Tag: Iran

The Crescent and the Needle, withdrawn.

Originally published at www.12steprecovery.com

Narcotics Anonymous Iran. In 2014, John Lavitt wrote an article for a website called The Fix called “The Crescent and the Needle: The Remarkable Rise of NA in Iran.” This article is no longer available online, but excerpts can be found on other sites. {EDITOR’S NOTE – as of June 1, 2023 a copy of the original article is located at this link] It contained an overview of the rise of Narcotics Anonymous in Iran.  There was faltering attempt in 1990 by a couple members but the Fellowship finally took hold in 1995. By 1998 Iran had translated and produced more than a half a dozen pieces of literature to Farsi and this likely accelerated the growth. In 2001, Iran reached out and made The NAWS Corporation aware of their existence. By 2003 The Corporation had established the fourth World Service Office in Tehran, the capital of Iran. Members of the World Board for the Corporation documented a trip to meet with members of the Fellowship in 2006. Iran was officially recognized as a seated participant at the World Service Conference in 2006 which allowed them to vote.  The Iran Region grew very large. They were so dominant that Annual Reports produced by the NAWS Corporation gave information about Finances and Literature production highlighting Iranian figures separately.  One difference is that groups generally meet daily in Iran, whereas in North America groups often meet weekly. In 2006, Iran had almost a 988 groups and almost 3,982 weekly meetings.  North America had 17,324 groups hosted 26,419 meetings in 2008 and only showing small fluctuations in the last thirty years. There were 53,000+ meetings worldwide in 2008.  14,000+ of them were in Iran, or approximately 26% with zero growth in North America. Iran accounted for 30% of the sales of Basic Texts, and 50% of the sales of IP #22 (Welcome to NA) in 2008.  What has transpired over the last 14 years is a mystery but in 2022, Iran Region has voted to separate itself from the NAWS Corporation and act autonomously.  

This will have significant impact on the NAWS Corporation as Iran Region represents over 30% of the global Fellowship. There are a few indicators of the growing rift with the NAWS corporation. Anthony Edmondson, the Executive Director of the the NAWS Corporation admonished them for leaving and did not make any attempts to address their concerns in a letter dated June 28th, 2022 (available for viewing on many recovery groups on social media).

In 2016, NAWS produced ‘Regional Summaries’ that contained a treasure trove of information about the Fellowships globally.  The Iran Region reported 4,580 Groups and 20,598 meetings. 95% of funding came from Groups and Area.

Our tax status as an NGO [Ed. Non-Government Organization] in iran is not clear and is unknown to us. Some of the saying and or terms in our books and literature does not comply with our culture and we have asked na world service office in tehran to change them but no action has been taken so far.

There does not appear to be any discussion or action on this item. This was the last term for this Regional Delegate and the Alternate Delegate became the RD in 2018. Groups and meeting numbers were very similar, but Fellowship financial support had dropped to 80% of budget, and Literature profits now accounted for the remaining 20%.

‐ One our ASC separated from our region and declared that they are an independent region without any coordination and interaction with the RSC.

‐ Misuse of cyberspace to ruin the trusted servants in NA and spreading rumors and untrue news and also sending reports by some members before sent by delegates and secretary.

‐ Negative impact of some sponsors on their sponsees which results of in their incompatibility with the group conscience and ruin of trusted servants in NA, too.

The same Regional Delegate reported in 2020. Groups now numbered 5,512 and meetings were reported as 23,825. Fellowship financial support is no longer reported in regional summaries, but The RD Team reported that;

*We have not found effective remedies for the legal activities of buying and selling literature., *Poor member support for the basket of seventh tradition and higher cost of groups and thus less support for service committees. *Misuse of cyberspace to destroy trusted servants of NA and spread rumors and inaccuracies reports by some members before being sent by the secretaries. *Deciding part of one of the 29 areas to change their structure from area to region without coordination and interaction with NA‐IRAN and discussing many legal problems. *We do not have a precise statistics on the number of newcomer and how to attract them. we do not have a precise solution for the statistics.

