The history of NA

What we got today is Greg Peay from Georgia, who is going to share with us some information that he has gathered about the history of Narcotics Anonymous and most of what he will have to share will reflect the growth of the fellowship and developments outside of the State of Michigan. And when Greg concludes with his initial comments about the NA history, I may add a little bit about what I know of the history of NA in Michigan. And hopefully, we'll still have time to answer questions or take comments from the floor. So, welcome, Greg Pee, please. Hi, my name is Greg.

I'm an addict. I bought some goodies. Some of you have played with me already. I know you need some guests. I also have a time line here, if any of you want.

Someone would just someone would pass something else out? That will give you a little overview of the history of the fellowship. I don't know what direction this workshop is going to go, because it's your workshop. I do want to present some stuff about how NA has evolved. I thought about the possibility of maybe talking about some of the evolutionary stuff that goes on in a local fellowship anywhere.

There's a process that we go through, through the years that I think there's some consistency place to place. Jim was going to talk about some history here in Michigan and perhaps some of you can be enticed to share about a little bit of the beginnings of NA in your areas. I think we can make this workshop whatever we want. What do you guys want? Anybody here for any particular reason?

Then history buffs, we got history buffs here? Okay. What's out here and I'll refer to it a lot is some historical documents dating back into the 50s or copies of some of the earlier stuff. And also available from Earl is a tape I brought of the 20th anniversary dinner in 1973. And it's Jimmy talking about the early days of NA.

So you'll be able to get that if you want. That's a very important historical tape and it gives some good feeling and information about particularly about the fellowship in the 50s. If you look at that outline, what I want to present is just pretty much go down that outline. And I'll start with this idea at the bottom. I don't think we'll ever really know concretely about the history of NA, because a 12 step fellowship for Addix is a natural outgrowth of AA and has happened many times, many places.

Most of those attempts came during the era NA where special purpose groups were in vogue in the 50s and early 60s. Almost all of those that we know have died out. It's still happening today. There's an Addicts Anonymous going in Pennsylvania. There is a Drugs Anonymous going in Pennsylvania.

There are various groups. There have been pills anonymous groups. There have been habit forming drug groups. There have been addictions anonymous groups. But none of these groups have survived.

Probably one of the most recent examples of that, where a group has changed is in Toronto. There was a 12 step fellowship for addicts going in Toronto with quite a number of meetings. A couple of years ago, they became part of NA, they the mainstream of NA. The first use and this is an on this, first use of the name Narcotics Anonymous was that I know of that we've found so far was by the Salvation Army And a major later brigadier, Dorothy Berry, began working with addicts back in the early 40s, particularly women addicts in prison in New York City. And began in 1947 something called Narcotics Anonymous.

It was more closely aligned to the Salvation Army and their 7 steps than it was to the 12 step approach. One of the things I have over here is a list of it was an evolutionary process, a list of their 13 steps that came out of Ohio, which is real easy, real interesting. There are some documents. What it seems like that was, is that there were 3 key people involved with that. There was Major Barry, there was a guy named Daniel Carlson, who wrote a book called The Attic.

And there was a Ray Lopez. The best information we have, we don't know quite what their relationship was. But I suspect that in major Berry's outreach sort of stuff, working with addicts that she got to Ray Lopez and Daniel Carlson, who were addicts. They may have been collaborators with her in this effort. They may have been addicts that she helped get clean through the Salvation Army system and some of the hospital work they were doing.

We know that they work together in the early 60s to make to encourage hospitals to treat addicts in New York City. And along with that, narcotics anonymous. That spread, that lasted about, as far as we can tell, about 7 or 8 years. Several things happened. One of the things that happened was Daniel Carlson died.

And it's kind of fell apart after that. Basically, we are looking at the time period for of 1948, 1947 up through about 1955 or 50 6. And there was some activity spinning off of that up until the early 60s. It spread, it spread to Lexington, Kentucky, Cleveland and there were attempts to start things various places, mostly tied in with the harbor light centers of the Salvation Army. That has since died out and none of our groups today trace their origins back to that effort.

