Narcotics Anonymous

Narcotics Anonymous (NA) was founded in 1953 in the Los Angeles, California, area by Jimmy Kinnon and other individuals who had previously found recovery from addiction through the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) program. The founders of NA developed a program that is based on the Twelve Steps of AA but takes a broader view toward recovery from substance use disorders than does the AA program. AA granted the early members of NA the permission to adapt the Twelve Steps of AA to deal with all forms of chemical dependency as opposed to simply alcoholism. However, the NA founders were not granted the permission to use the Alcoholics Anonymous name, and subsequently, the group's name was changed to Narcotics Anonymous. The program began as a small U.S. ...