It is difficult to fully understand the comments without some further investigation. ‘Legal activities of buying and selling literature’ could allude to the NAWS corporation practice of marking up literature to cover expenses rather than relying on membership donations. The comments also suggest a declining interest in membership support of the Seventh Tradition to be fully self-supporting off contributions, so it is safe to assume that NAWS Iranian operations were now increasing literature prices. The Iranian Government may have rules affecting how Non-profits are able to finance their operations. This will likely affect other regional bodies in other countries as well. The British Columbia [Canada] Region may require Groups to pay a Goods and Services Tax on literature as profits have exceeded the $50,000 limit imposed by the government.

Other Regions may follow Iran’s lead. Brazil is the second largest fellowship outside of North America with 1,604 groups and 4,659 meetings as of the 2020 Annual Report. For many years, Brazil produced a local Basic Text and paid a small royalty to the NAWS Corporation. Annual sales were reported at more than 15,000 books annually and as high as 41,000. Despite having a Brazilian World Board member, the NAWS Corporation reported annual sales for years of the locally published Brazilian Basic Text using the erroneous term of ‘Brazilian’ for the language term in annual reports. It’s a very simple mistake that many make but highlights that the NAWS Corporation had nothing to do with production. By 2014 they started correcting the annual reports with using the correct language term of ‘Portuguese’ and by 2015 a NAWS approved translation was available. Profits may have increased due to a higher price, but sales have declined steadily since the new approved book was made available and 2018 sales were 5,120. The primary purpose of a Narcotics Anonymous Group is to carry the message to the still suffering addicts regardless of the source of the literature.   Literature prices clearly has a significant impact on the ability of Narcotics Anonymous to carry the message.  This rift between the NAWS corporation and Iran will likely continue to grow to other geographical areas. Many groups in North America and Europe have continued the practice of producing local literature available for cost but operate under the looming threat of litigation by the NAWS corporation.

Invest in our vision (without Iran)

Conference Agenda Report 2020

Editor’s Note; Published on ‘The Fix’ website in 2019

The Narcotics Anonymous World Service (NAWS) corporation has released the ‘Conference Agenda Report’ which are a list of motions for the Fellowship to review and vote on with some supporting information.  Motions come from various sources including the World Board who manage the affairs of the NAWS corporation and service bodies who participate in the biennial (every 2 year) World Service Conference.  The next WSC is in spring of 2020. The CAR includes significant changes in the ‘Fellowship Intellectual Property Trust’ which allows the NAWS corporation to control the production and use of the Narcotics Anonymous logos and literature. Control of publication rights is very important to NAWS.  If you examine the Annual Reports available online from the NAWS corporation, you see that over 80% of the revenue comes from the sale of literature with little if any change in over two decades. The CAR report is aptly named “Invest in our vision” but the single critical phrase that I noticed on the CAR report was ‘without Iran’ on page 5. The effects of the Iranian Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous has been nothing short of breathtaking and an examination of the numbers reveals a great deal.

In the 1990’s the World Service Office, Inc (which would eventually become NAWS in 1998) decided to tighten control of the use and production of literature. This was likely a reaction to individuals, groups, and service bodies who were not supportive of NAWS and used alterative literature sources. The WSO initiated a lawsuit that they lost, and an agreement was reached but never honored by the World Service Office, Inc (NAWS). The FIPT was formed and adopted by the segments of the Fellowship who supported the WSO/NAWS corporation. During this same time, unrelated and probably unaware of these new rules, a few addicts returned to Iran from the United States. They sought to continue their recovery by fulfilling the primary purpose of members of Narcotics Anonymous which is to carry a message of hope to the still suffering addicts. This dedication resulted in growth beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. The rapidly growing Iranian fellowship translated (from English into Farsi), printed and distributed a wide array of literature including the most significant literature available in Narcotics Anonymous which is the ‘Basic Text’.  Some segments of the Fellowship have always supported the idea of ‘free’ or ‘low cost’ literature and produce alternative literature including ‘The Grey Book’ and ‘Baby Blue’ versions of the Basic Text. Low cost production and distribution is what Iran was able to do with their Farsi Version.

