Narconon Freedom Center warehousing drug addicts
Narconon Freedom Center
Credits:
Smart People Today
The Scientology’s drug rehab network is once again facing scrutiny tonight from treatment professionals who know what they’re talking about when it comes to saving lives and preventing relapse.
When I spoke to Melanie Alsager from Sunshine Coast Health Center in British Columbia tonight, she said; “I cannot even imagine having hundreds of addicts in one drug rehab, such as Narconon.”
Two different views on the cause and treatment of addiction:
Scientology/Narconon teaches and implements an L. Ron Hubbard policy doctrine of: “All illness in greater or lesser degree and all foul-ups stem directly and only from a PTS condition.” A PTS condition is caused by a person being in contact with a critic of Scientology.
Sunshine Coast Health Center Mental states: “Counseling is an important part of our drug and alcohol treatment program since there is a high prevalence of clients having both addiction and mental illness (also known as dual diagnosis).”
Sunshine Coast Health Center is one of the most reputable addiction treatment centers in Canada, and states on their website:
“Mental health counseling is an important part of our drug and alcohol treatment program since there is a high prevalence of clients having both addiction and mental illness (also known as dual diagnosis). Mental health counseling covers many disorders including mood disorders (depression, bi-polar), anxiety disorders (panic, social phobias, obsessive-compulsive, post -traumatic stress disorder), sexual disorders, somatoform disorders, sleep disorders, eating disorder, impulse control disorders, schizophrenia, cognitive disorders (delirium, dementia) and personality disorders.”
“Sunshine Coast Health Center has a skilled mental health team that includes a Psychiatrist and a Registered Psychiatric Nurse.” Indeed, the list of qualified professionals at this center is impressive.
Staff:
“The Biopsychosocial model evaluates and treats the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual symptoms of substance use and related disorders.”
On Narconon’s side of the coin, they appear to focus on image, eye-candy renovations, and fresh paint instead of qualified professionals on site at all times.
Earlier today, Narconon Freedom Center in Michigan announced their new renovations were complete and could handle a capacity of 100 addicts at a time. Also bragging of a 70% success rate raised several ‘red flags’ as to their credibility.
Scientology’s flag ship, Narconon Arrowhead in Oklahoma, can house over 200 suffering addicts at one time – a number that concerns many therapists.
It is well known that Narconon recruits recent graduates of Narconon to work as ‘so-called’ counsellors and other demanding staff positions, starting with below minimum wage. Some, like Lucas Catton and many others, end up joining Scientology. Catton moved up in rank to be the president of Narconon Arrowhead and was a devout Scientologist before being disillusioned and spoke in an interview with NBC Rock Center recently about the Narconon dangers.
Lucas Catton NBC Rock Center Interview:
According to Melanie from Sunshine Coast Health Center, reputable centers and safe drug treatment involves having a ratio of 9 clients to one ‘credentialed’ counsellor or therapist, with degrees and certificates in addiction and mental illness. Melanie said that up to 90% of women entering treatment often suffer from traumatic experiences of sexual abuse and eating disorders.
Melanie insisted each client should see a qualified physician at least once per week on an ongoing basis. “It’s hard to understand how Narconon is allowed to remain in business considering their lack of psychiatrists, physicians, and credentialed staff to care for clients,” she said this evening.
Psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies are some of Scientology’s worst enemies. Prescribed medications are taken away from Narconon clients, resulting in many documented attempted suicides.
To have 100-200 suffering drug addicts warehoused in a Narconon rehab is a recipe for disaster and death – as seen with several deaths at Narconon of Georgia and Narconon Arrowhead recently. Numerous lawsuits have been filed against Narconon Arrowhead et al. by Gary Richardson and a class action lawsuit in Georgia filed by lawyer, Jeff Harris, has attracted much media attention in recent weeks.
David Edgar Love
Jeff Baker: a look at Neil Gaiman and his great new novel
Neil Gaiman and his daughter Maddy were in Portland for the 2009 premiere of "Coraline," the made-in-Oregon movie based on Gaiman's novel.
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on June 22, 2013 at 7:00 AM, updated June 22, 2013 at 7:02 AM
Start reading a book by Neil Gaiman, and threads of imagination and wonder reach out and pull you in. Start researching his life, and threads start unraveling in every direction.
Gaiman's new novel "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" is a wonder, a magical act of memory that opens out into something beautiful and frightening. It's like when a child, a 7-year-old boy like the one at the center of the story, wakes up crying after a dream, terrified but glad for the experience. Reading can be like that, the zone between memory and dreams where the wild things are.
To recap the plot of Gaiman's novel seems counterproductive. "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" is short and can easily be read in an evening. The setting is the Sussex of Gaiman's childhood; there's a framing device in which a middle-age man returns to the place where he grew up for a funeral and finds himself at a farm at the end of a road. Some strange women lived there, three generations that seemed like they'd been around forever. He sits down and drifts back into the past ....
That's enough. No spoilers here. Instead, a Gaiman primer, a few threads followed as they unravel toward who knows where:
Who is Neil Gaiman?
He's one of the most versatile and prolific writers in the world, a 52-year-old author of novels for adults and children, comic books, scripts for TV and movies, and all manner of cutting-edge online stuff. He's got a huge following on Twitter and sells out his reading tours as soon as they're announced.
