NA & AA combined groups — are they OK?

Has there been the formation of any combined AA-NA groups? I see the "distinction" used in our group to give our elders permission to show addicts the front door. I am personally an alcoholic but my beliefs are that we should be trying to help both since the program is about the solution and it applies to addicts to both classes. Thank you.

The Traditions of both fellowships are such that they can not be combined and still be called AA, NA or any combination of the two. The Third Tradition ends this way:

Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.

Swap out N.A. for A.A. and you have the Third Tradition for that fellowship.

By Tradition a group can not claim to be part of AA if they are affiliated with any another organization. This makes it pretty much impossible to have a combined AA&NA group because at the point an AA group affiliates itself with NA it stops being AA.

We are fully aware that the distinction between AA and NA often gets blurred, particularly in the institutional setting where the rehab, prison etc. often has no understanding of (or interest in) Tradition. While it happens, a clear reading of The Traditions makes it factually plain that these hybrids shouldn't happen.

Combined affiliations do not become appropriate simply by becoming common.

While many in AA see the problem of alcoholism and addiction as the same thing the focus of AA will always be on alcoholism. If a person wants to attend a fellowship that considers alcoholism and addiction as the same thing then NA is an existing option.

See this link for some of the reasoning behind this.