The Numbers

The ‘Basic Text, hard cover, English language’ that NAWS used in 2015 cost $359,091 to print in ($336,900 in 1995) and produced $2,081,468 in income ($1,801,996 in 1995). Most years they sell about 250,000 copies. In fact, this single item over the last 25 years remained an average of about $350,000 to print and then sell for $2,000,000 and currently accounts for about 20% of the revenue for NAWS. That works out to over a 400% markup. This is in stark contrast to what is happening in Iran. Reviewing the Annual Reports produced by NAWS, the Regional summaries produced by the Iran Region and a detailed look at the Independently audited financial statements produced by Millar Kaplan of the NAWS Corporation will help to build a somewhat blurry picture. We know that today about 30% of the literature currently produced by NAWS is in Iran and the approximate markup is a much lower 50% which is very close to cost. Iran sells about 120,000 Basic Texts or roughly 30% of the total. This is critical concept of ‘free’ or ‘low cost’ literature is supported by some members and has fueled the distribution of Grey Books and Baby Blues for decades. How many groups use these or how many books are distributed is not reported by the WSC or NAWS.

The History of Iran and the WSC

The first time Iran had participated in a WSC was 2006 and NAWS reported 1100 groups. Iran Region attended the 2008 WSC and reported 2564 groups hosting 11256 meetings.  Iran appears to have always been self-supporting off member contributions, never requiring profits from literature sales.  In 2011 NAWS formed a non-profit entity in Iran called Payam Omega which operates very much like a non-profit company in North America and assumed production of literature. Each year, Millar Kaplan are provided copies of the reports of Payam Omega that were produced by an independent auditor.  In 2018 financials, Iranian auditors report incomes for Payam Omega of $261,182, $224,450 and $287,943 for 2018, 2017 and 2016 which Millar Kaplan noted. This is a combined $773,575 in income for the three years listed. The only expenses NAWS reports on the consolidated statements produced are $189,336 for distribution costs over that 3-year period. A total inventory and where the remaining profits of $584,239 were spent during the three years is not reported.

Narcotics Anonymous Iran

Iran is under sanctions that prevent Payam Omega from transferring profits to NAWS but there are alternatives. Iran actively trades with the European Union, China, Japan and many Asian countries and has a well-educated population. Iranians are free to travel and have significant recent experience with Fellowship Development.  NAWS expenses fall into 4 categories; Events ($0.45 million) Conference/WSC Support ($2.02 million), Literature Production/Distribution ($3.22 million) and Fellowship Development ($3.28 million). The WSC could assign any or a portion of these to Payam Omega and reduce literature prices in North America by as much as 30%.  The WSC could halt all travel costs for NAWS staff which is an estimated $2-3 million that is hidden in the 4 categories which seems excessive given the lack of results.  Iran has the largest conventions in the world, well beyond the attendance of the NAWS sponsored world convention.  If NAWS continues to fund services using profits of literature sales then the fair application of that policy needs to be discussed by the WSC and adopted for the future. Reducing overheads and operating on member contributions would allow them to reduce the price of literature and could ignite growth not seen since the 1980’s in North America.  Any version of the Basic Text includes the following section; (last two paragraphs, TRADITION TWO “For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority-a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.”)

Those of us who have been involved in service or in getting a group started sometimes have a hard time letting go. Egos, unfounded pride, and self-will destroy a group if given authority. We must remember that offices have been placed in trust, that we are trusted servants, and that at no time do any of us govern. Narcotics Anonymous is a God-given program, and we can maintain our group in dignity only with group conscience and God’s love.

Some will resist. However, many will become the role models for the newcomers. The self-seekers soon find that they are on the outside. causing dissension and eventually disaster for themselves. Many of them change; they learn that we can only be governed by a loving God as expressed in our group conscience.

The most significant event in Narcotics Anonymous history since 1995 is the entirely independent development of the Iranian fellowship.  The WSC should pause and consider what’s working and what isn’t.  The significant changes in the FIPT will only deepen the chasm between NAWS supporters and the anti-NAWS movement. Clearly this idea of free/low cost literature needs to be evaluated and priority should be the reunification of all NA members. The WSC and NAWS represent a dwindling number of groups and they appear to be trying to use travel funds to promote the NAWS brand.