Narconon is a Leader in Drug Education

 In the years since the founder of Narconon, William Benitez, first left the Arizona State Prison in 1967, Narconon has been playing a big part in drug education for kids, schools, business and more. There are so many people who help in this endeavor, and it is such an important one. Preventing drug addiction is one of the biggest challenges we face as a society today.  The best way to prevent it is by education our youth to the dangers of drug use in a way that easily and readily understood and accepted by them.

 Drug Education Methods

Narconon provides an effective and interactive drug education program for kids and young adults. Drug education in schools is one of the ways that Narconon is trying to help educate society and practice good drug prevention. Narconon’s approach to drug education is quite different than all others tried in the past. The first attempt at drug education in the U.S. was tell kids outrageously exaggerated facts about drugs and their consequences to try to scare kids away from using. Although, the idea was good and probably had some merit it did not work very well for kids and in some ways actually encouraged using. The reason for this was that educators would present the kids with facts that were sometimes not completely accurate or true and when the kids would find out that some of what was told to them was not true they dismissed all the rest of the information, even the bits of the information that were accurate.

Risk Reduction

The second approach, called “risk reduction” was almost the exact opposite of the first approach and also equally as ineffective.  It was the apathetic take that people were going to use drugs and the best that was to be hoped for was the preventing of people injuring themselves by telling them the “safe way” to administer drugs to themselves. This was soon seen to be seen as the disaster it was.  Suddenly there was a void to fill in the way of educating our youth as well as society to the perils of drugs addiction. Narconon has been more than happy to fill this gape with a more straightforward method that has proven to be quite effective.

The Narconon Method

Narconon approaches drug education in a non judgmental way that is also very educational and non pressuring. As opposed to the days of yore when educators often used guilt and scare tactics to keep kids from drugs, Narconon just simply educates them to the dangers that actually do exist from drug use by presenting them with Narconon Drug Information books that they can take home to read later. Many real life situations are presented in a humorous way so the kids are more able to palate the information. It was proven in a study that the more humor used in education the more the student trusts the information is true and the more the information is retained.

There are many books and pamphlets and videos that Narconon has put together in the way of Narconon drug information. There is the small book called 10 Things Your Friends Might Not Know About Drugs, Talking to Kids About Drugs, Drug Facts, Helping Someone Overcome Addiction,  Narconon Parent Kit, as well as videos such as The Truth About Drugs: What is It, Marijuana the Myth, Ecstasy, The Real Story: Part 1, as well as the Drug-Free Represenative Kit which includes all one needs to know about delivering Narconon Drug Education. All of these are available for purchase on-line.

 The Scope of Narconon Drug Education

Every year Narconon employees and volunteers go to schools to give lectures and hand out pamphlets of information to thousands of children world wide. They also go to work areas to give the same information to employees there and to also encourage anyone struggling with a drug problem to seek help. There are also drug education lectures that are given in prisons and jail and some jails even use the Narconon technology in helping addicts recover from their addictions in jails.

There is a story of one individual who put together a small Narconon group in a jail where he had previously been an inmate. A man went to Narconon to recover from his heroin addiction. He had been previously charged with a possession before reaching Narconon. When he was arrested at the time, he was let out on bail and in an attempt to assuage the court he went to Narconon for drug treatment. He found that going to Narconon actually did help him overcome his addiction and he went on to get full training at Narconon so he could do drug education and actually learned how to run a Narconon. He then had to go back to court to face his charges. The judge who saw his case was very impressed with all the improvement he had made in his life and his character. She questioned him as to his success and he told her in extent that it was all due to Narconon. She then told him that if Narconon was so great, then she wanted a Narconon group started in the Prison where he had originally gone to for his arrest. She sentenced him to a thousand hours of community service and insisted he use those hours introducing the technology to the prison. He happily obliged and then got in contact with Narconon International. They provided him with Narconon materials so he could carry out his mission well equipped. He gave many drug education lectures and started a group in the parts of the Narconon program that could be done from prison. The group he worked with has been very successful and to this day that prison still gives out Narconon booklets and uses information from Narconon to hold classes for those inmates trying to get off drugs.

 Red Ribbon Week

Narconon roots in drug education have grown alongside its roots in drug addiction recovery. Anyone who wishes to volunteer to become a drug education specialist can do so. There is information listed on the web as to where the nearest Narconon is to any given location and one can train at many of these. The best way to protect our future is to educate and empower our youth. One of the best ways to do this is through drug education.