This morning we attended a presentation on the history of Narcotics Anonymous. It was very well researched and presented by two addicts in recovery who specialized in research of the program.
They included photos of newspaper articles, video clips and audio clips that I am grateful were not lost to the world. I got to hear a recording of the voice of Bill W and of some of the early founders of NA.
As they discussed pre AA and NA and what led up to them being created I found myself moved to tears of anguish. Morphine was created by the medical and scientific world as a non narcotic to get people off of opium. That obviously didn’t work. So heroin was made to get people off of morphine. 
Opioids were next. Once their meddling made the situation worse and worse for addicts they threw up their hands and tossed us aside as worthless dregs of society. Then the government got involved and began to regulate medicine and medical practices. This led to the criminalization of addiction. There was an audio clip of a federal law enforcement officer talking about throwing people in jail for being addicts and not providing assistance because once an addict, always an addict and it’s better to protect society from them.
Early NA meetings were raided and everyone arrested for being addicts. Meetings had to be hidden.
However, despite the resistance of medical and law personnel NA grew, failed, tried again, grew and began to thrive. Addicts themselves proved that yes, we can recover.
Including a link to one of their presentations in case anyone is interested.
Yes, we are addicts. Yes, we can and do recover with the help of each other. We got this!!
