SCIENTOLOGY FUNDING A SURPRISE TO MANY `DRUG FREE MARSHALS'

As beaming young girls pinned on sheriff's badges that branded them the new
``Drug Free Marshals'' in town, the mayors of Mountain View, Palo Alto and
Santa Clara recently pledged to help fight drug addiction among kids.

Pretty standard fare, as official duties go -- except that the Church of
Scientology sponsors the national anti-drug program.

Scientologists promote the Drug Free Marshals program solely as a community
service, but critics say it is one of several techniques the church uses to
recruit new members and legitimize an organization considered by some to be
a cult. The controversial church, which claims 8 million members worldwide,
was founded in 1954 by the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.

Although the public officials said they supported the program's anti-drug
message, some admitted they didn't fully grasp Scientology's involvement
until after they'd agreed to participate.

Feeling ambushed

Palo Alto Mayor Dick Rosenbaum, for one, felt ambushed. He said he received
information about Drug Free Marshals that listed Scientology's affiliation,
but did not immediately connect it with the four young girls who visited him
during his office hours. The students came from the Delphi Academy in Santa
Clara, which was described by Robyn Freeman, a spokeswoman for the church in
Mountain View, as a secular school that uses ``study technologies''
developed by Hubbard.

``Four cute little girls came and wanted me to be a `Drug Free Marshal' so I
said, `Sure.' . . . It's hard not to be against drugs,'' Rosenbaum said. ``I
surely do not endorse Scientology and I wouldn't have done it if I thought
it would be used for publicity purposes.''

Lawrence Wollersheim, director of Fact Net, an anti-cult group in Boulder,
Colo., said the church, in its internal communications to members, has used
politicians' affiliation with Drug Free Marshals and other Scientology
programs as a tacit endorsement of the church itself.

``What (Scientologists) have done is set up a highly manipulative situation
using little children,'' Wollersheim said. ``It's political suicide not to
do it . . . and they have not disclosed who the driving force is.''

Freeman dismissed such criticisms as ``ridiculous'' and said the church has
been very ``up-front'' about its sponsorship of Drug Free Marshals.

``If any of these mayors have a problem, obviously I don't want to use their
name. I don't want the real message to get buried in controversy,'' Freeman
said. ``The reason why we're doing this program is because we care about
kids and we want to do something about the drug problem in our society. That
we would go about recruiting 8- to 12-year olds into Scientology is
unbelievable. It's a very secular program. . . . The religion isn't promoted
at all.''

`Everybody knew'

``We made sure everybody knew this program was sponsored by the Church of
Scientology,'' added Mark Warlick, one of the program's organizers. Warlick
said he was concerned that the officials may not have looked at the
information he provided them that listed the Scientology connection.

Freeman said she sent out press releases and photographs of the officials
touting their involvement in Drug Free Marshals to several Bay Area
newspapers because, ``oftentimes, the media slant on Scientology isn't very
kind. What tends to happen is that the good things the church does are
overlooked. The other side of the story really needs to be made known.''

The Church of Scientology holds that man is ``an immortal spiritual being''
and espouses a ``civilization without insanity, without criminals and
without war,'' according to church-sponsored Web sites. Members achieve
spiritual growth through ``auditing'' sessions with an
``electropsychometer,'' or E-meter, developed by Hubbard.

Brushes with law

The organization frequently has been investigated by U.S. authorities, and
it has been criticized for using lawsuits and threats to intimidate its
opponents. In the early 1980s, 11 of the church's top officials were sent to
prison for infiltrating and burglarizing numerous government and private
agencies.

Freeman estimates that up to 200 children in the South Bay and Peninsula,
including Delphi Academy students and a Boy Scout troop, have been ``sworn
in'' as Drug Free Marshals.

Since it began in 1993, the program has spread to about 35 cities, including
Los Angeles, Boston and Atlanta, and has signed up more than 20,000
children, according to Luis Gonzales, the program's national spokesman.

Drug Free Marshals is one of a number of anti-drug programs sponsored by
Scientologists that also include Narcanon, Lead the Way to a Drug Free USA,
and Boston Rocks Against Drugs.

Scientologists have solicited and received endorsements for Drug Free
Marshals from the U.S. Marshals Service, the FBI, local lawmakers, city
officials, police chiefs and former Clinton anti-drug czar Lee Brown, as
well as Nancy Reagan.

In a 1993 Washington Post article, Brown acknowledged the Scientology
connection had caught him unawares, but said he supported the program's goals.

The program sponsors essay and poster contests for elementary school
children, who pledge to stay away from drugs and encourage their peers to do
the same. It targets younger children, aged 8 to 13, who are not yet served
by well-known anti-drug programs such as DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance
Education), Freeman said. DARE typically is sponsored by local police
departments.

Belated discovery

Santa Clara City Councilman John McLemore, who also agreed to be sworn in as
a Drug Free Marshal, said he discovered the Scientology connection only
after he turned over his six-pointed gold star and saw a paper sticker
noting the church's sponsorship. He said he raised his eyebrows at the
Scientology name, but he felt ``extremely comfortable'' with his decision to
participate.

``I never make choices about which children should be protected from
drugs,'' he said. But he added, ``I'd be concerned if I started to see my
name show up over and over as more than a footnote that I supported the
drug-free program.''

Mountain View Mayor Ralph Faravelli said he ``thought long and hard'' about
his participation. Like his colleagues, he supported the program while
distancing himself from the church that sponsors it.