With this brief administrative hearing, you abruptly enter the Kafkaesque world of 12-step coercion. Despite your lack of a drinking problem, economic necessity compels you to join the growing number of addicts and non-addicts alike being conscripted in record numbers to submit to AA's crypto-biblical "Big Book."

According Chaz Bufe and Stanton Peele's book Resisting 12-Step Coercion (See Sharp Press, 2000), every year an estimated 1,000,000 Americans are compelled to attend AA, Narcotics Anonymous (NA) or some form of 12-step treatment under threat of jail time, loss of employment, or other social sanctions. While you might consider yourself outside the purview of this powerful social force, think again.

"A young man working in a mail room tested positive for marijuana use in a random drug test. He was suspended from his job until he completed a drug treatment program," recounts Peele. The unfortunate youth who allegedly smoked the illicit herb "once a month" was in "constant conflict" with his counsellors, who demanded he admit he was "powerless" over his alleged addiction. This obvious attempt to pressure a recreational pot smoker into believing he was a remorseless drug fiend underscores the involuntary 12-stepper's plight.

Nevertheless, since its 1935 inception, the abstinence-based program which involves admitting your powerlessness over addiction and turning your life over to a "higher power" continues to enjoy unqualified public acclaim as a panacea for a variety of addictions. However, a growing number of outspoken critics are openly questioning the merits of 12-step orthodoxy.

In his seminal work Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure? (See Sharp Press, 1998), Chaz Bufe employs a wealth of scientific data to dispute both the efficacy of AA and its adherents espoused "disease model" of addiction. He specifically assails the organization's dogmatism, "chosen people" mentality, and the use of anti-intellectual "thought stopping language" to indoctrinate new members. These behaviors, Bufe notes, aren't "in the same league with vicious, destructive religious cults such as the Moonies and the People's Temple" but do exhibit "an alarmingly high number of similarities to such groups."

This assessment borderlines on the subversive when considering the vast influence wielded by AA in government circles. The federally-funded National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) which actively promotes 12-step treatment methods, has played a vital role in AA and NA's predominance in both Employee Assistance Programs (EAP's) and many lucrative public and private sector rehab facilities.

Yet to its detractors, this wealthy and influential organization constitutes an effective prohibition lobby propaganda voice. "Together, the war on drugs and its flip side, the 12-step addiction treatment industry, have threatened to transform America from a land of the free into a therapeutic state," declares Jack Trimpey, founder of Rational Recovery, a program which uses non 12-step methods to conquer addiction.

This is not to say there is anything inherently wrong with the many communal, store-front AA and NA chapters which provide a viable (and low cost) resource for those seeking chemical dependency liberation. However, when the state enters the picture, these seemingly benign 12-step programs quickly become re-education camps for drug war miscreants while providing an effective tool for social control.