In Placerville in the California foothills, parents of students at the area’s high schools can buy a $40 drug test for just $10. The test screens for ten drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and ecstasy. These tests were offered after a survey of one of the high schools in the area showed that half of the students were using marijuana.

In Litchfield Park, Arizona, parents can get the tests for free. And they are going to need them. In February 2011, six boys at a middle school in Litchfield Park shared a handful of prescription pills on the basketball court during lunch. Since no one knew exactly what they had taken of how much, they were sent to a local hospital as a precaution.

On Long Island, drug sniffing dogs have been searching schools for contraband for two years. Before they started their randomly-scheduled rounds, about one student was found with marijuana each month. Since the dogs went on duty, none have.

Narconon spokesperson Bobby Wiggins stated, “If the only way we can keep drugs out of schools is to distribute free drug tests, ban student lockers and have dogs patrol the halls, this is a tragic statement about our ability to provide adequate drug education.” Narconon is an international non-profit organization dedicated to the elimination of substance abuse and addiction through effective drug rehabilitation and education. “Our students need to be given straight information about drug use that enables them to make their own wise decision when they are offered drugs. And there are very few children who will not be offered drugs.”

Narconon centers around the world provide drug education classes that have been proven to lower substance abuse rates in monitored delivery situations in Hawaii and Oklahoma. “Some parents might be appalled to learn that some drug education courses measure their success by how many students remember what was taught,” said Wiggins. “At Narconon, the only criteria that count are ‘Are fewer kids using drugs? Have some of the students made the decision to stay drug-free and are they succeeding?’ We are successfully teaching kids how and why to make the drug-free choice when faced with drugs being used around them or offered to them.”

For more information about the Narconon drug education classes, visit www.narconon-news.org

It’s marijuana use for most of them. More than six million youth start using marijuana each year. But for 171,000, it’s cocaine and another 375,000, it’s Ecstasy. Half a million find inhalants, probably somewhere around the house, and try that.

And these figures don’t even include the nearly four million underage drinkers who get started consuming alcohol each year.

“A recent study tried to make the point that marijuana use does not lead to harder drugs,” advised Bobby Wiggins, spokesperson for the Narconon® drug education and drug rehabilitation program. “But the kids themselves feel differently. According to our youth, 78 percent feel that the use of marijuana increases the likelihood of using other drugs. And they should know. They are seeing it every day, in their friends or even themselves.”

The national survey of teens on attitudes about drugs, executed by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), added more insight. While you think your child is doing homework or at the mall, are they actually finding or using drugs? Nearly half the children (ages 12 to 17) surveyed thought it would be “fairly easy” or “very easy” to acquire marijuana if they wanted to. About 13 percent considered it easy to lay their hands on LSD or heroin.

But what about legal drugs? More than 900,000 youth start abusing prescription medication each year. That means that every hour of every day, all year round, more than 100 teens dip into a purse, steal a few pills out of a medicine cabinet or get some pills from a friend and give a pain reliever or a sedative or an other prescription drug a try.

“Parents are really the best drug prevention program out here,” added Bobby. “They are with the child the most hours and know their habits the best. They can perceive the changes in habits, schedule or activities that are a tipoff for drug use. And by their constant willingness to speak out against any kind of drug use, they can influence youth to stay away from drugs. By survey, those children whose parents were adamantly against drug use and talked to their children about the subject were less likely to abuse drugs and alcohol.”

Preventing youth from starting to use drugs is the goal of the Narconon drug prevention curriculum that is taught around the world. By actual test, the eight-part curriculum lowers substance abuse. While the Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation program can bring an addict out of their addiction into a productive, enjoyable life, it’s far better to teach youth to avoid drugs in the first place.

For more information about Narconon, visit www.narconon.org

1. Narconon Celebrates Decades of Drug rehab Service in Spain and Italy: Narconon Los Molinos has been operating without cease for 30 years, 24/7. One of three Narconon centers in Spain, it was a pioneer in Europe — the second to open outside the United States after a Swedish rehab opened in 1974. Meanwhile, similar good news was being spread down at Narconon Il Gabbiano’s 14th anniversary in Melendugno, near Salento, Italy. The Narconon drug rehab program has been in Italy since 1981. The Gabbiano center has expanded since its founding in 1995 to be able to facilitate 100 students, the largest European Narconon complement at this time.
2. Why “self-help” groups found the highest attendees of those getting substance abuse treatment: Narconon Arrowhead, Narconon’s premier facility, located in Oklahoma on 216 acres in Arrowhead State Park, is a truly, most comprehensive program for an addict who is trying to recover from addiction. The peaceful setting we offer here is like no other and our highly trained staffs are 100% devoted to helping our customers overcome their addictions.
3. Calls Made by Teenagers to Poison Controls Centers on the Rise: “Unfortunately, more and more adults who are finding themselves combating drug addiction normally began in their teens by taking prescription drugs, or low level street drugs,” commented Nick Hayes a certified chemical dependency counselor at the Narconon rehab center Trois-Rivières. “While no one wants to have a drug addiction problem, there is help available to overcome addiction with a purely natural approach, no matter what is the nature of the drug addiction,” added Hayes. (Narconon Trois-Rivieres report)
4. Should a Drug Addict be Jailed or Treated?: “Without lessening the responsibility of the offenders for their crimes, a drug addict offender should be given the opportunity to do an effective drug rehabilitation program,” stated Nick Hayes, a certified chemical dependency counselor and representative of Narconon Trois-Rivières. He added, “It is no secret that drug addiction leads to desperate acts. Thus it’s worthwhile for the society, not to mention the family and the individual, to rehabilitate a drug or alcohol addict as most of the crimes committed in our cities are related to drug addiction.”
5. Successful Drug Prevention through Narconon in New England: To help celebrate Red Ribbon Week coming up this month, Narconon has increased its public outreach by giving successful drug prevention presentations all over the country. This past week, Narconon New England traveled to a medium security prison in Rhode Island to give a drug prevention talk that received rave results. (Massachusetts drug education — Narconon New England)
6. High Success Rate in Michigan Drug Treatment: The Narconon rehab program has been operating in the state for more than 7 years now and has successfully treated hundreds of clients in Michigan and all over the Midwest and northeast for substance abuse problems. Narconon is a long-term residential drug rehab program that achieves a more than 70% success rate for permanent sobriety from addiction.

Narconon-News.org. Online press release update reports on the Narconon activities in both drug prevention and drug rehabilitation treatment.