By Lina Giannarou - Kathimerini

“An addict, any addict, can stop using drugs, lose the desire to use them and find a new way of life.”

That is the message Narcotics Anonymous (NA) has been spreading since 1953, when it was first founded in Los Angeles. NA has since spread throughout Western Europe, North and South America and Australia. In the past few years, new groups have been formed in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa. Every week some 31,000 meetings are held in 123 countries.

The first group in Greece was formed in 1987, with two meetings a week in Athens. Now there are 27 groups in 10 cities (Athens, Piraeus, Markopoulo, Yiannitsa, Katerini, Thessaloniki, Alexandroupolis, Patras, Nafplion and in Iraklion, Crete), which hold 113 meetings a week. As there are no registration fees, minutes or records of attendance, it is hard to calculate the number of current participants. But the success of the Seventh Panhellenic Conference held recently at the Technopolis complex in Gazi showed that there must be several hundred NA members.

Information: www.na-greece.gr.