UK Guardian Letter

In response to the article printed on 15 November regarding the Narconon and Criminon Programmes, I would like to shed some light on the subject.

The Narconon drug rehabilitation and education programme was founded by a former heroin addict inside a prison in 1966.  The basic principles used then were successful in getting inmates off of drugs, which is why the programme continued to grow outside of the prison and is now saving lives in 40 countries.  The natural fit for Narconon and Criminon to offer help to drug addicted prisoners in the UK only makes sense. 

Anyone who thwarts the effort of these programmes to help should be questioned as to why they don't want people off drugs and returning to society as productive members who contribute to the social and economic welfare of our country.

In addition to rehabilitation, effective education and prevention practices must occur in our country's schools to keep kids off drugs.  The Narconon drug education programme has presented helpful information to students in  schools throughout the UK and there is much more appreciation and support for our charity than the handful of misinformed few portray.

The problem of drug addiction in England and Wales is the real story here.  The Home Office reports a five percent increase in the number of drug seizures from 2001 to 2002, yet drug strategy statistics confirm that overall Class A drug use has remained the same since 1996 among 16-24 year-olds.  This, of course, affects our prisons because of theft and other drug-related crimes.

According to the Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Throughcare service (CARAT), the most commonly used drugs by prisoners in England and Wales were heroin (62%) and crack (49%).  Furthermore, 74% took two are more different drugs the month before custody, with 39% taking both heroin and crack.

Those who criticize our abstinence-based approach are people who are in support of giving more drugs to addicts and are in fear of the tax-paying people finding out their methods don't work.

In order to reduce the harm associated with drug use, we must reduce the demand and provide effective rehabilitation and prevention programmes to keep people off of drugs.  Providing "safer" ways of doing drugs or prescribing more opiates for a drug addict does not solve the problem.

The information provided by CARAT and published on The Home Office website suggests the need for more efforts to help crack and poly-drug users as well as services for short-term prisoners.  This will help reduce the number of drug-using prisoners from returning to those drugs and associated crimes, which land them back into the prisons once again.

The National Treatment Agency (NTA) has well-intentioned and ambitious goals to increase the total number of people receiving effective treatment in England to 200,000 by 2008 (up from 100,000 in 1998) and to increase the proportion of people who successfully complete or continue treatment.  The NTA was created in 2001 to improve the availability and effectiveness of drug treatment in England.

In order to help meet this demand, there must be more individuals and groups providing services, rather than a handful of programmes trying to hoard the government's money to open up more of their own locations.

The results from both the Narconon and Criminon Programmes have been well-documented.  The humanitarian efforts of L. Ron Hubbard and his social betterment activities have received more than accolades and official recognitions throughout the world.  The international network continues to expand and help more people for one simple reason; because it works.

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