People who join Narcotics Anonymous (NA) have personal histories bound up with countless addictive drugs -- LSD, heroin, cocaine, marijuana, Demerol, quaaludes and more. Yet two things unite them: they admit their powerlessness over addiction, and their goal is to practice the Twelve Step program of recovery, one day at a time.

Beginning in 1947 with a handful of meetings in southern California, NA expanded into a national movement. Today, about 20,000 NA groups meet weekly in 70 countries across the world.

People who know about Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) will find many familiar features in NA. The core features of AA's Twelve Steps are preserved in NA -- openly admitting a problem with addiction, seeking help, doing honest self-appraisal, practicing confidential self-disclosure, making amends, and working with other addicts.

Like AA, NA is a nonprofit, mutual-help organization. Members of NA hold closed meetings for addicts and open meetings for other interested people. NA meetings follow a variety of formats, some centering on speakers and others on discussions of NA literature.

There is no charge for NA meetings, though members make goodwill offerings. NA encourages each newcomer to find a sponsor -- an experienced NA member who acts as a mentor. And though NA meetings proceed with little formal structure, there is a bottom line: No drugs or paraphernalia allowed.

Before NA began, AA was in turmoil over how to treat people addicted to drugs other than alcohol. When drug addicts started showing up at AA meetings, some members feared that the group's single-minded focus on alcoholism would be diluted.

The solution was a choice that balanced tradition and compassion. AA's founders decided to freely offer their Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions to any group that wished to use them. At the same time, AA pledged a spirit of "cooperation but not affiliation" with such groups.

NA quickly took the cue. Its first step was to carefully reword Step One of the AA program. Instead of asking members to admit powerlessness over "alcohol" or even "drugs," NA's founders called for admitting powerlessness over "addiction." Their reasoning: What addicts have in common is no single drug of choice but a physical craving and mental obsession for mood-altering substances.

With that one turn of a phrase, NA offered unity to its members and put them on the same road to recovery. Donny Shope, a clinical case manager at Hazelden, sums up the NA perspective, "We all suffer from the disease of addiction, fand that is the common bond that gives us the therapeutic value of one addict helping another."

At one time, NA struggled with the stereotype of being an organization for "dope-shooting criminals and burly, tattooed bikers," in the words of one NA member. Those days are gone.

"Today our fellowship would be a visualization of a much more diverse organization as it relates to age, socioeconomic background, profession, educational level, and gender," said Anthony Edmondson, executive codirector of NA World Services. "The extreme nature of addiction is that it touches all aspects of society. We're just a reflection of the society that addiction touches."

As outreach continues, NA's pledge of unity in diversity remains steadfast. In the words of Narcotics Anonymous, the fellowship's basic text, "We are not interested in what or how much you used or who your connections were, what you have done in the past, how much or how little you have, but only what you want to do about your problem and how we can help."

For information on NA meetings in your area, check your local phone directory under Narcotics Anonymous. Or contact the NA World Services Office at PO Box 9999, Van Nuys, CA 91409, 1-818-773-9999. Also see the NA Web site at http://www.na.org/ which offers several e-mail links to the World Services Office.

--Published May 21, 2001