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- Doctors back schools dropping flawed antidrug
program
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- CALIFORNIA
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- The California Medical Association has declared unanimous support for school
districts that have dropped Narconon and other "factually inaccurate approaches"
to antidrug instruction from their classrooms, and will urge the American
Medical Association to do the same.
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- Nearly 500 California doctors also endorsed "scientifically based drug
education in California schools" at the association's annual meeting in Anaheim
on Monday.
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- Narconon, a drug education program with links to the Church of Scientology,
is offered free to schools and has been used in at least 39 California school
districts, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as in several other
states. It was co-founded by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of
Scientology.
- Although the CMA's resolution carries no force of law, the state and national
medical associations can influence public policy.
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- "The idea is to remove any agency that goes into our schools to teach without
evidence for what they are teaching -- this cannot be allowed," said Dr. Charles
Wibblesman, chief of the teenage clinic for Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco.
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- He is one of two San Francisco Medical Society doctors who sponsored the
resolution. The other was David Smith, founder of the Haight-Ashbury Free
Clinic.
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- The resolutions were prompted by reports last summer in The Chronicle that
Narconon lecturers were teaching students inaccurate drug information and by
independent studies that found Narconon's curriculum was unscientific, said
Steve Heilig, director of public health and education for the San Francisco
Medical Society.
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- Both Narconon and Scientology share notions of drug activity, which Narconon
lecturers have shared with students over the last decade or so.
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- Here are some of those notions,
- which medical experts called inaccurate
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- Drugs accumulate indefinitely in body fat, where they cause recurring drug
cravings and flashbacks for years, even after the user quits.
- The vitamin niacin pulls drugs from fat, and saunas sweat them from the
body.
- Colored ooze is produced when drugs exit the body.
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Narconon officials have consistently stood by the accuracy of their claims.
Following The Chronicle reports last summer, the San Francisco Medical
Society conducted a review of Narconon's curriculum and recommended that San
Francisco schools drop the program that had been welcome in classrooms since
1991.
The school district barred Narconon, as did Los Angeles schools and several
other, smaller districts.
Last month, state schools chief Jack O'Connell urged all California schools
to drop Narconon. He based his recommendation on a state evaluation that also
concluded the antidrug curriculum contained inaccuracies.
E-mail Nanette Asimov at nasimov@sfchronicle.com.
see
CORRECTIONS
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- CORRECTIONS
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- - A story in Monday's Business section misstated the name of the university
Shawn Fanning attended when he created the original Napster file- sharing
program. Fanning was a student at Northeastern University in Boston at the time.
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- - In the Mar. 20 Chronicle Magazine article "Shanghaied by the Past," the
Grand Hyatt Pudong was misidentified as the Park Hyatt.
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- Clarification
: A story in Sunday's Chronicle about the California Medical
Association adopting a resolution supporting schools that have dropped
"factually inaccurate approaches" to anti-drug instruction should have more
fully explained how the organization arrived at its decision.
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- The process began with the San Francisco Medical Association drafting a
resolution supporting school districts that have dropped an anti-drug program
provided by Narconon, an organization with ties to the Church of Scientology.
The resolution, which concluded that Narconon's program was based on faulty
science, was submitted to the statewide medical association for approval.
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- A subcommittee of the state association decided to frame the resolution more
broadly to include any organization whose program might be based on deficient
science. In so doing, the subcommittee chose to remove Narconon's name from the
portion of the resolution that was forwarded to the full California Medical
Association for action.
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- The Chronicle strives to cover the news accurately, fairly and honestly.
It is our policy to correct significant errors of fact or misleading statements.
Please write to Corrections, San Francisco Chronicle, 901 Mission St., San
Francisco, CA 94103; send e-mail to corrections@sfchronicle.com; or
call (415) 777-7870.
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- Translation
in french :
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- USA
: L'association médicale californienne (CMA) a déclaré son soutien
unanime aux districts scolaires qui ont laissé tomber Narconon (Non à la drogue,
Oui à la vie) et d'autres approches "inexactes dans les faits"
(mars
2005)
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- USA
: les notions de Narconon que les experts médecins disent
inexactes (mars
2005)
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- Scientologists will 'purify' drug addicts - for
£15,000
- It boasts an 80 per cent success rate, the rock star
Beck is a fan, and schools are inviting the Narconon centre into the classroom.
