Jimmy Kinnon

James P. Kinnon (born April 5, 1911 in Paisley ( Scotland ), † July 9, 1985 in Los Angeles ) - better known as Jimmy Kinnon or Jimmy K - was the American founder of Narcotics Anonymous (NA), an international Community of recovering drug addicts . Because of the policy of the members of Narcotics Anonymous to remain anonymous in public , he was mostly referred to as "Jimmy K" during his lifetime . Apparently he never referred to himself as the founder of NA, although the state of the art research clearly supports this role.

In contrast to many other (mostly short-lived) attempts to set up self-help groups for drug addicts, Narcotics Anonymous was not only based on the Twelve Steps , but also on the Twelve Traditions . These were written by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and adopted by Narcotics Anonymous with few changes. Although there is no official biography of Jimmy Kinnon, a certain amount of information can be found on the Internet and in books about Kinnon (see links and sources below).

Life

Kinnon was born on April 5, 1911 in Paisley, Scotland. As a child, he immigrated to the United States with his family on August 8, 1923 on Ellis Island , New York. He lived first in Pennsylvania, later in California (Sun Valley, a district of Los Angeles ). Kinnon worked as a roofer and suffered from drug addiction until he achieved permanent and complete abstinence from all drugs on February 2, 1950, thanks to the Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve Step Program .

Together with some other drug addicts who had met at AA, Kinnon organized independently of AA from August 17, 1953, a series of meetings of drug addicts who wanted to be abstinent. The first documented self-help meeting (also known as a meeting ) of Narcotics Anonymous was held on October 5, 1953 in Los Angeles, California.

Narcotics Anonymous

Narcotics Anonymous members now host more than 63,000 so-called meetings each week in over 130 countries . The first regular meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Germany was founded in 1978 in Frankfurt am Main . Today more than 250 such meetings take place every week in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Kinnon is a key figure in the Narcotics Anonymous story for several reasons. Among other things, he wrote several sections of the Little White Booklet (1962), which served as a template for the basic text published by NA in 1983 entitled Narcotics Anonymous . This book also contains Kinnon's anonymous autobiography, entitled We Are Recovering . Kinnon also designed the Narcotics Anonymous logo and was the honorary director of Narcotics Anonymous from the creation of the World Service Office until 1983.

Kinnon spent the last 35 years of his life as a "clean" (abstinent) member of Narcotics Anonymous and died on July 9, 1985 in Los Angeles. Despite all the difficulties of the early years, his visionary dream of a worldwide autonomous community of recovering drug addicts had become a reality.

"If I should ever have an epitaph [...] it should go something like this: We have only planted a seed and tried and struggled to ensure that we and others can live - in peace, in freedom and in love."

- James P. Kinnon, 1982

literature

Miracles Happen: The Birth of Narcotics Anonymous in Words and Pictures , new version, ISBN 1-55776-341-0
My Years With Narcotics Anonymous. A History of NA by Bob Stone , 1997. Hulon Pendleton Publishing, LLC, Joplin, MO, USA, ISBN 0-9654591-0-1

Individual evidence

↑ Information on Narcotics Anonymous PDF document in English.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Kinnon, Jimmy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	James P. Kinnon, Jimmy K
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American founder of Narcotics Anonymous
DATE OF BIRTH	April 5, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH	Paisley ( Scotland )
DATE OF DEATH	July 9, 1985
Place of death	los Angeles

[1] Information on Narcotics Anonymous PDF document in English.