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By Sabine Titzel
rug abuse has become epidemic in Germany. Drug-related deaths have mounted 35 to 50 percent every year since 1987.
Scientologists, however, know the solution to drug addiction: the effective and proven drug rehabilitation program called Narconon (meaning no drugs). The Church and its members provide major financial support for this program which has freed more than 25,000 individuals from the shackles of addiction.
For most of this century, no advance had been made in finding solutions to addiction. The psychiatric industry raked in billions in the name of research and rehabilitation—and only worsened the problem by labeling drug use as another “mental illness” to be “solved” by yet more drugs such as the highly addictive methadone. This then required still more drugs to overcome the methadone addiction—and on went the vicious trap.
Frankfurt’s proposed non-solution was to provide, at government expense, private places for addicts to shoot up. This may hide addicts from public view, but it in no way discourages drug use.
The need for effective drug rehabilitation is today greater than ever before. The Federal Interior Ministry reports thousands of drug overdoses annually, spiraling drug-related crimes—but it reports no solutions.
Narconon provides such a solution. It has served German residents since 1974 when it first opened in Berlin. Today it is the most effective drug rehabilitation method available and receives government funding in a number of nations. Narconon’s unsurpassed success rate is 69 percent to 78 percent of its graduates still off drugs after two years, and with no instances of drug-related crimes.
The unique program consists of a series of exercises, drills and study steps, as well as a regimen of vitamins, nutrition and sauna sweat-out of drug residuals. The individual is helped to withdraw from drug use; improve his communication skills with others; and learn to live life without drugs.
It was one man’s success in kicking his own drug habit that led to this worldwide drug rehabilitation program. Prison inmate William Benitez, a hard-core addict from the age of 13, was serving his fourth prison term in 1966 when he got off drugs.
In Mr. Benitez’s words:
“My failure to come off drugs was not due to not wanting to. Believe me, I really tried. I read and read... Freud, Jung, Menninger—and studied one philosophy after another, everything I could get my hands on to find out about myself. I underwent psychiatric aid and participated in all sorts of programs and as time went on, I knew less about myself instead of more.
“The only thing that kept me from putting a gun to my head was that I knew someday I would make it... I was so tired of the life of addiction, thieving, prostitution and all that goes with it.”
His search for solutions led him to L. Ron Hubbard’s book, Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought, and by applying principles he found between its pages, Benitez was at last able to kick his addiction.
As Mr. Benitez continued his studies, he soon realized that Mr. Hubbard’s mental and spiritual discoveries offered the first real hope for addicts, and he set out to help others. In 1970, released from prison, this man once classified as a “habitual criminal,” helped establish a Narconon national office in Los Angeles, California—setting in motion the first effective program for addicts.
Today, Narconon centers circle the globe, in the United States, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, England, Russia, Canada, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France and in Itzehoe here in Germany—34 centers operate in a dozen countries.
Thousands of citizens in our country live free of addiction today, thanks to the dedication of Narconon. It is where they can find real help. The Narconon program is the solution for our country, as it is for others around the world, and Scientologists continue to ensure that this effective help is available.
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