So why are some people worried? Jamie Doward reports
You have a
crack cocaine habit that costs you £1,500 a day, forcing you into prostitution.
Someone tells you about a course that could you get off the drug, without
putting you on substitute medication, but it costs £15,000. What would you do -
especially if you found out the course was linked to the Church of Scientology, the
controversial creed that boasts John Travolta and Tom Cruise as followers ?
For Danielle Medford, 22, there
was no debate. Ravaged by crack, her body was close to shutdown. Death was only
weeks away. Her family read about Narconon on the internet and
raised the cash to enrol her as one of the drug rehabilitation programme's first
British clients.
Danielle weighed just over seven stone when, she walked
through the doors of the 1920s mansion in a quiet street in the Sussex town of
St Leon ards on Sea. Seven weeks later, she weighs 10 stone, she is off crack
and about to go to Barbados on holiday. When she returns, Danielle wants to work
with schoolchildren to warn them of the dangers of drugs.
'The course
teaches you that you can be anything you want to be,' Danielle says with a wide
smile. 'I hit the jackpot with Narconon. I have a brand-new life. I have a
little girl and I neglected her, but not any more.'
It was only later, as
she was finishing her course, that Danielle became aware of Narconon's
controversial rep utation. Its programme, which claims to have helped 'purify'
300,000 people around the world, has been attacked by mainstream drug experts
alarmed at the way Narconon dispenses massive amounts of vitamins to its clients
above recommended daily limits. They point out that Narconon's claims that it
has a success rate of 80 per cent, are almost impossible to verify
independently, and express concern that the programme is a recruiting ground for
Scientology.
But it is clear that many people fervently believe in the
programme - which they can quit at any time - and, like Danielle, have become
evangelists for it. Cheers star Kirstie Alley is now a spokeswoman for the
organisation, which she credits with helping her ditch her coke habit. American
cult musician Beck played a Narconon fundraiser in Los Angeles last year. He
told an interviewer last week: 'The drug-rehabilitation programmes have the
highest success rate of any in the world.'
When the St Leonards' centre
held an official opening three weeks ago, the former manager of the Rolling
Stones, Andrew 'Loog' Oldham, a man who did more to boost the coffers of
Colombia's drug barons than practically anyone else in the world with his
unfettered cocaine consumption, flew in to praise Narconon and to thank it for
saving his life.
'I had a rollercoaster of a ride with the Rolling Stones
for five years and then spent 30 years getting over it,' he said. 'The programme
was an amazing experience for me personally and also because of the people I met
on it. It was a glorious seven weeks as the acid came out first, followed by the
coke, morphine derivatives, inoculation poisions as well as_ all of the drugs of
life.'
Impressed by such testimony, schools have started inviting
Narconon, a registered charity in the UK, into their classrooms to warn pupils
about drugs. Students are given pamphlets with information about the programme
and a number to ring if they are worried that someone is using drugs.
Local government is also hoping to pay for
treatment programmes at the 60-bed clinic. When The Observer became the first
newspaper to be given access to the clinic last week, two social services
workers were being given a tour of the building, once an asylum detention
centre.
Already the centre's claims are having an impact on other drug
rehabilitation centres. Several clients interviewed by The Observer said they
had opted for Narconon over The Priory or Clouds - two of Britain's most famous
rehab centres, whose claims at successfully treating addictions are far more
modest than the new entrant.
Perhaps Narconon's claims explain why it
charges so much. The average course lasts three months and costs ?15,000. But
its clients believe it is a small price to pay.
Ryan Jarvis, 27,
developed such a cocaine and alcohol habit that he could not hold down his
carpentry job. As his life collapsed around him, Ryan left his partner and their
child and fled to Marbella. He blew £18,000 on a seven-month orgy of drink and
drugs before his father lent him the cash for the Narconon course.
Ryan,
whose worn face belies his age, says: ' £15,000 is not a lot of money. Since I
finished the course eight weeks ago I haven't got any problems. I'm back with my
family and I have my life back.'
