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A Global Society of Recovering Addicts

Narcotics Anonymous is an international, community-based, non-profit fellowship of men and women for whom drugs have become a major problem - recovering addicts who meet regularly to help each other stay clean.  Membership is open to anyone irrespective of age, sex, religion, race, creed or class and the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using drugs.

Development

Narcotics Anonymous started in the USA in 1953 and is one of the oldest and largest organisations of its type in the world.  Following that first NA meeting in Los Angeles, the society spread slowly, spreading to other major north American cities and to Australia by the early 1970's.  The first NA meeting in the United Kingdom took place in London in 1980.  There are currently more than 500  weekly meetings throughout England, Scotland and Wales of which more than 100 take place in London.  More than 30 meetings are held each week in prisons and a further 30-40 in treatment and detoxification centres.  In 1982, when Narcotics Anonymous published it's self-titled Basic Text, the growth of the fellowship was phenomenal.  New groups sprung up in Brazil, Colombia, Germany, India, the Irish Republic, Japan and New Zealand and by the end of the year 1,200 groups had been established in 11 countries.  Three years later, the number of NA groups around the world had tripled.  Today, Narcotics Anonymous is established throughout Western Europe, North and South America and Australia, with newly formed groups and NA communities scattered across the Indian Subcontinent, Africa, East Asia, Central and South America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.  More than 35,000 meetings take place in 116 countries each week.

The Narcotics Anonymous Programme

Narcotics Anonymous is a completely voluntary organisation. Membership is open to anyone with a drug problem seeking help regardless of what drug or combination of drugs have been used.  No membership or attendance records are kept.  Anonymity is one of NA's most important traditions.  There are no dues or fees for membership.  Narcotics Anonymous is entirely self-supporting and accepts no financial contributions from non-members.  Most members regularly contribute small sums of money at group meetings to help cover expenses such as rent, literature, tea and coffee, but contributions are not mandatory.

The core of the Narcotics Anonymous programme is a series of twelve steps, adapted from the recovery programme of Alcoholics Anonymous.  These steps include admitting to a drug problem, seeking help, self-appraisal, confidential self-disclosure, making amends where possible where harm has been done, achieving a spiritual awakening and supporting other drug addicts who want to recover. Narcotics Anonymous is a non-religious fellowship, encouraging each member to cultivate an individual understanding, religious or not, of a "spiritual awakening".  Narcotics Anonymous believes that one of the cornerstones of it's success is the therapeutic value of addicts working with each other to achieve recovery.  In meetings members regularly share their personal experiences with each other, not as professionals but as ordinary people who have discovered that sharing brings about solutions to their problems.

Narcotics Anonymous has no professional therapists, no residential facilities and no clinics.  NA provides no vocational, legal, financial, psychiatric or medical services.  The closest thing to an NA counsellor is the "sponsor", someone who has been free form active drug use for some time who gives informal support and assistance to newcomers and those with less experience of the programme.  The primary service provided by Narcotics Anonymous is the local weekly meeting.  Each group is autonomous, organising itself according to a series of 12 principles common to the entire organisation.  Meetings which take place in rooms rented from public, religious or other organisations, may be "open" meaning anyone can attend, or "closed", meaning that they are only for people who want to address their own drug problems.  Meetings are facilitated by NA members.  Other members may take part by talking in turn about their experience of addiction and the recovery, strength and hope they've discovered through NA.  Narcotics Anonymous has no hierarchy or authority structure.  The Narcotics Anonymous programme uses a simple, experience-oriented concept of addiction by defining it as a disease from which recovery is possible.  Narcotics Anonymous does not qualify it's use of the term "disease" in any medical or therapeutic sense, nor does NA attempt to persuade others of the correctness of its views or that recovering addicts can be cured.  The NA fellowship simply asserts that its members have found that an acceptance of addiction as a disease is an effective way of helping them to come to terms with their condition - and in finding recovery.

Narcotics Anonymous encourages its members to abstain completely from all drugs including alcohol because NA members have discovered that complete abstinence provides the best foundation for recovery and personal growth.  Narcotics Anonymous takes no stand on the use of caffeine, nicotine, or sugar.  Similarly the use of prescribed medication for the treatment of specific medical or psychiatric conditions is neither encouraged nor prohibited by NA.  While recognising numerous questions in these areas, Narcotics Anonymous feels they are matters of personal choice and encourages its members to consult their own experience, the experience of other members, and the opinions of qualified health professionals to help them make up their minds about these subjects.  Narcotics Anonymous also recognises that it is one of many organisations addressing drug addiction and does not claim its programme will work for all addicts under all circumstances or that its therapeutic views should be universally adopted.

Service Organisation

In countries, like the United Kingdom, where Narcotics Anonymous groups have had the chance to develop and stabilise, groups elect delegates to form area service committees.  These service committees become responsible for:

• The distribution of NA literature.
• Staffing telephone help lines.
• Carrying out public information presentations for drug treatment centres, civic organisations, government agencies,  the police, prisons and other correctional and residential institutions, colleges and schools.
• Providing up to date directories of NA meetings.

The London based helpline handles more than 15,000 calls from all over the United Kingdom annually.  The UK Service Office is the UK distribution centre for NA literature and deals with enquiries from professionals, it handles several thousand more calls each year.  In the United Kingdom, where NA is especially well established, a number of area committees join together to create regional committees on a national level, leaving the area committees free to focus on local services.  All committees are run by volunteer NA members, who serve on a rotating basis.  In 1978 an international delegate assembly called the World Service Conference was established to provide guidance to national committees and to translate NA literature, assisted by NA's World Service Office in Los Angeles.

Our position on related issues and other organisations.

In order to maintain its focus, Narcotics Anonymous adheres to a tradition of non-endorsement and does not affiliate with other organisations and does not take positions on anything outside its own specific sphere of activity.

NA does not express opinions on any civil, social, medical, legal or religious issues, nor does it take stands on secondary addiction-related issues such as criminality, law enforcement, drug legislation or penalties, prostitution, HIV infection or free needle programmes.

Narcotics Anonymous neither endorses nor opposes any other organisations philosophy or methodology.  NA does not even oppose the use of drugs.  NA believes that its sole purpose is to help drug addicts who wish to stop using drugs by providing a platform for them to share their experiences and recovery with other addicts.  Narcotics Anonymous welcomes the co-operation of those in government, religious organisations and professional and voluntary organisations committed to helping recovering addicts.  NA is happy to co-operate with such bodies interested in Narcotics Anonymous by providing contacts, information and literature about recovery through the NA fellowship.  NA's non-addict friends have been instrumental in starting Narcotics Anonymous in many countries and in helping NA to grow.