I'm going to read their 13 steps, because they are neat. There were 7 steps for a while and there were 13 steps and then they went to a 12 step thing, which was little different than the 12 steps we use. The 13 steps, admit that the use of narcotics made my life seem more tolerable, but the drug had become an undesirable power over my life. 2, came to realize that to face life without drugs, I must develop an inner strength. 3, made a decision to face the suffering of withdrawal.

4, learn to accept my fears without drugs. 5, find someone who has progressed this far and who is able to assist me. 6, admit to him the nature and depth of my addiction. 7, realize the seriousness of my shortcomings as I know them and accept the responsibility of facing them. 8, admit before a group of NA members these same shortcomings and explain how I'm trying to overcome them.

9, list from my own understanding all the persons I have hurt. 10, take a daily inventory of my actions and admit to myself those which are contrary to good conscience. 11, realize that to maintain freedom from drugs, I must share it with others and experience the experience from which I have benefited. 12, determine a purpose in my life and try with all my spiritual and physical power within me with all the spiritual and physical power within me to move towards its fulfillment. 13, God help me.

And those are real neat. We don't think of it in the same terms, but the principles remain pretty much the same. Prior to that effort, the earliest reference of any kind that we've been able to find so far was in 1944 and it wasn't a reference to Narcotics Anonymous. In a talk, there is Yale University in 1944 and the text of that talk is was published in a book entitled Alcohol Science and Society. A question was asked of Bill Wilson.

What about a fellowship like AA for Addicts? And that's the first reference that we have towards anything like this. I'm not going to go into real depth on what we do know. We've been gathering some documentation on that other NA. And that seems to be in the most significant attempt to start something like what we have today.

But we don't have a full picture of it. We have bits and pieces. In the future, more information will come up. I think that's happened many times with varying degrees of success. Prior to the formation of NA in California in 1953, There were some things there and that's the first item on that outline, Habit Forming Drug Groups and Addicts Anonymous.

In that tape, it's available, there is a reference to those. And it reads, before any there was HFD, Habit Forming Drug Groups. These were hidden. These were 1 or 2 or 3 people meeting in apartments here and there. Nobody knew where they were.

They demanded certain things and they were dominated by 1 or 2 persons. You know, you and I don't go for authority, we don't like authority. A few people I met down on Skid Row a few years ago from East LA formed another group known as Addicts Anonymous. They infringed on the AA name and they died very quickly because they too were dominated by 1 man. We had another group started in the valley that called itself HFD and was dominated by 1 man.

So we found out very early and our experience has taught us that we can have no bosses, no big shots in Narcotics Anonymous. And these were probably special purpose AA meetings that tried to move out from the umbrella of Alcoholics Anonymous, lasted for short periods of time and died out. That situation has replicated itself many, many, many times. There are a lot of communities where little groups have started up for addicts, some of them called Narcotics Anonymous, some of them called Drugs Anonymous. Most of them would run for 2, 3, 4 months and then disappear.

NA groups in the early days were much like that. They'd run for short periods of time and then everybody would go get loaded or everybody would leave and say what's the use. And that's pretty much what the early days were like. I want to read a letter that verifies that HFD Groups in California, It's a letter written by Bill Wilson to a Betty Tom, HFD Group, Santa Monica, California. Dear Betty, thanks a million.

Nate, 2,000,000 for your heartwarming letter of March 11. This is dated 1954. Updating me on your progress with Attix. I think this is all perfectly wonderful. At this stage, I'm sure it's the quality that counts rather than the quantity that you've been doing a quality job and have inspired others to do likewise is very evident.

What can you tell me about the progress of those other groups, which at Lexington and here in the East go under the name Addicts Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. At times, I pick up very secondhand stories to the effect that they are making progress, but not so much as they might if they really came to grips with the 12 steps and had proper hospitalization. I'm also interested to know how many people you feel you have really straightened up and how these divide themselves between narcotics, who were once alcoholics and narcotics pure and simple. All of you concerned in this work surely have my warmest appreciation and I hope you will let everyone have the occasion of knowing it. Meanwhile, the main transmission belt to the attic will be from our AAA members who also have suffered addiction.

