One of scientology’s most successful front groups has roped in another beauty contest winner, and hit upon a new way of gaining apparent credibility.
Foundation for a Drug Free World has had some success in infiltrating a number of organizations, particularly through the work of Meghan Fialkoff. She has been covered a number of times at Tony Ortega’s blog — one article here.
She is a star in the world of scientology. She was awarded an IAS Freedom medal. She is featured on scientology tv and in Freedom magazine.
Many
of the people she gets on board have no idea their participation is going to be used to promote scientology. They think they are supporting an effort to educate youth about drugs. Who could argue with that?
So, it is sad to see another possibly unwitting participant in this “safe-pointing” effort by scientology: Jazmin Avalos, Miss Los Angeles County.
It is also disappointing to see them trying to gain credibility by handing out “Presidential Volunteer Service Awards.” See more information about this below the promo piece.
I googled the Presidential Volunteer Service Awards.
It’s a legitimate government initiative to encourage volunteering in the community.
Here is the section of the website that explains the “Eligibility Requirements” — pretty much anyone can qualify to hand out these awards and they simply have to pay for the awards to hand them out.
Hey, it says that the certifying organization must conduct business both ethically and without deception! So how did they pull the wool over the eyes?
Scamology; doing it on the cheap as usual and as another way to try and suck people into the money, and mind, removing cult.
I cannot speak for others,but after my bleeding stroke in 2011,I needed to be prescribed certain medications for my condition.And later I did need to see a therapist because I suffered from severe PTSD,anxiety,depression and insomnia.After several combinations,we found some medications that help me.Some days are better than others but without professional help I frequently considered suicide.Maybe some people are mentally stronger than me but I needed extra help.I am glad I sought it out.
On a side note concerning Stephen Cannane and his book “Fair Game: The Incredible Untold Story of Scientology in Australia.” –
https://www.smh.com.au/national/chelmsford-doctors-lose-bid-to-rewrite-history-in-defamation-case-20201125-p56hqq.html
Sometimes “Drug-Free World” efforts show up at a major event, for instance, in the U.S., “participation” in festivities of the Superbowl. There are well-planned, mostly corporate-sponsored on-the-ground activities that take place in whichever city is hosting the game. This occurred in the city where I was living. I was surprised, after, the next Int event reported 250,000 Drug-Free World pamphlets were distributed. We did not have that many volunteers who pitched in, plus seemed there was some missing step in securing a permit to be on the scene and handing something out. The volunteer effort, small already, was cut short, lacking that required permit.
Some months later, a couple Volunteer Ministers were paying a visit to a local police deputy in the public safety division. They encountered a huge pallet (wooden platform) of Drug-Free World booklets. The deputy explained, the team had already worked their way through THE FIRST PALLET donated to them. In other words, it looked like the public safety division of the police force was given roughly 250,000 Drug-Free World booklets to distribute, two pallets of about 125,000 booklets each. Kudos TO THEM for getting through, half-way, this substantial donation.
Instead, though, this all got bundled for Int Mgt to report that “…connected to the Superbowl…enormous success… distributing many thousands of these booklets.” The reports are always made to sound as though people are clamoring for these items, like one who is parched and in the desert.
So strange. Such cunning and subterfuge.
IMO, if people were ever clamoring, it would have been to have the booklets removed and destroyed. Or perhaps it would have been to have the cult outlawed in their home countries.
I sure do wish we could have a referendum to have this cult outlawed in my home country. This cult is such an evil blight upon humanity. It is just a criminal organization whose goal is to stuff the pockets of a single dictator and the leader of this cult deserves to be put into a penitentiary for the rest of his life.
That may sound like a very harsh punishment. But I assure you that it would not be that bad because his life is certain to be a short one.
Howdy Squirt!
Is there anything useful in the booklets or is it pablum or misinformation? In a sense so what if any group wants to put out booklets free to the public if it has worthwhile information?
Does Drug Free World collect money which is funneled to the C of S?
On the Ex Scientologist Message Board Redux it was just posted that a new front group was formed called Freedom Through Education. They filed the proper paperwork and are allowed to accept “donations”. I assume they send royalties to the CofS which is another source of income.
