Karen#1
Well-known member
TONY ORTEGA
Excerpt:
[Gary and Narconon Arrowhead in Oklahoma]
We are writing less these days about Scientology’s network of drug rehabs, Narconon, because the rehabs just aren’t as important in the Scientology movement as they used to be.
At one time, in the 1970s and 1980s, Narconon was perhaps the most visible arm of Scientology, with big ambitions to become a real force in drug abuse rehabilitation in this country.
And through that period, the person who most embodied Narconon’s ambitions was its Executive Director, Gary Smith. He died on September 1 at the age of 75, and we learned about it from a family obituary, and not from Scientology, of course.
According to that obit, Gary was 25 in 1975 when he was struggling with his own drug addictions, heard about Narconon, and went to Los Angeles to see if it could help him.
Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s “cold-turkey” drug rehab regimen was dangerous then and it’s dangerous now, but testimonials by people like Gary Smith and Kirstie Alley boosted its popularity.
Originally dreamed up by a prison inmate adapting Hubbard’s works, Hubbard took over Narconon as a part of his “social coordination” arm of the Church of Scientology. Narconon, Criminon, the Foundation for a Drug-Free World, Applied Scholastics, and The Way to Happiness Foundation were all run by Scientology’s Association for Better Living and Education, which was staffed only by Scientology Sea Org workers who had signed billion-year contracts.
READ MORE
tonyortega.substack.com
Excerpt:
[td width="900px"]
[/td][td]
[/td]We are writing less these days about Scientology’s network of drug rehabs, Narconon, because the rehabs just aren’t as important in the Scientology movement as they used to be.
At one time, in the 1970s and 1980s, Narconon was perhaps the most visible arm of Scientology, with big ambitions to become a real force in drug abuse rehabilitation in this country.
And through that period, the person who most embodied Narconon’s ambitions was its Executive Director, Gary Smith. He died on September 1 at the age of 75, and we learned about it from a family obituary, and not from Scientology, of course.
According to that obit, Gary was 25 in 1975 when he was struggling with his own drug addictions, heard about Narconon, and went to Los Angeles to see if it could help him.
Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s “cold-turkey” drug rehab regimen was dangerous then and it’s dangerous now, but testimonials by people like Gary Smith and Kirstie Alley boosted its popularity.
Originally dreamed up by a prison inmate adapting Hubbard’s works, Hubbard took over Narconon as a part of his “social coordination” arm of the Church of Scientology. Narconon, Criminon, the Foundation for a Drug-Free World, Applied Scholastics, and The Way to Happiness Foundation were all run by Scientology’s Association for Better Living and Education, which was staffed only by Scientology Sea Org workers who had signed billion-year contracts.
READ MORE
Gary Smith dies, was Scientology’s Narconon drug rehab leader in its heyday
We are writing less these days about Scientology’s network of drug rehabs, Narconon, because the rehabs just aren’t as important in the Scientology movement as they used to be.
tonyortega.substack.com