And they should surely be allowed attendance at open AAA meetings, just as anyone else is. One more question. Do any of your recoveries who were straight addiction cases find difficulty in identifying themselves with other AA members? I guess I told you I've noticed in many alcoholics a market version to dope addicts and vice versa. How is this situation working out as you now see it?

I wish I could write you the long letter that yours deserves, but my desk is piled high. Meanwhile, may God love you dearly all of you, devotedly Bill Wilson. What that letter talks about is probably the prevailing atmosphere for a 12 Step fellowship for Addicks in the early 1950s. No one really knew what was going on. They were very small.

There was an attitude, which was contrary to the disease of addiction. And certainly that letter implies a lack of understanding of the disease concept as we know it today. I don't believe that understanding existed anywhere and that's an opinion of mine, but it indicates a lot of things. Okay, let's talk about NA as we know it and all as far as I know, all the groups that exist today trace their origins or at least trace their allegiance to an effort which began in California in 1953. Our basic text says, June 1953, I think, doesn't it or does it say July?

July. It says July. Okay. That's not true. What we've come up with are a couple of things.

One very significant document is a handwritten copy of founding minutes for Narcotics Anonymous. I forgot to bring a copy of that. No, that's the type version. This document talks about the formative meetings, which preceded Narcotics Anonymous. The first entry is August 17, 1953.

A committee of 6, including Gilda Crouse, Paul Rosenbluth, Jimmy Kinnan, Steve Ryan, Frank Carnahan and Doris Carnahan got together at 10145 Stagg Street at 8 p. M. For the purpose of organizing an AANA Group. The names San Fernando Valley Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous has been voted on and accepted. Nomination of Jimmy Kennan for Chairperson voted and accepted nominations of Doris Carahan for Secretary, voted and accepted nomination of Frank Carahan and Gelda Kraus for 6 month period of time, Rotating Committee of Leadership voted and accepted.

The nomination of Paul Rosenberg and Steve Ryan for 3 month period of time on a rotating committee for leadership with Jimmy Kent and his alternate voted and accepted. Bylaws the following bylaws accepted as of this date, August 17, 1953, in effect as long as the group is active. Any suggested changes by 4 or more people active in the group, call the secretary and request a committee meeting. And it goes on through some bylaws. We've recently found another document, which is those bylaws typed up without the discussion and stuff that's in the handwritten minutes.

There are some significant things that happened in here. On September 14, 1953, the name was changed to Narcotics Anonymous and the AANA was dropped. And according to that tape that's available that you can pick up after this meeting, if you want it of the 20th anniversary. What happened was they wrote AA Central Offices in New York and found out they could not use that name. So they dropped the Alcoholics Anonymous and made it just Narcotics Anonymous.

An interesting thing about this set of minutes, is we get down here a little ways, the first meeting by the way, according to this, was October 5, 1953. Let me read the announcement that was circulated to the press on that. Narcotics Anonymous, our purpose. This is an informal group of drug addicts banded together to help one another renew their strength and remaining free of drug addiction. Our precepts are patterned after those of Alcoholics Anonymous to which all credit is given and precedence is acknowledged.

We claim no originality, but since we believe that the causes of alcoholism and addiction are basically the same, the wish to apply to our lives the truths and principles which have benefited so many otherwise helpless individuals. We believe that by so doing, we may regain and maintain our health and sanity. It shall be the purpose of this group to endeavor to foster a means of rehabilitation for the addict and to carry a message of hope for the future to those who become enslaved by the use of habit forming drugs. Starting Monday night, October 5, 1953, each Monday night thereafter at 8:30 pm, corner of Cantera and Claiborne, Sun Valley, California, directly behind Sunwood Lumber Company. There were 17 people in attendance at that meeting along with those minutes is a sign in sheet.

So there is documentation of who was at the very first Narcotics Anonymous meeting. That didn't last. One of the interesting things about the minutes as we come after that, after October, October 5, which was the night of the meeting, accepted absence of Pat Hand until such time as convenient for his return. October 24, accepted resignation of Bud Craig. November 15, accepted resignation of Gilda Krausz and Tommy Moore.

