Acupuncture History is Black History
Dr. Mutulu Shakur, the Black Panthers, and NADA Acupuncture for Detox and Trauma Support
Dr. Mutulu Shakur, acupuncture and drug detoxification pioneer.
Increasingly, acupuncture is receiving mainstream consideration in the United States as an effective alternative to opioid painkillers, after a steep rise in deaths due to synthetic opioid (particularly fentanyl) overdoses in the past decade. But some 50 years ago, the Black Panthers and their Puerto Rican counterparts, the Young Lords, were already using acupuncture to help drug users get off of heroin as a part of a radical, grassroots community health movement.
In the 1970s, when the very first acupuncturists were being formally licensed in the United States, heroin was taking a devastating toll on Black and Puerto Rican communities in New York City. Dr. Mutulu Shakur (stepfather of the late Tupac Shakur), a doctor of acupuncture and political activist who worked closely with the Black Panthers, used acupuncture to help thousands of drug users detox at the Lincoln Detox People’s Program in the South Bronx.
This story of acupuncture’s radical roots in the United States, and the role of Black and brown political revolutionaries and community activists and allies, is shared in the 2020 documentary film Dope Is Death (see it if you can!), as well as in the corresponding four-part podcast, which you can stream at DopeIsDeath.com. There is no way to do this story justice in a few paragraphs here–I can’t recommend strongly enough that you give this podcast a listen, to hear the voices, including that of Dr. Shakur himself, of those who were there as Lincoln Detox was providing its visionary public health work.
An important follow up to what you’ll hear in the Dope Is Death documentary and podcast: Imprisoned for decades after being targeted by COINTELPRO, Dr. Shakur, who was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer in 2019, was released on parole on December 16, 2022.
The NADA Ear Acupuncture Protocol
A patient-trainee at the Lincoln Detox Center performs acupuncture on Dr. Richard Taft (photo from Taft Family History).
The acupuncture protocol developed at the Lincoln Detox Community Center is known as the NADA (for National Acupuncture Detoxification Association) protocol, and it remains a mainstay of modern acupuncture care, one that I use on a weekly basis. The NADA ear acupuncture protocol is appropriate not only for detoxing from substance use (including cigarettes, alcohol, and both prescription and recreational drugs), but also in supporting conscious shifts in addictive behaviors and thought patterns. It also relieves stress and anxiety and can be used in helping to release trauma. The nonprofit organization Acupuncturists Without Borders goes to disaster sites domestically and abroad to provide the NADA protocol free of charge to traumatized communities.
Short needles are inserted into five points in the ear–those points are Shen Men (an anti-stress powerhouse all by itself); Kidney; Liver; Lung; and Sympathetic.
Frequently used in community acupuncture settings, the NADA protocol can also be incorporated as part of a body treatment in a private clinic setting. In my practice, I’ll often do the NADA points in a patient’s ear while they are lying down on the treatment table, while also treating appropriate points on other parts of the body–arms, legs, or abdomen, for example. For anyone quitting smoking, for instance, NADA is a given; but it’s also very powerful for those wishing to make changes in eating habits, destructive thought patterns, or in many other cases where we’re looking to buttress any kind of conscious healing shift.
Part of the beauty of Chinese medicine is the lineage of masters going back literally thousands of years, and the work of Dr. Shakur and the other revolutionary Black and brown activists who played a pivotal role in enshrining acupuncture as a medicine of the people here in the United States is a vital part of our lineage and our history.
And if you think you might benefit from the NADA protocol, you can book an appointment at Griffin Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine in Oakland and let the healing begin. (Still have questions about NADA? Book a free 15-minute phone consultation.)
Dr. Lisa Franzetta is a licensed acupuncturist in Oakland, California specializing in pain management, internal medicine, integrative cancer support, and stress management and emotional wellness.