Uncovering the history of narcotics anonymous

After World War II, heroin and cannabis were demonized with the opiate addiction epidemic. Gatherings of recovering addicts for mutual support were subjected to police surveillance.

History of al-anon

From this inhospitable soil, NA emerged [1]. The founding of Alcoholics Anonymous AA and the opening of the United States Narcotic Farm, a prison hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, were critical events in the rise of recovery groups for drug addiction. Within four years the founding of AA in , individuals addicted to opiates and other drugs explored mutual support and the 12 steps as a means to recovery.

It was first discovered that the Alcohol Anonymous program could also be applied to those addicted to narcotics at The United States Public Health Service Hospital Lexington in Lexington, Kentucky, which treated individuals who were addicted to narcotics and sentenced for federal drug-related crimes or who voluntarily applied for treatment.

Tom, a physician who suffered from alcohol addiction, who later also developed a 12 year addiction to morphine, entered Lexington in and found a newly published book, Alcoholics Anonymous, which changed his life. Later that year, he and three other men held the first AA meeting in North Carolina. Tom was one of the the first known people to have achieved recovery from morphine addiction through AA, and his group became a resource for inquires about drug addiction for the AA headquarters in New York.

Early experiments in applying the AA model to opiate addiction made AA more aware of the need to address other drugs. The AA Grapevine published a series of articles, which addressed narcotics, sedatives, tranquilizers, and amphetamines.