James Patrick Kinnon (5 April 1911 - 9 July 1985), commonly known as Jimmy Kinnon or "Jimmy K.", was the primary founder of Narcotics Anonymous (NA), a worldwide fellowship of recovering addicts. During his lifetime, he was usually referred to as "Jimmy K." due to NA's principle of personal anonymity on the public level. He never referred to himself as the founder of NA, although the record clearly shows that he played a founding role.
When Kinnon was seven years old he befriended a local alcoholic whom he referred to as Mr. Crookshank. Kinnon would often find him drunk and beaten. One day he found Crookshank badly beaten up and unresponsive. Kinnon ran for help. Over the following weeks Kinnon did not see Crookshank and, after numerous inquiries, his mother took him to see his friend. They went to an institution of which Crookshank was now a resident. He was wheelchair-bound and incoherent. Upon leaving the facility, Kinnon told his mother that when he grew up he was going to help people like Mr. Crookshank.
Kinnon was born in Paisley, Scotland on April 5, 1911. He and his parents moved to the United States in the 1920s. For medical reasons he was separated from his parents on Ellis Island for three and a half days. He befriended a Russian family while he was waiting for his sister to be cleared of a medical issue. When the family was reunited they moved to Philadelphia. He never saw the Russian family again. While in Philadelphia Kinnon went to private school and had plans of entering the priesthood. He began using alcohol and pills which started his years of addiction until he got clean in 1950. He never followed through with his goal of becoming a priest. He met his first wife Agnes in Philadelphia and they had five children together.
Kinnon stopped using all mood and mind-altering substances on February 2, 1950. He began attending Alcoholics Anonymous, a twelve-step program. While in Alcoholics Anonymous he met other members who had struggled with addiction to substances other than alcohol. Alcoholics Anonymous often discouraged members from talking about addictions other than alcohol. Jimmy saw the need to recover from more than the symptom,i.e. substance used (alcohol, pills, etc.) by addressing the addict's thinking and attitudes before, during and in between using. This is why for NA he changed the Step 1 of the 12 Steps of AA from "alcohol" to "addiction." Kinnon attended meetings of another group called Habit-forming Drugs but was disappointed with them.
Formation of Narcotics Anonymous
In the summer of 1953 Jimmy Kinnon and other members of Alcoholics Anonymous began holding their own separate meetings, which they called Narcotics Anonymous. Mr. Kinnon and several others were given permission from Alcoholics Anonymous to adapt the AA Twelve Steps, but Jimmy changed the Step 1 from "Powerless over Alcohol" to "Powerless over Addiction." This was a significant change of focus from the AA program because NA is focused on the recovery from the disease of addiction rather than any particular substance that was used. Mr. Kinnon saw that the substance being a symptom of a deeper core issue, (i.e. the thinking, obsession and compulsions) which the substance is used to gain a temporary relief from. Narcotics Anonymous was officially founded in July 1953 in Sun Valley, California. There was a different organization also called Narcotics Anonymous that was previously founded by a recovering addict named Mr. Danny Carlsen in New York City, but it did not follow the 12 Traditions and was more of a social-services organization rather than a Fellowship. It died out in the mid-1960s and was never connected to the NA Mr. Kinnon started in Sun Valley that remains all over the world today.
Most of Narcotics Anonymous early literature was written by James Kinnon and is still used worldwide today in over 62,800 NA meetings. He was the main contributor to the Yellow Booklet and Little White booklet that were used throughout the 1960s and 1970s. From 1953 to 1977 Narcotics Anonymous was a safe haven for addicts to meet in their NA meetings, to help each other get and stay clean from all substances, including alcohol, which in truth is a drug. From 1979-1982 hundreds of Narcotics Anonymous members expanded on this literature and created the Basic Text. Mr. Kinnon also designed the NA logo, The Group Logo, The Service Symbol and wrote the Gratitude Prayer and "Fruit of the Harvest" statement found in the beginning of the NA book "The Basic Text". This book was the first ever known that was written by recovering addicts for recovering addicts. It was first published in 1982. 9.3 million copies of the Basic Text have been published since 1982,and are in 31 languages.It is currently in its 6th Edition.
James Kinnon died of lung cancer on July 9, 1985 in California. Prior to his death he said, if he ever had a headstone it would read, “All we did was sow some seeds and work and wrought to make this work, so that we and others could live. In Peace, in Freedom and in Love. He was clean for thirty five years at the time of his death.
- Miracles Happen: The Birth of Narcotics Anonymous in Words and Pictures, Revised version, ISBN 1-55776-341-0
- My Years With Narcotics Anonymous. A History of N.A. by Bob Stone. 1997, Hulon Pendleton Publishing, L.L.C., Joplin, MO, U.S.A., ISBN 0-9654591-0-1
- NA Audio Archive Sampler. 2002, Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc. ISBN 1-55776-469-4
- Narcotics Anonymous History (.MP3, RealAudio and Windows Media formats)
- Official Narcotics Anonymous website