Correction – It’s called Reform Through Education (RTE)
I believe there are facts concerning each common type of street drug in these booklets, however (if you have ever seen them), like the CCHR materials, visually they are incredibly foreboding and alarming. Full-on photographic visual, rendered dark and saturated, showing an arm being shot full of heroine. That type of arresting and alarming visual, handed out at cheerful public gatherings, like festivals and fairs.
In yet another instance of “cognitive dissonance,” which group is injecting entheta into the environment? Will the real culprit please stand up so the rest can correctly identify the source?
Peridot – Thanks for the feedback. That booklet sounds grim. The anti psychiatry exhibits are probably a House of Horrors. ugh
Those exhibits didn’t exist yet in the 1960’s and 1970’s but if they did a lot of hippies would have enjoyed them, especially if they were free. “Hey, man – wanna turn on and go see some real freaky shit?”
On the way out they might have said something like, “Man, those Scientologists are sure paranoid.” At least it would have improved the “bodies in the shop” statistic.
The booklets are very well produced giving statistics and information about all sorts of drugs and are generally teeeked for the country they are distributed in. Ie they will have a template and then ad to that information from the country they are being distributed to, local staristics etc. They have multiple books one for each drug and even on legal drugs such as alcohol and ritalin. The information contained is very informative – they must have a volunteer in my area as they have dropped off on seperate occasions this year the books on marijuana, ritalin and narconon. Truth be told i found them to be informative – i had no idea of ritalins side effects and cant fault the 2 anti books i read.
I know that another poster said they have graphic content – i didn’t find anything inappropriate, even if it did use shocking graphics i wouldn’t say thats inappropriate- shock works, thats why the governments use shocking images on cigarette packages and commercials which they have reported as being a success.
One point that is sometimes missed regarding Scientology and the world drug problem and I why the cult is motivated to do it. It has made millions of people in the world ineligible for Scientology auditing.
This was unacceptable to Hubbard. Scientologists thinking they are saving people. Their real motivation is getting more people on to The Hubbard slave train. The primary motivation is more money in Miscavige’s offshore bank accounts. There is no altruism there.
Can you venture a guess (or maybe an informed opinion) as to why the cult gets more money by turning away so many people? I would have thought the money they could make from auditing people would be more than the money they could make from their drug free scams.
But I honestly have no idea and I would like to know why it is they exclude all these potential suckers.
After all, it seems to me that most money comes into the cult in the following order:
1) Billionaire suckers who subscribe to The Scam and “donate” huge amounts of money when they are asked to do so.
2) The sale of courses and auditing sessions which prepaid and the money is never refunded even if people try to cancel whatever they paid for later on.
If I am right about the order of these people who provide money to the cult, how can turning away people result in more money? The only answer I can think of is that there are plenty of billionaires who are willing to donate to groups that mouth the promise of reducing drug taking. But that just doesn’t seem to make sense.
Does it make sense to you?
The most money IMO is made in this order.
1. Donations to the IAS and ideal Orgs.
2. Paying for auditing services
3. Paying for training
There are a few whales who donate the bulk of the money to the IAS. The Orgs make their money from delivering regular auditing and training.
They turn people away who have troubled history. Hubbard wrote about that. Too much trouble to handle.
I didn’t know they turned people away for any reason! In hindsight I should have known they would not accept people that take any type of psych drug.
If someone is taking a psych drug it is because they are convinced it helps them.
Doesn’t the cult believe that the only answer to mental health problems is the cult? If you already found a cheaper, easier answer to solve your own mental health problem, it seems you would be the last person they want having access to their other members.
Hi Skyler,
this confuses me too but my best guess is that Scientology has a lot of government officials wrapped around their finger. I mean think about, No one “bullies” the IRS, they can take money from who ever they want but supposedly Scientology did. And also the fact that the FBI always dropped the cases made against Scientology before investigating it in depth. It’s just not as easy to get justice in this country as it seems.
It’s possible that even many prescription drugs are prohibited in scn these days. I don’t know if that’s always been the case. Auditing is supposed to handle “body problems”.
Back in the 1970’s it wasn’t my job to determine who was eligible for auditing so I’m not sure what the criteria were. Obviously mind or mood altering drugs would be prohibited. Apparently everyone needs to do the Purification Rundown so that would put restrictions on many people.