THE RESULTS BEHIND NARCONON'S 'TRUTH ABOUT DRUGS' PROGRAM

Four of the 25 cities selected by federal Drug Czar John Walters as focal
points for a national campaign to reduce demand for and abuse of drugs in
the United States are in California. According to a chart on illicit drug
use among the 25 cities nationwide (www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov), San
Francisco had the second highest rate of drug-related emergency-room
admissions (8,575) and drug-related arrests (14,351).

But one does not need to look at a chart. Walking down the street, stepping
over homeless addicts downtown, the problem is all too real. We all think
that it takes a long, long time to become the broken-down wreck, but many
younger enrollees in our drug rehab program have reported that they became
fixated in one weekend on methamphetamine, a drug that the National
Institute on Drug Abuse reports is used increasingly in San Francisco. As
adults responsible for the future of such young people, we cannot do less
than give our absolute best to help them face what will prove to be one of
their hardest challenges in life -- to avoid the gauntlet of drug
experimentation leading to drug addiction.

This is the formidable task facing drug prevention.

The Narconon drug prevention network has recognized this since our
graduates, their friends and family volunteered to go into schools 30 years
ago to give youth what came to be known as "The Truth About Drugs"
lectures. It became our hallmark. Narconon lecturers are people who have
been there. We never use scare tactics. The last way to keep a curious kid
from experimenting with drugs is to tell him he mustn't look in the
dangerous black box of drugs. Nor tell her lurid tales that are as
titillating as monster movies, a kid favorite.

Developing over time as a grassroots effort worldwide, Narconon lectures
gradually rose to reach hundreds of thousands of youth and adults annually
- -- 440,000 in 2003. The drug-prevention talks are based on the same
principles that effectively brought recovering drug addicts through to
stable, drug-free, ethical and productive lives.

The Narconon program was founded in 1966 by William Benitez, a heroin
addict still trying to recover although he was by then in his sixth prison
term. He read prodigiously and came across works by author and humanitarian
L. Ron Hubbard. The key concept he got from reading Hubbard was that he
should focus on raising his abilities rather than on his problems. He could
choose between accommodating himself to live with his problem or he could
address it as a disability that would surrender to new skills he developed
to achieve a drug-free life.

Hubbard was a remarkable man whose contributions cover many fields. All of
his research was focused on means to help mankind. In doing this, he not
only founded the Scientology religion, but developed methods that address
social problems. Not to do so, he felt, in view of societal decay so
prevalent, would have been a grave omission. He was perfectly aware that
the solutions he proposed needed to be secular in nature so they would be
available to help everyone. The Narconon organization, in fact, is formally
licensed to use only the secular research of Hubbard relevant to drug
rehabilitation and prevention.

One of Hubbard's discoveries in the late 1970s was that drug residuals and
other toxins accumulate in the body and cause unwanted effects. This has
been borne out in scientific research. For example, Darryl Inaba, who ran
the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic for many years, wrote in his book "Uppers,
Downers, All Arounders -- Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive
Drugs": "One great concern about marijuana is that it persists in the body
of a chronic user for up to 3 months, though the major effects last only 4
to 6 hours after smoking. These residual amounts in the body can disrupt
some physiological, mental and emotional functions." In addition to more
than a dozen published papers available at www.detoxacademy.org, there are
many other citations in scientific journals (including Forensic Science
International) regarding drug and other toxins lodging in tissue and coming
out in sweat and urine. This is an important discovery.

Hubbard's regimen to rid the body of these residuals has formed a part of
the Narconon rehabilitation program since the 1970s. Neither the
rehabilitation program nor its detox regimen is included in Narconon
drug-education lectures, however. What is covered in the lectures is that
because toxic residues can stay in the body, they can have damaging effects
on the individual even after drug use has ceased.

Lecturing to youth in schools is thus a key element of Narconon drug
prevention, along with public-awareness campaigns, media releases,
community events and work with other concerned community coalitions. We
look forward to exploring with school district and educational department
staffs how Narconon can even better respond to the needs of future generations.

The results? In a sample survey of more than 1,000 students after our
lectures in California, 86 percent stated that despite a prior attitude of
interest in drug use, they now were no longer interested. This is what
every parent and every teacher wants.