SCHOOLS BAN SCIENTOLOGY'S ANTI-DRUG COURSE

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles school officials are warning campuses not to
use a drug prevention program linked to the Church of Scientology
while California's schools chief has ordered an investigation to
determine whether the anti-drug presentations are scientifically sound
and free from the religion's influence.

The target of the district and state actions is Narconon, a drug
prevention and rehabilitation program that bases its ideas partly on
the controversial teachings of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Narconon has conducted educational assemblies and classes, usually one
session of about an hour each, in some schools in Los Angeles, San
Francisco and other cities.

Narconon "presenters" tell students about the negative mental,
emotional and physical effects of drugs (including theories on how
they are stored and metabolized in body tissue and how drugs deplete
vitamins and nutrients).

Narconon leaders said they offered the program free. Officials are
investigating whether school funds were spent on lectures or related
materials.

District officials said the lectures had been given at about 15 Los
Angeles district schools, but they were uncertain which ones.

Similarly, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell
said his office had no way to know how many California schools played
host to Narconon because individual teachers may have invited speakers
without formal approval or records. Narconon leaders said
presentations had been given at more than 350 California schools since
2000.

O'Connell expressed concern about the lectures after learning about
Narconon's activities in some schools from a series of articles
earlier this month in The San Francisco Chronicle. He asked his staff
to evaluate the program, a probe that is expected to take several months.

"We want information disseminated in our schools to be factual,
accurate and helpful," O'Connell said Wednesday. "We certainly don't
want untested and unscientific theories presented as truthful."

Clark Carr, president of Hollywood-based Narconon International, said
that school presentations were based on sound principles and that the
program had no motive beyond wanting to keep youngsters off of drugs.
He insisted the classes did not include any proselytizing for
Scientology.

"If people had never heard of Mr. Hubbard, the lectures would still
stand up, because they are based on real science," Carr said. "We
don't use scare tactics. We come in with the straight facts. We're
helping kids get off drugs. We've been doing it for a long time. We're
going to continue doing it."

Carr said the organization approaches individual school health
teachers or principals, informs them of the program and asks if they
are interested in a presentation.

The Narconon program dates to the mid-1960s, when an Arizona prison
inmate used Hubbard's teachings to battle his heroin addiction.

Inspired by Hubbard's belief that personal abilities can help people
overcome their problems, William Benitez founded Narconon in 1966 and
eventually helped spread the program with others influenced by
Hubbard. Hubbard died in 1986.

Narconon later built on Hubbard's research into drug withdrawal and
detoxification to establish rehabilitation procedures, including the
use of vitamins and mineral supplements to ease symptoms and intensive
sweating in saunas to reduce the residual effects of drug use,
according to a Narconon Web site and interviews. The site provides
links to several studies that the group says support Narconon's procedures.

Carr said that Narconon presenters deliver a narrow piece of the
overall approach in their school lectures, focusing on prevention and
leaving out information about rehabilitation techniques, such as
sweating in saunas.

Narconon's educational programs are now one part of a vast enterprise
that includes drug rehabilitation and treatment centers and a series
of books and videos aimed at helping people live drug-free.

The debate over Narconon began after officials in the San Francisco
Unified School District raised questions about the program's
scientific validity and its presentations at more than two dozen
schools there.

San Francisco officials sent Narconon Drug Prevention and Education
Inc., a Narconon affiliate, a letter in February asking the Los
Angeles-based group to clarify several aspects of its classroom
presentations, including a statement that "all drugs are basically
poisons."

In a written response, the group's director, Tony Bylsma, insisted
that the statement was accurate based on "recognized and professional
sources."