December 16, resignation of Doris and Frank Carnahan, accepted, accepted resignation of Jimmy Kinnan. December 18, nomination of Bud Panstar for Chairman accepted. And that's the end of those handwritten minutes. The bylaws explain some of the means of working that we came up with. One of the interesting things that sticks out from this, one of the first things on there, well, it's not one of the first thing, It's an item that any committee member who is in continued disagreement with the majority voice in committee to the point of departure from the traditional and accepted welfare of the fellowship may be asked to resign from the committee.

On refusal to resign, such member may be removed by majority vote of the committee. This in no way affects membership or and acceptance of such member within the Fellowship. That's a precedent setting thing that was a real interesting concept that anyone who continually acted contrary to the unity of the group, who was continually at odds with group conscience of what they at that time called the governing committee, would be asked to resign. And you know, I don't know how that carried through. I could give you some other things about the 50s.

I have another document here from the 1950s, which is a little booklet. Simon, will we pass some other bookings around? Okay. Bill wants those. We'll trade later.

This is the first Narcotics Anonymous publication that we know of. It was printed in 1956. There are a few copies which survived. There are not many. In this, you can see some of the roots of the material we use today.

There are some wonderful things in here. Let's see if I can find something offhand. Here's one. I'll just read a paragraph here. Before coming on the program, our trouble was we could not manage our own lives.

We couldn't live like normal people. We had to have something different and we thought we found it in drugs and narcotics. We got so we had to have these drugs and narcotics no matter what the cost. We placed their use ahead of the welfare of our families, wives and children. We did them great harm, but most of all we harmed ourselves.

We broke not only the laws of society, but the greatest law of all, the law of nature. And you can see where our own material that we commonly read today has evolved out of that. This is a very important document. It's the it's our first literature. This is the first thing we have published and printed.

It's exciting to see this. I really encourage you guys to come and take a look and look at some of these things after we're done, you know, if time permits, because or pull me up later on, because they're to me they're very exciting. And if you have the same feel for history that I have, they'll probably be exciting to you too. That's all I'm going to really talk about those early days in the 50s. We don't know a tremendous amount about them and there is not a whole lot of documentation.

My best guess and this is an opinion from some of the stuff I've been doing trying to put together documents like this, is that there was basically no real consistency in the 1950s in Narcotics Anonymous, that people would get together on the spur of a moment. They might go out after another meeting and have coffee somewhere and call it a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. There might be a formal meeting start and it would go for a while, 3 months, 6 months and then people would back away from it. I see no evidence of continuity in Narcotics Anonymous prior in the 1950s. In fact, the outline and this is based on that tape, goes on to say that NA became a one man rule in about 1957, that all or most all of the original members backed off, dropped out, went back to AA and that 2 years later NA died.

No, And everybody wants a definition. It's either January of 1960 or December of 1959. There's conflicting information on tapes. NA was started again and that group still exists today. So I really look at our history, the continuity of our history back to 1960.

The end of 1959, the beginning of 1960, right around New Year's Christmas, that period of time. On one tape, Jimmy starts with says the beginning of 1960. On another tape he gave a few years later, he says the end of 1959. I really don't know and we don't have documentation for that. But that's what led to NA as we know it today.

There is a meeting that's been held is being held this week in that same place every week since 1960, that's in Studio City, California. NA began to lay its foundations there. I look at the 50s as kind of an exploratory, inconsistent, hit and miss, touch and go type of situation. The 60s, I think, is where we laid some of our foundations, where we got some of the stability. We finally, instead of running around the sand, started driving some posts down into it, so they could build on it.

Several things happened in the 60s, a lot of things on your list there. If I can find mine, I'll go over it. Here we go. I got one. By the way, on your list, the numbers in parentheses are approximate numbers of groups, after groups.

The first thing they did after 1960 is they published what has become our white booklet. That original booklet looked like this. It was this is not one of them. There's only one known copy of that. It has no stories in it.

This one comes from about the time the World Service Office was opened in 'seventy 2. But it looked very much like this. Here are some other versions of it, slick cover, there is just a variety of things. This is what BNA had in this late '60s early '70s. It wasn't until 1975 or 1976 where the white booklet and the shape that we know of began being printed.

