For 9 years I have been teaching the history of where Acudetox began, the history behind the protocol and the birthplace of NADA internationally. Until this doccie which took 7 years to produce by Mia Donovan for VICE News, the history was passed down verbally by trainers internationally.
The story of a radical movement that sought to end heroin addiction in communities of color with acupuncture, led by Dr. Mutulu Shakur, the step father of Tupac.
By the early 1970s, heroin was flooding the streets of New York City. Black and Puerto Rican neighbourhoods like Harlem and the South Bronx were hardest hit. This four part podcast series explores how Dr. Mutulu Shakur, stepfather of the late Tupac Shakur, along with members of the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords, combined community health with radical politics to create the first acupuncture detoxification program in America. Over the course of the 1970s, the Lincoln Detox People’s Program became a fixture of hope in the South Bronx and detoxed thousands of people off of drugs. DOPE IS DEATH explores why this program was considered a threat to the political and social stability of the United States. And how its brightest star, celebrated community activist and healer Dr. Mutulu Shakur, ended up one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted until he was captured and convicted of RICO conspiracy.
Today, 34 years later, Dr. Mutulu Shakur remains incarcerated. Civil rights hero or enemy of the state? DOPE IS DEATH dives deep into the history of COINTELPRO and other legal tools that law enforcement can utilize to repress political dissidents.
However his legacy is kept alive and strong through the work of the late Dr. Michael Smith who founded NADA worldwide and organized the training material in an easy and understandable way that anyone can understand. NADA South Africa was started in 2006 by Warren Whitfield who studied at the original Lincoln Detox Centre (aka. Lincoln Recovery Centre).
Without further adieu, “Dope Is Death”, for VICE News by Mia Donovan …..
