OZ Govt Anti-drug Campaign's 'Worrying' Link to Scientology

brisbanetimes ~ Concerns have been raised about a partnership between the Federal Government and a drug awareness group run by members of the controversial Church of Scientology.

Corporate lawyer and researcher Grainne O’Donovan said the partnership could potentially be used by the church, through Drug Free Ambassadors Australia (DFAA), to try to recruit members from schools and youth groups.

The DFAA - sponsored by Scientology - is a partner in the government’s National Compact set up by former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd in March within the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR).

The DEEWR website says the National Compact is an agreement between government and "not-for-profit" community organizations to provide "real input into government policy and program delivery".

Ms O’Donovan said it was “worrying” that the DFAA was in a position to influence government policy, considering serious widespread concerns about its practices. "They are citing the entry on the government’s Harm Prevention Register in written materials, giving the impression they are a government-approved charity," she said. “The ambassadors aren’t just against illegal drugs they are also against approved medical drugs and psychiatry."

Professor Ian Hickie [photo], a psychiatrist and executive director of the Brain and Mind Research Institute, said some of the DFAA’s information was "entirely inappropriate and ill-informed". He added the group confused illicit drugs and medically-approved ones and its website implied national endorsement of "this disreputable position".

Queensland Secondary Principals’ Association president, Norm Fuller said the DFAA material about illegal drugs "gives some relevant information". "The material associated with prescription drugs sends a different message that would need to be questioned," he said."The fact that this material is associated with a specific group, such as the Church of Scientology, brings into question their reasons and purpose." [more >>>]

Australian Heroin Diaries: Foundation For A Drug Free World
The FDFW is run by the Church of Scientology and is closely linked to the youth orientated Drug-Free Marshals program or Drug-Free Ambassadors as it’s called in Australia. You may have heard of Carly Crutchfield, Scientologist, Drug Free Ambassador and real estate investment adviser.

The blurring of who is who and who runs what is how the Church of Scientology can sneak into schools and community groups when needed or promote their church when they want publicity. Maybe that’s why the campaign commercials and booklets are readily available at the Scientology website but the link to Scientology hardly gets a mention at FDFW. The official blurb for FDFW from their website is:

The Foundation for a Drug-Free World is a secular, nonprofit organization that empowers youth and adults with factual information about drugs so they can make informed decisions to be drug-free.

Secular? factual information? Like all front groups for Scientology, it’s really about expanding the flock. [more >>>]

TodayTonight: Australia's Narconon/Scientology Connection



Narconon: Hubbard's Junk Science
L. Ron Hubbard takes an extreme line on the benefit of drugs of all kinds. A wide range of otherwise innocuous drugs, including aspirin and caffeine, are lumped together with recognisably dangerous substances such as heroin and LSD. Narconon's explanation of drug effects relies on Scientology dogma rather than science.

Hubbard also claims, in defiance of known medical science, that non-fat-soluble drugs and toxins can also be stored in and released from fatty tissue. The most glaring example is of alcohol, a water-soluble drug which is flushed out of the body in a matter of hours (as anyone who has done a bar crawl will have discovered when their bladder begins to complain).

It is physically impossible for alcohol to be stored in body fat. Despite this, Hubbard still refers to "people have [who] reported re-experiencing various effects of past drugs, medicine, alcohol or other stimulants or sedatives." This is a perfect example of Hubbard's sloppy and unscientific research - because people reported re-experiencing the effects of alcohol, it must actually be alcohol that they were re-experiencing, despite the awkward fact that alcohol is not stored in the body.

Hubbard also made fundamental mistakes about the nature of niacin. The vitamin is supposed to stimulate the release of fat into the bloodstream in order to flush out "stored" drugs. In fact, large doses of niacin actually block the release of fat from fat cells; as an antilipidemic, it is probably the last substance one would use for Hubbard's declared purpose.

Most abused drugs are eliminated from the body by detoxification through the liver, the kidney, or occasionally the lungs. Even if Hubbard's therapy did manage to flush toxins out of fat tissue and into the bloodstream, they would pass through the kidneys and so be excreted in urine. They would have no chance to enter the sweat glands en masse. This point is usually glossed over by Narconon's handful of medical supporters. [more >>>]