They're ba-a-ack! Narconon, a creation of the Church of Scientology, is back in some of California's public schools. Because the program's creators pass it off as a secular, they've been able to sneak into public schools that are always happy to welcome free speakers on relevant topics like drugs. But the program is teaching kids some very strange things.
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In my line of work, I get an up-close and personal view of the damage done by substance abuse - including both illegal drugs and legal ones like alcohol. I've worked with homelessness, domestic violence, and child abuse and neglect, and substance abuse plays a huge role in all of those. So I'm all in favor of educating young people about the dangers. But the education has to be accurate.
Narconon was kicked out of public schools in 2005 after a review by the Department of Education.
Among the inaccuracies the agency found [in the Narconon curriculum]:
-- Drugs are stored in fat and later released, causing the person to feel high again and want to use again.
-- Drugs burn up vitamins and nutrients, resulting in pain and relapse.
-- Marijuana-induced loss of vitamins and nutrients causes the "munchies."
Now their programs are back, allegedly "revised," but they declined to say how, or to allow reporters to sit in and find out. It does not appear that Narconon's views have changed, as their treatment center websites promote the use of saunas to sweat out drugs trapped in the fat cells.
And I don't even know what to say about this:
Mental pictures are the subject of Lesson 5 in Narconon's 2008 "Drug Education High School Curriculum," available free on the Web. It doesn't mention Scientology. But the book guides the presenter to tell students to think of "pictures" of good things they've experienced and illustrates the concept as rectangles emanating from a person's head. The book has the presenter explain that drug use eliminates certain pictures, leaving "blank spots in the memory."
Or this:
The book tells the instructor to point to an illustration of "drugs stored in the fat" and tell students about what happened five years after he last smoked marijuana, drank alcohol and took cocaine.
In the story, the instructor is in a Narconon sauna to "flush the old drugs out" and tells students: "Whoa, I start feeling kind of weird ... the next thing I know, there's purple frogs and 'Mickey Mouses' doing somersaults through the middle of the sauna."
The script has the instructor tell students that after a month of daily saunas, drugs were "pouring out of my body." And once the saunas were done, "I did an IQ test and my score shot up 22 points."
Leaving him with an IQ of 21 if he expects anyone to believe this.
Teenagers are inexperienced, not stupid. When they're given "reefer madness" scare stories and pseudo-scientific nonsense about drugs being "stored in their fat cells," why would they believe anything they're told about the dangers of substance abuse? Similarly, when "sex education" consists of scare stories about how premarital sex will ruin their lives, they can look around at their friends and see that it isn't true - so why would they listen to anything you tell them about making responsible decisions?
Making good decisions requires having good information. It doesn't work every time, but it's an essential place to start.
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