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Information about NA (2007)

Narcotics Anonymous is an international, community-based association of recovering drug addicts with more than 43,900 weekly meetings in over 127 countries worldwide.

(pdf version)

Development

Narcotics Anonymous sprang from the Alcoholics Anonymous Program of the late 1940s, with meetings first emerging in the Los Angeles area of California, USA, in the early Fifties. The NA program started as a small US movement that has grown into one of the world's oldest and largest organizations of its type.

For many years, NA grew very slowly, spreading from Los Angeles to other major North American cities and Australia in the early 1970s. In 1983, Narcotics Anonymous published its self-titled Basic Text book, which contributed to tremendous growth. Within a few years, groups had formed in Brazil, Colombia, Germany, India, the Irish Republic, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

Today, Narcotics Anonymous is well established throughout much of the Americas, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Newly formed groups and NA communities are now scattered throughout the Indian subcontinent, Africa, East Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Narcotics Anonymous books and information pamphlets are currently available in 44 languages, with translations in process for 16 languages.

Narcotics Anonymous: a commitment to community partnerships

A presentation to the International Council on Alcohol and Addiction's 37th International Congress on Alcohol and Drug Dependence at the University of California at San Diego, 20-25 August 1995

Abstract:

Narcotics Anonymous, an international, community-based association of recovering drug addicts, provides peer support to other addicts who desire a drug-free outcome. We are fully committed to collaborating with professionals and community organizations with similar goals. This paper identifies key factors affecting NA's interactions with others, points out means by which professionals can contact Narcotics Anonymous, long-established means of direct interaction between NA and professionals, a number of programs designed to facilitate client introduction and entry into Narcotics Anonymous, and a description of what clients will find when they attend NA meetings and meet NA members. The paper addresses a number of areas where professionals may encounter difficulties in relating with Narcotics Anonymous, and closes by identifying ways to resolve any problems that may arise when interacting with NA.

Narcotics Anonymous is one of the world's oldest and largest associations of recovering drug addicts. The NA approach to recovery from drug addiction is completely nonprofessional, relying on peer support. We believe the NA program works as well as it does primarily because of the therapeutic value of addicts helping other addicts.

Narcotics Anonymous is organized locally as self-governing, self-supporting groups adhering to a common set of principles, adaptations of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous. Local NA groups are organized worldwide via NA's international delegate assembly, called the World Service Conference, and secretariat, the World Service Office, headquartered in Los Angeles, USA.

The first Narcotics Anonymous meeting was held in 1947 in Lexington, Kentucky, as part of a USA federal public health hospital program. An independent, community-based group using Lexington principles that was formed in Los Angeles in 1953 became the root of today's Narcotics Anonymous. Today, Narcotics Anonymous has nearly 20,000 registered weekly meetings in 70 countries around the world, the greatest concentrations being in the USA (16,000) and in Canada, Latin America, and Western Europe (1,000 each).

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