Dr. Mutulu Shakur (1950–2023) occupies a unique place in the history of auricular acupuncture. While he is widely known in the public sphere for his later political activities and imprisonment, within the acupuncture and addiction treatment community he is remembered as one of the pioneers who helped create what eventually evolved into the NADA protocol.
His contributions to Acudetox predate the founding of NADA itself. As a teenager, Shakur began participating in the New Afrikan Independence Movement. That commitment automatically placed him in the crosshairs of COINTELPRO and other federal agencies. According to his website, Shakur was actively engaged in the struggle for Black liberation, principally as a member of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM).
He also lent his services and insight to the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (RNA), which envisioned carving out a nation in the South. He became associated with and devoted to the aims of the Black Panther Party.
The Lincoln Detox Program
In 1970, Shakur became involved with the groundbreaking Lincoln Detox Community Program at Lincoln Hospital. The programme was created during the heroin epidemic by a coalition of community activists seeking alternatives to methadone treatment.
After learning acupuncture from practitioners in Canada and California, he helped introduce auricular acupuncture into the programme. He later became Assistant Director of Lincoln Detox and played a central role in developing and standardising the ear acupuncture approach used there.
The origin of the Five-Point Protocol
Many people assume that Dr. Michael Smith invented the Five-Point Protocol. The historical record is a little more nuanced.
The standardised five-point ear protocol emerged from the collaborative work at Lincoln Detox during the 1970s. Dr. Mutulu Shakur was one of the principal developers of that protocol, working alongside colleagues such as Michael O. Smith and others at Lincoln. Dr. Smith later founded NADA in 1985 and was instrumental in preserving, teaching and spreading the protocol internationally.
In other words:
- Dr. Mutulu Shakur helped develop the original Lincoln Acupuncture protocol.
- Dr. Michael Smith organised, refined, documented and disseminated it worldwide through NADA.
Both men are foundational figures in NADA history.
Other achievements
Dr. Shakur also co-founded:
- The Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North America (BAAANA)
- The Harlem Institute of Acupuncture
These organisations trained practitioners and provided acupuncture services to underserved communities.
The landmark publication
One of the most important publications in the history of Acudetox was co-authored by Shakur and Smith:
The Use of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Drug Addiction (1979)
This paper was the first peer-reviewed publication describing group auricular acupuncture for addiction treatment and became the scientific foundation upon which the NADA protocol was later built.
His later life
Shakur's life also included significant political activism. In 1988 he was convicted on federal charges arising from his involvement in the 1981 Brink's armored truck robbery, during which a security guard and two police officers were killed. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison. Supporters viewed him as a political prisoner, while the U.S. justice system treated the case as serious violent criminal conduct. He was granted compassionate parole in 2022 after developing multiple myeloma and died in 2023.
He married Afeni Shakur, the mother of Tupac Shakur, in 1975. They had a daughter, Sekyiwa, before divorcing in 1982.