No meds: Inside a rogue Syracuse AA group (Episode 2)

Every day dozens of people walk through the front door of 732 Butternut street on Syracuse’s north side. They think they are attending a traditional Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, but The Syracuse Group is something vastly different. They offer a hardcore controlling brand of sobriety that looks down on outside help and medication.

The Syracuse Group, also known as The Butternutters, has operated below the radar for decades in the unregulated world of self-help groups. The only requirement to call yourself AA is two people with a desire to stop drinking.

No government agency, at any level, regulates this group’s actions or methods.

Syracuse.com reporters have conducted a year-long investigation and interviewed more than 50 people about the group’s practices. They reviewed 20 hours of publicly available audio recordings of Syracuse Group meetings.

Several former group members agreed to tell us about their experience in this four-part series by Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard.

Read the series:
Part 1: https://trib.al/vMJZSPZ
Part 2: https://trib.al/l0IULXh
Part 3: https://trib.al/MVcb0E8
Part 4: https://trib.al/ih33rKv