What's his claim to fame?
"The Sandman" series of comic books. Joe Hill, who knows more than a little about comics, writes that "If Neil Gaiman wrote nothing but 'Sandman,' his award-winning comic series, he would still have the stature of a Bradbury or a Tolkien. 'Sandman' was not just the best, most daring, and most moving comic of its time; it was and is probably the best, daringest, movingest comic of any time."
What else?
His novel "Coraline" was immediately recognized as a children's classic when it was published in 2002. "American Gods" is a big road novel that Gaiman has revised more than once, to great effect. "The Graveyard Book" won a Newbery Medal and confirmed Gaiman as a children's author for the ages.
Movies and TV?
Oh yes. "Coraline," as every Oregonian should know, is "a phantasmagoric movie that soars like a modern Wizard of Oz" (Hill again). "Beowulf," as written by Gaiman and Roger Aviary and directed by Robert Zemeckis, has its fans. "Stardust" has everyone from Robert De Niro and Peter O'Toole to Claire Danes and Ricky Gervais.
Gaiman is a major "Doctor Who" fan and has written a couple of episodes, as well as an episode of "Babylon 5."
James McAvoy and Benedict Cumberbatch are among the actors who recently performed Gaiman's radio play "Neverwhere" on the BBC.
The upcoming and announced projects are most intriguing: HBO is doing "American Gods" as a series. Neil Jordan is attached to direct "The Graveyard Book." Joe Wright will direct "The Ocean at the End of the Lane."
What is Gaiman's background?
Interesting and unusual. He grew up in West Sussex, England, with parents who were active in the Church of Scientology. His father, David Gaiman, was a prominent Scientologist who was its principal media spokesman in the United Kingdom. Gaiman's two sisters and ex-wife are Scientologists, but the author says he is not and calls those who suggest otherwise "bonkers people."
And his personal life?
Gaiman was married to Mary McGrath for more than 20 years and has three children. His current wife is musician Amanda Palmer, 15 years younger and no stranger to controversy. Gaiman and Palmer have done performances and events together. "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" is dedicated to her, and Gaiman writes in the acknowledgments that every night after he finished writing he "would read the day's work to my wife, Amanda, at night in bed, and I learned more about the words I'd written when reading them aloud to her than I have ever learned about anything I've done. She was the book's first reader, and her puzzlement and occasional frustration, her questions and her delight were my guides through subsequent drafts. I wrote this book for Amanda, when she was far away and I missed her very much. My life would be grayer and duller without her."
Gaiman was married to Mary McGrath for more than 20 years and has three children. His current wife is musician Amanda Palmer, 15 years younger and no stranger to controversy. Gaiman and Palmer have done performances and events together. "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" is dedicated to her, and Gaiman writes in the acknowledgments that every night after he finished writing he "would read the day's work to my wife, Amanda, at night in bed, and I learned more about the words I'd written when reading them aloud to her than I have ever learned about anything I've done. She was the book's first reader, and her puzzlement and occasional frustration, her questions and her delight were my guides through subsequent drafts. I wrote this book for Amanda, when she was far away and I missed her very much. My life would be grayer and duller without her."
For example?
Gaiman and Palmer just curated a program at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Mass. They each introduced two favorite movies to each other and the audience. His choices were "If" and "Drowning By Numbers." Hers were "Santa Sangre" and "King of Hearts."
What is the origin of "The Ocean at the End of the Lane"?
When Gaiman was 7 a young man who was a boarder in his family's home drove their car to the end of the lane and killed himself in it. The same story appears at the beginning of the novel.
"It's not autobiographical, but the lead character is very much me at age 7, in the geographical landscape that I grew up in," Gaiman told the Los Angeles Times. "It's about memory and about family and magic, and it gets very scary and weird."
What are his expectations for the new novel?
"I am more nervous about this than I have been about any book I have ever published," he wrote on his blog.
Reading: Gaiman reads from "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Crystal Ballroom. The event has been sold out for weeks.
John Travolta Offers To Take Care Of James Gandolfini’s Children
John Travolta has offered to look after James Gandolfini’s children following the star’s sudden death from a heart attack in Rome, Italy earlier this week.
The 59-year-old $cientologist said: “My goal is to make sure his family is OK. His little boy, I watched him grow up, and his brand new little girl. We’ll just make sure they’re taken care of.”
So long as he doesn’t offer to teach Michael Gandolfini, 13, the facts of life – complete with a demonstration of how a reverse massage works – or tries to inflict his wacky Sci medical beliefs on them, then that’s a nice enough offer.
People always say sh-te like that after someone dies though and very rarely do they bother to follow it up.
John and James both grew up in New Jersey and starred in three films together- Lonely Hearts, Get Shorty and The Taking of Pelham 123.
He added: “My father sold tyres to his father. I was his inspiration to get into the business.”
I doubt watching Saturday Night Fever and Grease back in the day made Gandolfini suddenly want to become an actor, but who knows- maybe Danny Zuko and the T-Birds were the hitherto unknown inspiration for Tony Soprano and his mafioso gang ?
I’ve got a feeling that John, bless him, probably fancied James in a ‘ooh tie me up and treat me roughly, you big bad dominating bear of a man you’ sort of way, but I might just be projecting here.
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