TEL AVIV TO TRY SCIENTOLOGY FOUNDER'S DRUG REHAB PROGRAM

The Tel Aviv municipality will soon be running a drug rehabilitation
program developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Drug addicts
enrolled in the program, called Narconon, spend extended periods in a
sauna and receive food supplements and vitamins to increase their
perspiration rate and speed up the detoxification of their bodies. The
program is being financed by private donors.

Despite City Hall's enthusiasm, the Health Ministry and the Israel
Antidrug Authority have not approved the program.

"In my opinion, the Tel Aviv municipality cannot start such a process
without the approval of the Health Ministry and the Antidrug
Authority," said authority director general Haim Messing last week.

"The patients will receive large doses of vitamins and food
supplements while in the sauna to increase the excretion of toxins by
the body," explained Messing. "This method has not been checked out in
Israel. We are in favor of pilot programs in Israel and will follow it
with an evaluation study."

A few months ago three representatives of Tel Aviv City Hall visited
the United States and were impressed with the success rate of the
program, which Dr. Benny Avrahami, director of the Tel Aviv Municipal
Anti-Drug Authority, reported as ranging between 50 and 75 percent.

Avrahami explains that the program will be run twice a year, with 150
participating drug addicts. The patients will be treated at a special
rehabilitation center on a residential basis. During their first six
weeks at the center, patients will spend 40-60 minutes in a sauna
three or four times a day.

Between the sauna sessions, they will participate in physical
exercises in a fitness room at the center and will receive food
supplements. The second stage of the program, called Criminon,
involves studying a curriculum that teaches participants how to cope
with various situations.

"We received a donation of $1.5 million in the U.S. to run the
program," says Avrahami. "The only condition set by the American
donors was that we run this specific program." Avrahami is aware that
the man behind the program is the founder of Scientology, but is undeterred.

"There is nothing in the implementation of this program that indicates
spiritual goals. There will be no religious messages, not even veiled
ones," assures Avrahami.

Criminon, which is part of the Narconon program, has been implemented
in Israel's prisons for five years. So far 60 inmates addicted to
drugs have been treated through the Criminon program. An Antidrug
Authority source noted that in the Prison Services case, approval was
given for the program because it did not involve the physical side of
the program, only the educational one.

Brigadier General Yossi Beck, the Israel Prison Authority's head of
treatment and rehabilitation, highly recommends the program.

"Of the 60 men treated via the program and released from prison, only
one is back behind bars for a drug-related offense," says Beck. "The
program seems to have a positive effect." Beck also hastens to add
that despite the connection between the program and the founder of
Scientology, there are no religious or spiritual messages in the program.

"Sure, the program was developed by the founder of Scientology and
Scientologists use it, but a professional theory should not be
discounted because its propounder is a member of a certain religion,"
says Beck.

Messing, too, does not link his objection to the program with its
relationship to Scientology.

"In all my conversations with various people, I have not found any
connection between Scientology and saunas. We are in favor of
effective methods for drug rehabilitation, on the condition that
programs be adopted only after being properly researched."