What happened at that time is we found out that we if we change the shape of this to a quarter of an 8.5x11 sheet, we could reduce the cost per pamphlet by $0.03 and add 4 pages. So some stories were added and we reduced the cost of the pamphlet. Okay. There are some real important things that happened. We published it with the stories, of course, which is what this is about.

The Board of Trustees and the Parent General Service Organization came into being. There is a set of proposed bylaws for the Parent General Service Organization of Narcotics Anonymous in Greater Southern California Area Regional, it says, May 1969. These were in effect when I came around the program. It took me about 5 years to find another copy of these. They're real hard to find.

There is some neat stuff here and they can show some of our basis and the growth of our services. What has happened since then, happened since the 60s, when we were laying the foundations, we published newsletter in the 60s. Here is our copy here is a couple of copies of the first two newsletters that were published in Narcotics Anonymous. There's an interesting thing how many of you ever wondered what KARINAH stands for? Anybody?

No one's ever wondered what KARINAH stands for? In our first newsletter, it says Statement and Purpose of Aims of the newsletter: one, to share our experience, strength and hope with the addict who still suffers 2, to better carry the message of recovery through the voice of conscience 3, to provide better communications within the written with the written word 4, to build a source of information that will provide material for future literature based on a cross section of personal experience 5, to hopefully provide another means for personal and fellowship growth through creative action 6, to help establish our own publishing company named CARE, the letters standing for C, Compassion, A, Action, R, Respect, E, Empathy. And they found out there was already a CARE Publishing, so they added an NA on the end. So it's compassion, action, respect and empathy in narcotics anonymous. But documents like this exist that show that we have a rich tradition behind us.

The First World Convention was held in 1971. There were about 200 people there. It was held at the La Mirada Country Club. It was our beginning of get togethers like this. And in those days, we had to wait a whole year before we had another deal.

And I can remember, I was involved with that first convention and I can remember waiting a whole year to do it again. Now you can go to conventions every weekend. What are there 6 conventions going this 4th July weekend? There are 5 or 6, Iowa and Colorado and here and Florida and New Mexico, that's there may be 1 or 2 others. There's a I know there's a camp out going on in Savannah, Georgia, celebrating their birthday, But there is one in the western part of Michigan.

Those things didn't happen. The first time we ever got together like this was in 1971, which is only 15 years ago, 16 years ago, the first time we ever got together like this. We established a World Service Office. And at that convention, the purpose one of the purposes of that convention was to establish a World Service Office. And at that convention, a paid manager for the World Service Office was elected.

However, there was never any money for him, so he didn't get paid and didn't do it. We did open an office in January of 1972 on Crenshaw Boulevard. That's where this comes from. It's got the rubber stamp on there, Narcotics Anonymous World Service Office, 2335 Crenshaw Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. And the fellowship began to reach out and grow.

I have a set of minutes from the World Service Office in 1971 or 1972 that I guess, had to be 1972 that shows donations from 5 or 6 places outside of California. The fellowship was beginning to spread a little bit. And I think that there were times in the 70s, I know there were people who would travel and there would be fledgling fellowships perhaps springing up. Most of them died out. Most of the fellowships today that are strong and have been around about date from the end of 70s and the beginning of 80s.

There were some significant things that happened. In 1978, the World Service the World Convention moved out of California. In 1976, we began having World Service Conferences. And I believe these things laid the foundation for a lot of local fellowships, because before that, 3 or 4 people would get together and start a group somewhere, perhaps here in Flint. And it would go for a while, but there was no real communication, there was no real way that we could be unified and so we died.

An addict alone can't make it, an addict in isolation has a tremendous difficulty. That's why we have our whole loner movement. The same thing is true about a group. A group in isolation has a very difficult time. And groups have started and folded many, many, many, many times, but pieces of literature get stuffed away in drawers and turn up years down the road, or people find things or some people remain and they go back to AA, where they probably came from.

And they remember one of the most moving things in that from that tape that Jimmy made is an idea that you can't kill a good idea. See if I can find it. You can listen to the tape. I didn't find it. But he talked about that if all of us there at that 20th anniversary, dinner got loaded and left, Narcotics Anonymous would still live on.

