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Our friends at the Salt Lake Tribune have done a bit of great reporting. Apparently, the Utah legislature is funding a Narconon program (read: Scientology front) for medical detoxification for cops that have gotten sick after cleaning up meth labs. But there’s not any proof that Narconon (a detoxification program) even works!
“The Utah Legislature continued funding a Scientology-based treatment for police officers exposed to methamphetamine, despite a state-funded study that was unable to find a connection between the drug and officers' illnesses.
As lawmakers were slashing funds for other state programs, they sidestepped public debate and appropriated $100,000 -- enough cash for about 20 police officers to undergo the regimen of exercise, sauna time and large doses of antioxidants.
The funding was added by Senate Republicans in the waning days of the session, with the backing of Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.
"It didn't come directly through the committee," said Rep. Eric Hutchings, R-Kearns, co-chair of a committee that would have reviewed the appropriation. "It was just arranged, I guess, through leadership."
Meanwhile, Shurtleff said plans are underway for two "Hollywood stars" to hold fundraisers to treat more Utah cops. He declined to identify the pair.”
L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, started what is now called Narconon as a drug-rehabilitation program based on his book "The Fundamentals of Thought." It was first implemented in Arizona state prisons in 1966.
The "New Life Program" consists of two principal stages: "detoxification" and "rehabilitation." The "New Life Detoxification Program," adapted from Hubbard's Purification Rundown, involves a daily regimen of vitamins, oil, and multi-minerals with special attention to the minerals magnesium and calcium and high dosages of niacin, plus exercise and lengthy sessions in a sauna.
Depending on the location, the course may use "training routines" or "TRs" originally devised by Hubbard to teach communications skills to Scientologists.
These training routines may include TR 8, which involves the individual commanding an ashtray to "stand up" and "sit down," and thanking it for doing so, as loudly as they can. Former Scientologists say that the purpose of the drill is for the individual to "beam" their "intention" into the ashtray to make it move.
Here’s hoping that the Utah taxpayers will read the SLC Tribune’s story and demand that their police force be treated at real detox clinics – not at some homeopathic workout center.
(Original story by The Salt Lake Tribune)