. Both groups nod to anonymity in their titles because the information shared in the rooms is not divulged to the general public. Both groups are free and open to the public. Both groups are meant to allow people to come to terms with the effects of addiction and talk with people who can relate.
Therefore, the main distinct difference between AA and Al-Anon is the audience that they serve. Alcoholics Anonymous Supports Recovery Through AA, people who have struggled or are struggling with addiction themselves can find solidarity and common ground in others with addiction.
Over the years, Iran has taken a number of steps to staunch the inflow of drugs from the east. The Iranian government has deployed more firepower to the periphery in order to reinforce local and provincial law enforcement officers.
Beginning in the mids, Iranian security forces stationed an estimated 30, men along the eastern border. In , Iran also created village-level Basij units, whose activities since then have broadened from defending villages to conducting offensive counter-narcotics operations.
According to Iranian officials, security forces confiscated nearly tons of drugs and arrested more than traffickers between March and March Over the past decade, a paradigm shift in Iranian counter-drug policies has been under way, marked by greater official acceptance of, and support for, demand and harm reduction interventions.
Demand reduction encompasses a variety of measures that range from advocating the non-use of drugs, to treating individuals with problematic drug use and facilitating their reintegration in the community. By the late s, Iranian authorities had begun to recognize the gravity of the HIV threat to the country. Springing from this realization were efforts, relatively uncoordinated at first, to raise public awareness about HIV.
Importantly, the members of these bodies encompassed official and non-governmental organizations — ranging from the Ministry of Health, the Drug Control Headquarters, the national police, Iranian television, and the prison and welfare authorities to the research and academic institutions.
Paimaneh Hastaei declared:. In an attempt to strike a balance between prevention, treatment and law enforcement activities, the Islamic Republic of Iran has assumed that demand reduction is as important as supply reduction; special attention is paid to the creation of effective prevention programs targeted at youth and high-risk groups.
Support for demand and harm reduction interventions among senior Iranian officials has been building, albeit very gradually. Beginning in the early s, Iranian authorities introduced treatment regimes that range from abstinence-only to detoxification. In , medical intervention for drug abuse became legal and explicit.
Opioid agonists 53 were used furtively in private clinics at first, and made officially available for detoxification programs only in Subsequent attempts have been made to improve pharmacological treatment and to introduce psychotherapeutic interventions for drug dependent persons.
The rise in the HIV infection rate, especially among intravenous drug users, catalyzed the shift in official attitudes towards a more favorable view of demand and harm reduction approaches. Razzaghi et al. Iran is one of just 22 countries that provide harm reduction services to incarcerated drug injection users DIUs.
The government sponsors peer counseling, the dissemination of information to and hotlines for prisoners. Bleach is made available to them for disinfecting needles. Inmates receiving methadone maintenance treatment MMT or ARV care are referred upon release to needle exchange programs and other health services. In , the government passed a law stipulating that a drug user who voluntarily seeks treatment will be exempted from punishment.
The ascendancy of the reformists in Iranian politics thus fostered a climate conducive to generating progressive ideas regarding drug use. The work of Iranian non-governmental organizations NGOs , the close cooperation of the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders in the government, and informed advocacy among senior policymakers converted this new thinking into concrete action. Some analysts suggest that since the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to office in August , there has been a return to a primarily supply-side approach.
Kamin Mohammadi, for example, reports that, as of mid, there were 51 government facilities, private outpatient centers and an additional 26 transition centers. In early , the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran announced an emergency plan to provide 3, people abusing drugs by injection in Tehran with a three-month treatment course. The Government also implemented a nationwide plan for the rehabilitation of drug addicts from November to March The Government is also taking various measures to deal with serious problems involving drug abuse in prisons.
Support for these efforts has come from seemingly unlikely sources. Prominent members of the NGO community deliberately targeted key religious figures and government officials, presenting them with data and analysis in efforts to enlist their support. The importance of grassroots organizations in building this policy network and in conceptualizing as well as conducting demand and harm reduction programs cannot be overstated.