Because you can't kill a spiritual principle. You can't kill an idea. And as long as one of us is clean, narcotics anonymous exists because it lives in each of us. And somewhere down the road, we'll find another addict and we'll sit down and talk to them. And it will begin again, like it did in the 50s.

That to me is what happened in the 50s, it would die out and begin again and die out and begin again and die out and begin again. The 70s, as an overview, were probably tied in with the spread of Narcotics Anonymous. During the late '70s, isolated fellowships in many, many parts of the country started springing up. I have a world directory here from 76 that lists meetings in Alaska and Australia and Arizona, Canada, Northern California, Southern California, that's most of what's in here, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Michigan, Detroit, Christ Church, 960 East Jefferson Street, Saturday, 7:30, Alice Howe, Hastings, John R. Hayes, Escanaba, is that close, alcohol and drug referral, Donna W, Lansing, Ben Parter, Parker maybe, Fremont Life Counseling Services Incorporated, Shirley Black, Bay Cities, librarian, Rick Westgate.

But there were meetings even in Montana, Oregon, Washington State, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Denver, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Tennessee, Washington State, Idaho, Utah, Maryland. Most of those groups died out. This is 1976 and you date the fellowship here from About 75 in New York. But did it die out continuously? Okay.

That's a documentation of that. This happened all over. Most of those groups, most of those places that I read did not have an NA meeting in 1978 from the 1976 World Directory or 'seventy nine. Most of those places that were read died. It wasn't until the end of 1970s, perhaps the middle in a few cases that groups established themselves that have survived till today.

So we spread out in the 70s. I like to look at the 80s as our growth, and we've grown in numbers tremendously. And communities where they had 1 or 2 or 3 meetings now have 50 or 100 meetings and communities where there wasn't any NA now have strong NA fellowships. And it's moved from metropolitan areas into more rural areas, and you'll find rural areas with 2 or 3 meetings in a little town and the next town down the road there's a meeting and the next town down the road there's 3 or 4 meetings and it's really spread and grown. It's not those tentative feelers we found in the '70s.

To me, that's an overview of how we have grown, perhaps the most significant things that occurred to make that growth possible as people started traveling in the 70s. We established a service structure for ourselves. We had a World Service Conference. We went through a period in the late 70s, where people began getting interested in our literature and the results of that were the literature movement, with the review form, the input form, the file form and about the publication of our basic text. And perhaps those two things, those three things, a structure by which we can relate to each other and be united within a single fellowship without being isolated groups and isolated local fellowships.

A system for communication of what Narcotics Anonymous is all about, a basic text And the beginning of members traveling throughout the United States, going to conventions, the conventions being held outside of California, the first convention held outside of California was Houston, Texas, the 8th World Convention. The second was in Atlanta, Georgia, the 9th World Convention. The third was in Wichita, Kansas, the 10th World Convention and so on and so forth. These events stimulated the growth we see when we come to Flint, Michigan and have 600, 700 people at the convention. It's been an evolutionary process.

The growth hasn't been easy. There have been a lot of sputtering and a lot of failure, but there has been a lot of success. One of the things that is personally most rewarding to me is to sit in a room with 5,000, 600, 2000, 3000 addicts and know that our recoveries are all interrelated and know that we all have a common bond that ties us together, know that we all share a way of life. To me, that's one of the most exciting things that happens to me. There were perhaps 200 NA members when I came to Narcotics Anonymous.

There was no Saturday night meeting anywhere in the world. And that was only 1970. Today, look at us now. And at the rate we're growing and the rate we're going, I mean, NA is exploding. We're growing so fast, we can't keep up with ourselves.

That's part of the problems and the difficulties we're going through today. You know, we can't keep up with our growth, but dreams come true. Somewhere, somehow, someone dreamed of a meeting in Michigan, of a fellowship in Michigan, of a convention in Michigan, Those dreams have come true. I think we need to dare to dream. Our dreams come true around here, if they're consistent with the spirit.

NA will continue to grow and survive and the path we're on, that's evidenced by bits and pieces from the past will continue. We are all with the history of narcotics and audits, every single one of us. And we get to do that. I'm going to give it to Jim now. I guess we're not going to talk about the world.