He admits he found parts of the course
'weird'. 'There was some stuff that wasn't my cup of tea, but a lot of it really
helped me. You get out of the course what you put in.'
To the outsider,
the entire programme must seem weird. Founded in 1966 by William Benitez, an
inmate of Arizona State Prison, Narconon draws heavily on the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard, a science
fiction writer and the founder of Scientology.
Critics argue Narconon is
merely a front for
Scientology. Hubbard's teachings and photos adorn the centre's walls and the
language the staff use is redolent of Scientologists. Paul Dolan, the clinic's
manager, admits he is a Scientologist and confirms that the centre could not
have opened if it had not been for the generosity of members of the church.
However, he denied suggestions that the clinic's profits will be ploughed into
Scientology and insisted they will be invested in rolling the programme out
nationwide, starting with London, Manchester and Glasgow
centres.
Nevertheless, the overlap between the church and the drug
rehabilitation programme alarms Scientology's critics. They point out that each
Narconon client must complete eight books based on Hubbard's teachings during
their course, which is in three parts - withdrawal, detoxification and education
- and draws on the Scientology founder's beliefs about mental and physical
health.
During the withdrawal phase, which typically lasts five to eight
days, a client is put on a course of vitamins, including huge doses of Niacin
and B3, and given 'assists' by staff - Scientology techniques similar to
massages which apparently soothe mental and physical pain. 'Pretty much every
other drug rehabilitation course prescribes drugs. We don't,' says Dolan, a
former engineer in the gas industry.
Critics say there is no scientific
basis for Narconon's programme and are alarmed at the amounts of vitamins it
prescribes. Dolan dismisses the worries. 'You could give the people in here up
to 1,000 times the recommended daily dose and it still wouldn't be a health
threat, because the drugs they have been on strip the vitamins out of the
body.'
Claire Smith (not her real name), who says she was admitted to the
centre five weeks ago addicted to morphine, heroin and crack, claims to be
living proof that addicts don't need medication to help with their withdrawal.
'I was so ill my body couldn't take the vitamins at first,' she said. 'I'd been
on methadone before, but that didn't work, my whole body just ached. But when I
came out of the sauna I felt great.'
The sauna holds almost mystical
properties to those who have completed the Narconon course. Clients spend about
five hours a day 'sweating out their toxins' for up to three weeks. Jimmy
Mulligan, 48, said he had been an alcoholic for three decades. 'But when you
come out of the sauna for the last time you are free of everything.' Now sober,
Jimmy's only regret is that his time on the course is ending. 'I'm not just
saying that, I really mean it.'
Upon arrival at a Narconon programme, all
clients are issued with a Hubbard pamphlet, The Way to Happiness, A
Common Sense Guide to Better Living . 'It is in your power to point the way to a
less dangerous and happier life,' is the opening maxim. 'Be temperate' is
another. 'Sex is a big step on the way to happiness and joy. There is nothing
wrong with it, if it is followed with faithfulness and decency,' another
says.
The perfunctory writings are typical of Narconon manuals. Yet
Narconon believes that Hubbard's words hold the key to whether their clients
stay off drugs or drink when they finish the course. Clients are encouraged to
read dictionaries, not only to make sure they grasp every word of the teachings,
but also to give them a feeling of empowerment. 'I learnt 400 words on my
course, words like cognition,' Danielle says with pride. 'I've learnt more here
than I learnt in school.'
Armed with their new education, which also
involves working through problems with clay models and talking to an ethics
counsellor to help develop a moral code, a Narconon client is deemed ready to
face the world without risk of falling back into addiction.
Many,
however, do not seem to want to go very far. Of the 15 people who have completed
the Narconon course since the St Leonards' clinic opened, five are now working
for the company. Jimmy intends to sign up as an employee when he finishes the
programme.
Lucy Graham, 22, who says she was on the verge of suicide
because of binge drinking and bulimia, went home to Swindon after the course.
'But I really wanted to come back. It's made such a difference to my life. I'm
now training to be a public relations manager for Narconon.'
Narconon, it
seems, may set its clients free, but they don't want to be free of Narconon. As
Hubbard writes: 'The way to happiness is a high-speed road to those who know
where the edges are.'
To its believers, Narconon knows exactly where
those edges are
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