Narcotics Anonymous is an international, community-based association of recovering drug addicts. Started in 1953, the NA movement is one of the world’s oldest and largest of its type, with nearly 67,000 meetings weekly in 139 countries.
Here, we hope to explain what Narcotics Anonymous is and what its recovery program offers to drug addicts. We will describe how NA services are organized at the local, national, and international levels. We will talk about how Narcotics Anonymous cooperates with others concerned about drug abuse in their countries and communities. Finally, we will provide information on NA’s membership and indicators of the success of Narcotics Anonymous.
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. Since the publication of our Basic Text in 1983, the number of members and meetings has increased dramatically. 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 49 languages; and we continue to grow.
Program
NA’s earliest self-titled pamphlet, known among members as “the White Booklet,” describes Narcotics Anonymous this way:
“NA is a nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem. We meet regularly to help each other stay clean. We are not interested in what or how much you used but only in what you want to do about your problem and how we can help.”
Membership is open to all drug addicts, regardless of the particular drug or combination of drugs used. When adapting AA’s First Step, the word “addiction” was substituted for alcohol, thus removing drug-specific language and reflecting the disease concept of addiction.
There are no social, religious, economic, racial, ethnic, national, gender, or class-status membership restrictions. There are no dues or fees for membership; while most members regularly contribute small sums to help cover the expenses of meetings, such contributions are not mandatory.
Narcotics Anonymous provides a recovery process and support network inextricably linked together. One of the keys to NA’s success is the therapeutic value of addicts working with other addicts. Members share their successes and challenges in overcoming active addiction and living drug-free productive lives through the application of the principles contained within the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of NA. These principles are the core of the Narcotics Anonymous recovery program. Principles incorporated within the steps include:
- admitting there is a problem;
- seeking help;
- engaging in a thorough self-examination;
- confidential self-disclosure;
- making amends for harm done;
- helping other drug addicts who want to recover.
Central to the Narcotics Anonymous program is its emphasis on practicing spiritual principles. Narcotics Anonymous itself is non-religious, and each member is encouraged to cultivate an individual understanding, religious or not, of this spiritual awakening.
Narcotics Anonymous is not affiliated with other organizations, including other twelve-step programs, treatment centers, or correctional facilities. As an organization, NA does not employ professional counselors or therapists nor does it provide residential facilities or clinics. Additionally, the fellowship does not provide vocational, legal, financial, psychiatric, or medical services. NA has only one mission: to provide an environment in which addicts can help one another stop using drugs and find a new way to live.
In Narcotics Anonymous, members are encouraged to comply with complete abstinence from all drugs, including alcohol. It has been the experience of NA members that complete and continuous abstinence provides the best foundation for recovery and personal growth. NA as a whole has no opinion on outside issues, including prescribed medications. The use of psychiatric medication and other medically indicated drugs prescribed by a physician and taken under medical supervision is not seen as compromising a person’s recovery in NA.
For additional information, please review Mental Health in Recovery & In Times of Illness.
Service Organization
The primary service provided by Narcotics Anonymous is the NA group meeting. Each group runs itself based on principles common to the entire organization, which is spelled out in NA’s literature.
Most groups rent space for their weekly meetings in buildings run by public, religious, or civic organizations. Individual members lead the NA meetings while other members take part by sharing in turn about their experiences in recovering from drug addiction. Group members also share the activities associated with running a meeting.
In a country where Narcotics Anonymous is a relatively new phenomenon, the NA group is the only level of organization. In places where a number of Narcotics Anonymous groups have had the chance to develop and stabilize, groups will have elected delegates to form a local service committee. These local committees usually offer a number of services. Included among them are:
- distribution of NA literature;
- telephone information services;
- presentations for treatment staff, civic organizations, government agencies, and schools;
- presentations to acquaint treatment or correctional facility residents with the NA program;
- meeting directories for individual information and use in scheduling visits by client groups;
In some countries, especially the larger countries or those where Narcotics Anonymous is well established, a number of local/area committees have come together to create regional committees. These regional committees handle services within their larger geographical boundaries while the local/area committees handle local services.
An international delegate assembly, known as the World Service Conference, provides guidance on issues affecting the entire organization. Among NA world services’ priorities are activities supporting young national movements and the translation of Narcotics Anonymous literature. For additional information, contact the World Service Office headquarters in Los Angeles, California.
NA World Services PO Box 9999 Van Nuys, California USA 91409 Telephone +1.818.773.9999 Fax +1.818.700.0700 Public Relations Team email pr@na.org
Positions On Related Issues or Institutions
In order to maintain its focus, Narcotics Anonymous has established a tradition of non-endorsement and does not take positions on anything outside its own specific sphere of activity. Narcotics Anonymous does not express opinions either pro or con on civil, social, medical, legal, or religious issues. Additionally, it does not take stands on addiction-related issues such as criminality, law enforcement, drug legalization or penalties, prostitution, HIV/HCV infection, or syringe programs.
Narcotics Anonymous neither endorses nor opposes any other organization’s philosophy or methodology. Its primary competence is to provide a platform upon which drug addicts can share their recovery and experiences with one another. This is not to say that Narcotics Anonymous believes there are not any other good or worthy organizations. To remain free of the distraction of controversy, NA focuses all of its energy on its particular area of purpose, leaving other organizations to fulfill their own goals.
"Narcotics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the NA name ought never be drawn into public controversy." 8th Tradition, Narcotics Anonymous
Coorporating With Narcotics Anonymous
Although certain traditions guide its relations with other organizations, Narcotics Anonymous welcomes the cooperation of those in government, the clergy, the helping professions, and private voluntary organizations. NAs “non-addict” friends have been instrumental in getting Narcotics Anonymous started in many countries and helping NA grow.
NA strives to cooperate with others interested in Narcotics Anonymous by providing contact information, literature, and information about recovery through the NA Fellowship. Additionally, NA members are often available to make panel presentations in treatment centers and correctional facilities, sharing the NA program with addicts otherwise unable to attend community-based meetings.
Membership Demographics
The socioeconomic strata represented by the NA membership vary from country to country. Members of one particular social or economic class start most national NA movements, but as their outreach activities become more effective, the membership becomes more broadly representative of all socioeconomic backgrounds.
All ethnic and religious backgrounds are represented among NA members. Once a national movement reaches a certain level of maturity, its membership generally reflects the diversity or homogeneity of the background culture.