Although L. Ron Hubbard had long recognized what drugs potentially meant in terms of human misery, it was the so-called psychedelic revolution of the 1960s that prompted his most intensive work on the subject. His reasoning was simple—no man can be spiritually free if chained to a chemical substance. Not only did drug abuse endanger one’s health, but also one’s learning rate, one’s attitudes, one’s personality and overall spiritual awareness. Indeed, following a 1972 review of what rampant drug use had wrought among youth in New York City, he began to speak of this drug epidemic in terms of a devastating social cataclysm—and given what followed that psychedelic decade, including rampant cocaine and heroin consumption and all attendant violence, he was correct. The social devastation proved very much a cataclysm. Nor was the problem in any way limited to street drugs among the youth, but with a psychiatric and pharmaceutical establishment intently pumping drugs into society’s mainstream, the ramifications were actually cultural.

His solution was a unique drug rehabilitation program that not only addressed what drugs spelled in terms of mental and spiritual debilitation, including scrambled thinking and diminished awareness, but further addressed the problem which led one to take drugs in the first place. For unless that problem was resolved, Mr. Hubbard discovered, the person is forever left with the original condition for which drugs were a “solution.” Also unique to Mr. Hubbard’s rehabilitation program, and particularly relevant when considering the influence of alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine, was his means of eliminating withdrawal pains. Traditionally resolved by simply substituting one addiction for another, e.g., methadone for heroin, the agony of withdrawal had long stood in the way of rehabilitating hard-core addicts. Not, of course, that much had ever been done on behalf of the hard-core addict, for unlike the recreational drug abuser, the addict rarely had the means to pay for what passes for help in the typical drug treatment clinic. In either case, however, with Mr. Hubbard’s combination of nutritional supplements and therapeutic drills and exercises, the nightmare of hard-core withdrawal is no more.

To date, L. Ron Hubbard’s drug rehabilitation methods are employed in more than 50 nations around the world and have successfully freed tens of thousands from drug addiction. Mr. Hubbard’s methods are further employed exclusively by the international drug rehabilitation network, Narconon (meaning no drugs). Broadly praised for its unique effectiveness, Narconon demonstrates at least five times the success rate of all other drug rehabilitation programs. Those successfully completing the Narconon program have been found to be not only drug-free but also crime-free. Case in point: a seminal study revealed that prior to the Narconon program 73 percent of those addicted to drugs also sold drugs. Following the completion of other drug rehabilitation programs, 50 percent of those studied continued dealing in drugs. Among a similar group of addicts completing the Narconon program, none dealt in drugs. Likewise, whereas other programs were able to reduce drug-related crime by 40 percent, those completing the Narconon program no longer committed any crimes.

The fifty-seven Narconon residential centers elsewhere report similarly remarkable results among the hundreds of individuals that are treated each week. It is no wonder, then, that the Narconon program is accredited by the prestigious Commission for Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) as the benchmark for all rehabilitation programs.