Why, looky here.
My Pultizer-winning photo shows the back of a pamphlet picked up at the Santa Ana Police Department, advertising the Foundation For a Drug-Free World, which, lo and behold, is sponsored by the Church of Scientology.
I called the number and asked where one should go to get help for drug abuse. One guess, people.
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Yup. Tom, the guy who picked up the phone, said the best place to go is Scientology's Narconon Arrowhead on Oklahoma's Lake Eufaula, and I should contact Mike Kent, head of the program.
I left a message for Kent and will update if we chat. (He called back but declined to comment.)
In the meantime, Stop-Narconon.org, run by David Touretzky, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has long-fought against the program and what he calls its unscientific practices.
Also, faithful readers will recall that Ed Dearborn, executive director of the Orange County Scientology “org”, claimed that the church had been collaborating with the Santa Ana Police Department on anti-drug education programs.
Not so, said Tony Harrelson, deputy police chief, who confirmed that he gave a talk at the org about drug abuse, as he does for other groups in the community, but there is no partnership with Scientology, and he doesn't know much about the church. Scientology is not referenced directly on the pamphlet, and Harrelson believes the literature is some of the best he's ever seen on the topic of drug prevention.
