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Narcotics Anonymous is an international, community-based association of recovering drug addicts with more than 50,000 weekly meetings in over 130 countries.

Narcotics Anonymous sprang from the Alcoholics Anonymous program in the late 1940s, with meetings first emerging in the Los Angeles area of California, USA, in the early fifties. The NA program started as a small US movement that today has grown into one of the world's oldest and largest organizations of its type. For many years, the society grew very slowly, spreading from Los Angeles to other major North American cities and Australia in the early 1970s. In 1983, Narcotics Anonymous published its self-titled Basic Text, which contributed to tremendous growth, with groups forming rapidly in Brazil, Colombia, Germany, India, the Irish Republic, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

The first Narcotics Anonymous meeting took place in Canada in late September of 1967. It was in Victoria, British Columbia that James D. and Bernard A. began meeting weekly to help each other stay clean. The late 1960's were a time of struggle for the fellowship an in 1967 there were only 15 meetings world wide, with most of them occurring in California. Although the attendance at the Victoria meetings fluctuated, and the locations often changed, by the early 1970's the fellowship had begun to stabilize and it was in 1973 that the The Victoria Area Service committee formed. By late 1979 an N.A. meeting was started in Vancouver, and in 1981 the NA World Directory listed 11 meetings in BC. The publishing of the Basic text was responsible for the rapid growth of NA world wide including BC and it wasn't long before there were several meetings throughout the Province. The 1983 the world Directory contained 48 meetings, and by 1989, 112 meetings were taking place in BC. By 1981 the meetings in Vancouver continued to grow and by October 1985, 6 groups east of Vancouver joined together to form the Fraser Valley Area Service committee.

Today, Narcotics Anonymous is well established throughout much of the Americas, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, with newly formed groups and NA communities scattered through the Indian subcontinent, Africa, East Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Narcotics Anonymous books and information pamphlets are currently available in 34 languages, with translations in process for 16 languages.