Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Tupac's step father, is in jail dying of a bone marrow cancer, framed by the FBI. He was a Black revolutionary and a huge reason acupuncture popularized in the US. A thread

Born in Baltimore in 1950, he moved to Queens when he was seven with his mother who was blind. At a young age he came to see that the State does not operate in the interest of Black disabled women and that Black people must control the institutions that affect their lives.

He was further radicalized with groups like Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) and later Black Liberation Army (BLA). In his 20s he was introduced to and started working at the Lincoln Detox center run by Black Panthers and Young Lords in the Bronx.

Lincoln Detox was an effort of the "Health Revolutionary Unity Movement. Some Blacks, some Puerto Ricans, some Jewish Americans we all got together and decided [...] to take over a hospital" - Felipe Luciano of the Young Lords + Last Poets. It served over 200 in its first day.

I can't understate how powerful of an action that was. To occupy and run a hospital for the people by the people. A number of Lincoln hospital doctors were supportive and worked with the movement.

The Detox offered chemical free drug treatment including acupuncture, political education classes and community service. In the courses participants learned about their addictions in a socialist context, exploring how it harmed themselves, their families, and their communities.

This method was in contrast to the FDA recommendation: methadone. Methadone requires its users to come back daily or else they will face painful detox. The Panthers made the connection between the white profiteers of opioid addition and methadone and wanted to break this cycle.

Due to the politicization of the treatment, many former clients left radicalized against a system that treats them unfairly, joining protest movements in NYC.
Dr. Shakur became the program's assistant director, pioneering the treatment of detox by acupuncture.

Acupuncture is a form of medicine practiced in China for over two thousand years. It stimulates sets of "points" in your body with thin needles that correspond to paths of Qi (energy) through your body. It commonly addresses pain, anxiety, PTSD and has many other uses.

Dr. Shakur refined this ancient practice for the present day plague of drug addiction. It wasn't just the needles, the Detox became a place where the addicts were humanized and treated with compassion. Understanding the hierarchy of needs, tenants movements were included.

He later co-founded and co-directed Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North America (BAAANA) and the Harlem Institute of Acupuncture which treated thousands of poor and elderly who would otherwise not have access. He there trained the next generations of acupuncturists.

This was the origins of what we today call community based acupuncture where you can receive low cost or sliding scale treatment for your ailments. This practice is popular today (likely in your area!)

By the late 70s, his work on treating Detox with acupuncture became known nationally and internationally. He traveled to educate on the topic, eventually to China to study further 1977.

Lincoln Detox used acupuncture to help relieve their clients of the immense pain that comes with detox. However their treatment cost four times as much as methadone, money that was not readily available from the state or the community.

In 1981 a Brink's armored truck was robbed outside of NYC, and $1.6 million in cash was stolen. The getaway resulted in a fire fight that left two cops dead. Mutulu was not there and not involved.

This was the era when COINTELPRO was in full swing, with the goal of taking down leftist organizations, mostly black & brown. Most of these groups purposefully had no leader because it only gave the feds a better target.

But due to his political association, Mutulu was already in the crosshairs of the FBI, and this was their opportunity to frame him. They put him on the FBI most wanted list and arrested him in 1986, five years after the Brink truck robbery

He was tried and convicted through the RICO act, a law intended to only apply to mafia and organized crime groups. You do not have to commit a crime to be convicted under RICO, but instead "order" someone to do the crime, or benefit from it.

"They charged me with six armored truck robberies, the liberation of Assata Shakur, using illegally gained funds to finance camp for Black children in Mississippi, and to put an acupuncture clinic in Harlem" - Dr. Shakur

The US government allege that Mutulu and his political associates constituted a criminal enterprise. He continues to speak and be active while incarcerated.

He is guilty only of making the world a better place.
Please consider donating to his legal defense fund. He has been denied parole 8 times and recently denied compassionate release for his life threatening cancer.
http://mutulushakur.com/ 
Free him

Info from this thread comes primarily from the 2020 documentary Dope is Death by @MiaDonovan. You can't watch on demand, but you wont regret buying a ticket to a digital film fest Nov 11 - Nov 19 to see it https://www.docnyc.net/film/dope-is-death/

Some of the info is from family oral history: my mom is an acupuncturist from Brooklyn who credits her career to Mutulu even though they never met. She runs Six Fishes Acupuncture & Chinese Herbs in Philly. http://sixfishes.com/ 

There is much more to this story we well. The Lincoln detox was revolutionary and should be studied for its successes. Mutulu also aided in the escape of Assata Shakur from a New Jersey State Prison to Cuba where she lives in political asylum today.

Further Reading:
[1] https://www.prisonersolidarity.com/prisoner/dr-mutulu-shakur
[2] Dope Is Death (2020 Documentary)
[3] http://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC513_scans/Mutulu_Shakur/513.mutulu.shakur.article.pdf
[4] Young Lords 10-point health Program: http://palante.org/04Health.htm 
[5] http://dandelionessherbals.blogspot.com/2011/01/radical-roots-of-community-acupuncture.html
[6] http://mutulushakur.com/