Introduction

1
What is
Narconon?

2
What is the
Narconon
therapy
programme?

3
Narconon's
success rates

4
Medical validity
of Narconon's
practices

5
State support
for Narconon

6
Narconon's
supporters

7
Is Narconon
safe?

8
Is Narconon
controlled by
Scientology?

9
Narconon and
Scientology:
a comparison

10
The Narconon
Timeline

Source
documents

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What is Narconon?

The United States Internal Revenue Service, as a condition of its 1 October 1993 tax-exemption agreement with the Church of Scientology, sent to foreign governments an official "Description of the Scientology Religion" produced by the Church of Scientology International. It gives the following concise description of Narconon:

Narconon

Narconon - meaning "non-narcosis" or "no-drugs" - operates in 34 locations in various countries including the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Denmark and England. A Narconon center is forming in Russia. Narconon International is a California tax exempt public benefit corporation which has a group exemption ruling from the IRS covering subordinate Narconon centers in the United States, It provides a highly effective drug-free withdrawal, detoxification and rehabilitation program utilizing Mr. Hubbard's technologies. In several countries, Narconon is officially recognized as the most effective drug rehabilitation program with almost 80% of its graduates still off drugs after two years and no instances of drug related crimes or drug dealing.

As part of its program, Narconon utilizes a secular adaptation of the religion's "Purification Rundown" which Mr. Hubbard developed when he found that drugs, chemicals and other toxins lodge in the fatty tissues of the body and can hinder one's mental and spiritual well-being and block advancement in one's auditing if they remain in place. The Purification Rundown is a tightly supervised regimen of exercise, sauna sweat-out, nutrition (including vitamins, minerals and oil) and a properly ordered schedule with sufficient rest that is used to rid the body of these hostile biochemical substances. This regimen is also effective in treating drug addiction and is called the "New Life Detoxification Procedure" in Narconon centers.

Narconon started as a grassroots movement in the mid-1960s when a prisoner in the Arizona State Penitentiary utilized the principles expounded in one of Mr. Hubbard's books to solve his own drug problem as well as the drug problems of many of his fellow inmates. Narconon also engages in extensive public education campaigns to alert the general public, especially school children, to the dangers of drug abuse. Currently there are plans to establish a Narconon center near each of the 100 largest cities in the world.

Narconon also has an extensive and well-presented Internet site at http://www.narconon.org.