I am fortunate to live in an area where there are dozens of AA meetings within 10 miles of my home.

I only know of 2 or 3 of them that would not tolerate a Non-alcoholic. And even then they would recommend a local NA meeting.

The rest have many members who call themselves "Cross-Addicted Alcoholics"

Yes, bigbear other addictions fit the disease model. The disease is the ism. Bio-chemical changes in the brain occur for other drugs as well. So yes addcition not alcoholis the disease.

Or Tradition 3 "The only requirement for aa membership is a desire to stop drinking."

Joel, I don't hear anyone who has disputed the 3rd Tradition. Almost impossible to find a pure alcoholic, especially nowadays. In your case, letting that young lady stay was definitely the right thing to do in my opinion. I agree with Gaiily. Out of respect for the Traditions, when in AA, I introduce myself as an alcoholic, just as I would introduce myself as an addict at a NA meeting. But while in AA, I confine my discussion to problems with alcoholism.

I definitely believe in the disease concept Bigbear. But I think it applies to other drugs and tobacco as well
Anyway, there are certainly situations where some addicts are better served by NA in the long run. In our area the nearest NA is over 50 miles away and quite frankly they have little sobriety and lots of problems. Sometimes a desire to stop drinking is good enough to help someone who suffers same disease , same symptoms, different drug.

I have no problem with NA's coming to AA I think they can offer alot, but there again we all share on how we did the steps and the program of recovery. I think they may be problems in drunkalogue meetings and ones where everyone dicusses their problem for the day as It would cause a conflict of intrest. I belive the singularness of purpose is the 12 step program of recovery and If NA's can help me with my program then I'm glad for them to be in the rooms!

I do not believe that all alcoholics are addicts. I do think that the group did the right thing, but I would also (if I was also an addict as well as an alcoholic) I would try to get an NA meeting going so that those whose primary problem is other than alcohol, can find their place within the 12 step communities.

We're alcohol addicts aren't we?

If she has a history of problems with alcohol, seems to me, she should be welcome in the rooms. Identification is so important though. I hear what you're saying about quality of sobriety between NA & AA.
However, how is she to recover if she has no history of problems with booze?

I knew a heroin addict who wanted to sober up in AA. She relapsed at 10 yrs because she told me she had reservations about being alcoholic. She's back in fortunately however I don't think she has reservations anymore. She said that she could drink and take lortab because at least she wasn't using heroin.

I would have crawled on my hands and knees every day if need be, to get to a liquor store. Can't she make at least 1 NA meeting a week? There are healthy NA women who can take her through the steps and the NA workbook for her 4th Step. She just has to seek them out. Whatever she decides to do, I hope she recovers.

Maybe there are others in the AA meeting that are also drug users (not talking about the drug alcohol) that could come together with her and get a NA meeting started there. I know there are duel additions in every meeting I go to.

Thanks for all the comments. I think she does plan to incorporate NA. But she needed tsomewhere to go that night, I can't imagine how I'd feel if we had not opened our doors to her. Probably that we had had no right not to.

Yep, pretty much. I know what I would do. She would never be alone. The hand of AA would always be there for her.

No donttread I am not an alcohol addict I am an alcoholic. Just as there are people who are addicted to drugs but are not an addict in the sense of the word that we would understand it in 12 step recovery.
Alcohol is not an addictive drug in the same way that heroin and cocaine etc are.

Just as: for example Heroin is an addictive drug, there are some people who are simply addicted to drugs who get de-toxed and off they go back to the bosom of their family and are fine. There are also those who have the three-fold illness and these are people that would benefit from NA or the like.

I don't understand serenity. Alcoholic is simply a coined term to say alcohol addict.
Don't the fact that alcohol is not as addictive as heroine to mean that it is not addictive .Heroine, cocaine and tobacco are among the most addictive drugs , but alcohol is addictive as well.

I am an alcoholic who has since become addicted:

Alcoholic, a. (original Webster) Pertaining to alcohol, or partaking of its qualities.

Addict, a. Addicted. [Not much used.]

Addict, v.t. [L. addico, to devote, from ad and dico, to dedicate.]
To apply one's self habitually; to devote time and attention by customary or constant practice; sometimes in a good sense.
They have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. 1 Cor 15.

(More usually, in a bad sense, to follow customarily, or devote, by habitually practicing that which is ill; as, a man is addicted to intemperance.)
(To addict one's self to a person, a sense borrowed from the Romans, who used the word for assigning debtors in service to their creditors, is found in Ben Jonson, but is not legitimate in English.)