Nicotine Anonymous (NicA) is a twelve-step program founded in 1982 for people desiring to quit smoking and live free of nicotine. As of July 2017, there are over 700 face-to-face meetings in 32 countries worldwide with the majority of these meetings occurring in the United States, Iran, India, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Australia, Russia and in various online community and social media platforms.. NicA maintains that total abstinence from nicotine is necessary for recovery. NicA defines abstinence as "a state that begins when all use of nicotine ceases".
History
The first meetings began in February 1982 one on one meetings between a group of Southern California AA members to focus specifically on smoking cessation. These meetings began under the name Smokers Anonymous in Los Angeles. In June 1982 the founders, Rodger F, Robert K, Stephanie S, Dan H, began holding group meetings in Santa Monica California. Shortly thereafter another group independently started in San Francisco. In 1983, a Manhattan, New York group of meetings formed independently, also formed by recovering AA members, specifically to address their smoking addiction. They called themselves "AA for Non-Smokers". During the same period, two groups started in Cleveland, Ohio. Then in May 1985, Maurice Z., a California member, authored an article for Reader’s Digest. Thousands of letters poured in from people wanting to know more about this new Twelve-Step fellowship. That year Smokers Anonymous groups started independently in Woodstock, NY and in Islip, NY. Within a year there were a hundred meetings identified. In 1986 the group members met for their first conference in Bakersfield, California to form a fellowship, originally known as Smokers Anonymous. These groups met again in 1987 in Monterey, California. In April 1988, the fellowship’s first official World Services Conference was held in San Francisco. The fellowship was renamed Nicotine Anonymous in Phoenix, Arizona at the 1990 World Services Conference because the Smokers Anonymous trademark was not available, but also, importantly, the delegates decided the focus of recovery should be on the drug nicotine rather than any single nicotine delivery system. In 2000, "NicA" was selected to abbreviate Nicotine Anonymous at the annual World Service Conference.
Structure Adapted with permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., the Twelve Traditions are utilized by Nicotine Anonymous as fundamental guiding principles. Nicotine Anonymous operates with an elected, all volunteer, nine member board of officers and a set of by-laws. The board meets regularly to discuss how to be of service to the organization including organizing its annual World Service Conference and monitoring a number of appointed committee coordinators and the Nicotine Anonymous World Service home office located in Dallas, TX. The office keeps regularly updated meeting lists, manages the website and its online store, distributes NicA literature and free Meeting Starter Kits, and serves as a resource for members or any interested nicotine user. There are no dues or fees for NicA membership, as stated in Tradition Three: "the only requirement for Nicotine Anonymous membership is a desire to stop using nicotine."
Comparison There are several commercial and nonprofit programs supporting smoking cessation programs in the United States. Low-cost options, in addition to Nicotine Anonymous, are sponsored by groups such as The American Cancer Society, The American Lung Association, The American Heart Association and The Seventh-day Adventist Church. Commercial programs include cognitive-behavioral group therapy, nicotine replacement therapies and bupropion. Combinations of these approaches, marketed in commercial packages such as Smokeless and Smoke Stoppers, are licensed to treatment providers and conducted on an inpatient or outpatient basis. These are in addition to local programs ran by regional treatment facilities. A weekly NicA meeting is ongoing and therefore unique among the array of treatment options because nicotine users and ex-nicotine users can enter and leave the process as they please. Most other treatment programs are structured as limited duration programs, with only a certain number of sessions, making it difficult for members to pick it up midway through or begin when a program is not being offered. In 1996, NicA ranked twelfth in size among the thirteen twelve-step organizations studied by Klaus Makela. Sponsorship and lifetime attendance is not emphasized as much as in other twelve-step programs. The average meeting size is about seven people. Although both drinking and smoking are recognized by many respondents as imposing burdens on the family, there are no auxiliary support groups for friends and family of smokers related to NicA; as Al-Anon meetings were created for friends and family members of alcoholics. Nicotine Anonymous World Services does, however, offer a pamphlet, Are You Concerned About Someone Who Smokes or Chews Tobacco? with information for friends and family of nicotine users.
Effectiveness
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