<http://www.geocities.com/wog_world/narconon_stats.html> The study was made twenty years ago, May 1981, by social worker Peter Gerdman in Stockholm. He interviewed persons who had entered the Narconon program in Vårby Gård just outside Stockholm in 1977. Let's look at the actual figures:

61 persons entered the program. 24 left during detoxification (the first stage). Another 23 persons left during later stages of the program. 14 persons completed the program (23 percent of persons starting it) 13 of the 14 completions were interviewed one year after gradutating the program, one could not be reached.

When asked if they had used drugs any time during the year *after* program completion, 7 (50 percent of the completions) said yes, 4 said no, 2 said don't know. Those who had used drugs had taken heroin (5), amphetamine (3), marijuana (3) and alcohol (more than temporary intake) (2). When asked if they were *presently*, i.e. within the last month of the interview, taking drugs, 11 said no, 1 yes, 1 dont know.

The 84.6 percent figure quoted by the CoS spokesperson corresponds to 11 out of the 13 interviewed persons saying they were not using drugs presently. Sometimes the CoS will instead use the figure 78.6 percent - 11 out of the 14 completions.

Another way to look at it could be that 4 out of 61 persons starting the Narconon program said they had completed the program and stayed totally drug free for one year afterwards = 6.6 percent of the total. Including the completions who relapsed, but claimed to be drugfree at the moment, 11 out of 61 = 18.0 percent

Then 24 of the 47 persons who had left Narconon before completing the program were also interviewed. From these, 10 said they were presently drug free. 10 out of 61 = 16.4 percent

A conclusion could be that a few people do become drug free at Narconon, but it is far from a miracle cure.

Another conclusion could be that the CoS are as usual trying to use figures as smoke screens.

Catarina