The work of two Iranian NGOs — the Aftab Society and Persepolis — is indicative of the key roles and contributions of grassroots organizations, the rich diversity of programs they administer, and their symbiotic relationship with state institutions. The organization holds workshops in minority communities and, with support from the Ministry of Labor, conducts education workshops in factories across the country. Persepolis, founded in , employs a peer-driven model and a public health approach to drug use.
Among other things, this organization operates the largest methadone maintenance treatment MMT center in Iran. Thus, beyond the actual work they do in the field, these organizations and others can be credited with helping to develop awareness and build capacity. Their statements are laced with complaints that Iran has shouldered a great burden largely without the material assistance and credit it deserves. Some have charged that Western depravity is essentially responsible for unleashing the scourge of drugs on Muslim countries.
And in more intemperate moments, there are a few who have threatened to allow smugglers freedom to operate unless the international community is more forthcoming with assistance.
Yet, at the same time, Iranian officials at the highest levels have endorsed working in concert with others to address the narcotics problem. In a July meeting with the EC anti-drug commission, for example, Secretary of the Expediency Council Mohsen Rezai called for a comparative study of the methods and experiences of other countries in the fight against drugs.
The current global system for drug control rests on three international conventions — the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs , the Convention on Psychotropic Substances , and the Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Iran is a party to all three. In , the government of Iran ratified the Protocol amending the Single Convention. Iran, which is a signatory of the Paris Pact of , is a strong proponent of an integrated regional approach to counter-narcotics.
For the past six years, the US State Department INL annual strategy reports have consistently stated that the government of Iran has demonstrated sustained national political will and has taken strong measures against illicit narcotics, including cooperation with the international community in support of the global effort against international drug trafficking.
Indeed, Iran has established multiple points of contact and cooperation with regional and international partners to combat drug trafficking and, more recently, to develop effective demand and harm reduction interventions. The May exchange of British and Iranian ambassadors, after a year hiatus, helped pave the way for Anglo-Iranian cooperation in the counter-narcotics field. The agreement provided for the mutual access to data banks and cooperation between Iranian and Italian police.
Iran has been a beneficiary of assistance from the European Union EU as well. In , the European Commission allocated 1. This assistance was geared mainly towards helping local NGO networks to make progress in the area of demand control for narcotics and harm reduction.
As early as , Iranian officials approached the United Nations for assistance. Since beginning its work, this office has been engaged in the implementation of the NOROUZ Program, an umbrella of four major programs that deal with various aspects of the drug problem:. The Darius institute, part of the project, serves the aim of strengthening the national response to drug addiction by focusing on demand reduction. Accordingly, the Institute organizes, monitors, and evaluates research and education projects as well as provides guidance to researchers.
In partnership with the UNODC, Iran has explored ways to develop more effective joint efforts at the regional level to staunch drug smuggling. As a result, in December , senior drug law enforcement officers agreed to joint patrolling on the border and to establish direct telecommunication links so as to share intelligence of an immediate nature related to drug smuggling activities.
And there are people that are anxious to quash any mention of recovery, by making the accusation that recovery is only for addicts, and just mentioning recovery programs deserves an HR not in this example, but it's certainly happened. I'm not going to go into that subject, except to point out that there is a huge gap in the knowledge of people that need this information the most.
Another issue that's beyond the scope of this diary is that when someone does mention being in a recovery program, there is a good chance they will get hooted at by someone that mocks their recovery program. What's that? Envy that someone else would try? When I mentioned this to my GF, who is sober 25 years, she basically said "That's exactly how people avoid recovery! I would like to see some people take the lead and start some groups on DailyKos.
I can't, because I don't have that background. Community This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication. Please log in or sign up to continue. Recommend Unrecommend Add to Blog. Edit Tags. Done Editing Tags. Share this article. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio. AA states that its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety". Got that?
AA is for alcoholics. Alateen groups are sponsored by Al-Anon members. They recognized the need for such an organization as family members living with AA members began to identify their own pathologies associated with their family members' alcoholism. Al-Anon is for families of drunks.
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