Grateful Dave’s Home Group

The issues previously described concerning the BabyBlues had already hit the fan when I was invited by Grateful Dave to attend a meeting in one crazy neighborhood in the Philadelphia area 1989-1990. The neighborhood was just outside what is now called the "Badlands". I parked a block away with much trepidation. As I walked to the meeting there was a potential shootout at the cross street. Each of the two corners on one side had men from a local gang the other corners were manned by a vigilanty goup who wanted to clean up the neighborhood and they were also armed. I no sooner navigated that when an arson fire broke out two blocks away with the noise of fire engine sirens all over the place. Next to our meeting was a Korean convenience store who's front security gate looked like a truck hit it. The burglar alarm was going off because the front window had been rifled. And now for the meeting place... There was a door next to the meeting place leading up to an apartment which had turned into a shooting gallery. I noticed the bright orange cap to a set of gizzmoes lying on the sidewalk as I entered the meeting. The abandoned storefront was just that, abandoned. There was a single light bulb that hung from the ceiling at the far end of the store. It looked like someone was pirating the electricity. The attendance that night was about 20-25 and I was asked by the chair if I would share with everyone on the first three steps because most everyone there was on one of those three. I was glad to share especially when I found out the speaker got to use one of only three chairs. That's right eveyone was sitting on the floor of this abandoned store with dirt and cockroaches galore! So there I am in total awe about to share to a group with about 50% of em totally high when I noticed that many of these addicts were holding "BabyBlues". Because they were so cheap they were being given away freely to anyone who wanted them. I know that many of those present would never have spent the $10 price tag. I also believe that most homegroups could not provide them to the extent that this group was doing it. I have to this day not experienced anything so moving as the fifty-five year old who came to the front for a 90 day key tag amidst all this craziness. He had tears in his eyes when he shared that it had been the longest he had been clean since he was 16 years old. He shared that "it's cause this meeting an things in my book" (he was holding a BabyBlue)!

This story does not have the happy ending you might be hoping for. When the local "Area Service" (I don't know if this group was a member) discovered this renegade meeting house with the BabyBlues they decided it needed there help! The atmosphere was ruined by addicts political arguing (not a good thing to do near the badlands). Some of those attending were from a 1/2 way or 3/4 way house so the area deemed that it couldn't be any bodies home group it had to be an H&I thing (you guessed it no BabyBlues). The presentation fell apart shortly after the start of H&I presentations. I like to think it may have been a result of circumstances beyond the comittees control but something tells me that the NA sheriffs needed something more than a presentation to stifle there libido. I would only add a personal observation to this. What I witnessed was recovery at its finest . The nice spic and span back rooms of church's that are so typicle of our meetings are sometimes filled with members just as green. Autonomy sometimes gets crushed under the swordsman who shouts "Except when affecting NA as a whole." My question here is,"did that group in any way affect you in Florida, New Jersey, California or for that matter 5 blocks away in Philadelphia?