Harold's Journal

Editorial Opinion By R. W. Lobsinger

The Newkirk Herald Journal,
12 March 1992

They said: "Narconon has gotten over a hundred thousand people off drugs." You heard 'em.

They said "Narconon has no connection with the Church of Scientology." You heard 'em. I heard 'em. Everybody heard 'em. Over and over for the past 3 years! We didn't believe it, but we heard it.

Now comes Narconon head duck John Duff before KOCO's TV cameras recently, to tell us we didn't hear that after all. Duff was in Oklahoma City lobbying legislators when the cameras caught up with him. Heber Jebbies, prexy of the "church" with which Narconon is not connected, was there with him, smiling and blaming all of Narconon's problems on psychiatry, as usual.

Says Daffy, uh, Duff: Narconon, over the past 24 years, has graduated about 14,000 people. On TV he says this, in a fit of uncharacteristic honesty...

The rest, he says, went through the same program in the Church of Scientology, which up til now had no connection with Narconon. Fact is, everybody who joins the Church of Scientology takes the Purif. Drug users, occasional aspirin poppers, and even folks who once got a bad sunburn are all considered "aberrated" by drugs, medicine, sunshine, or something equally horrible that requires them to get saunafied, vitaminized, and have their oil and their minds changed.

Narconon just "borrowed" the extra statistics to make themselves sound better. After all, it's the same thing, we find out now. This from folks fond of spouting off about their "ethics."

Lets look at these new statistics a bit closer. Narconon has been in business about 24 years. They say they currently have 33 facilities around the world.

That's an average of less than 18 grads per unit per year. If you give them credit for a 70% cure rate (it used to be higher than that, but nobody was buying it) that gets them a grand total of 12.6 successes per facility per year. If you take the more credible industry rate of 30% success at the outside edge, it gives them 5.4 cures per facility per year.

This is the most effective drug rehab program in the world? Not. As the kids say.

The Narconon program is so indefensible they have nothing left but to attack those who have exposed it. And the onslaught of character assassination is well underway. Rep. Jim Reese is now a victim of their maliciousness, as is the Cult Awareness Network, and myself. The problem with that tactic is that it doesn't solve their real problem. It merely attempts to shift the focus and avoid the issue. It doesn't make the Narconon program safe or effective.

They are accusing Rep. Reese of the crime of informing himself about destructive cults and attempting to protect our state from their noxious activities. Disgusting conduct!

So far, they've accused me of gathering facts and documents about Narconon's program, passing them on to the people who make decisions about such things, and reporting the story to you. No one asked us to do it. No one paid us to do it. We did it because it was the right thing to do for our community and our state. Such odious behavior!

Of course, it sounds more sinister than that when they say it. It's supposed to sound sinister. That way, you'll decide that I'm an obnoxious, smart-alec so and so. Which may be true, but it still doesn't make Narconon's program safe or effective.

On our daughter's wedding day, they subpoened me to appear in California, with all my source notes. It was invalid and we ignored it. On my birthday, they tried to make me give up my notes, documents, and even my telephone bills. Harassment is their forte.

It's all a fishing expedition. As sure as the sun comes up every morning, my sources will become the next victims of harassment and intimidation if Narconon is allowed access to my notes. Consequently, we chose to invoke the newsman's shield, and refused to answer.

Were it not for the courage of those sources, we would not have been able to expose the facts about Narconon that they find so impossible to disprove. We'll be back in court again next week to continue to protect those sources.

But none of this legal wrangling makes Narconon safe or effective. Narconon is scared to death of the Cult Awareness Network, which simply attempts "to promote public awareness of the harmful effects of mind control, confining (its) concerns to unethical or illegal practices without judging doctrines or beliefs."

Narconon is scared to death of independent scientific research. Why else do you suppose they prefer to spend millions on lawyers but not a penny for scientific proof?

Narconon is still an unlicensed and uncertified entity squatting on Indian Land in violation of the Mental Health Board, a court order, their own lease, and now, the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Only destructive cults fear information and education about cults. Only charlatans fear independent research. Only bogus treatment programs fail certification. Only those so arrogant as to believe they are above the law (Totally Free), feel the need to ignore it.

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