http://www.thefix.com/content/narconons-big-con

"Why Scientology's Rehabs Are a Dangerous Scam
The Scientology-backed rehab promises addicts they can sweat out their demons in sweltering saunas. But critics charge that the organization is the devil itself."

"Yet according to the organization's many critics, including friends and family of dead, damaged, or disappeared Narconon clients, the chain of rehabs is little more than a front group for the Church of Scientology. They allege that unsuspecting clients pay as much as $30,000 for “treatment” consisting of a bizarre detox process that poses serious health hazards, followed by indoctrination in Scientology masked as drug rehabilitation. By preying on people who are desperate and vulnerable—and therefore prime candidates for conversion—Narconon serves as one of the church’s main sources of revenue and recruitment. "

"But lives have also been lost. Since Narconon's inception some 40 years ago, dozens of criminal and civil cases have been filed against its rehabs by former patients who claim to have been injured or abused, and by the relatives of people who have allegedly died as a result of bizarre and dangerous practices. “When I was at Narconon, people were taken away in ambulances and had to spend days in the hospital,” said David Love, a client at Narconon Trois-Rivieres—near Montreal—from December 2008 to May 2009, who was interviewed exclusively by The Fix. “People have died in the Quebec facility. The vitamin and sauna treatments are horrible. Patients regularly vomited and had diarrhea. Addicts with substance abuse problems have liver problems and high enzyme counts—they should in no way be taking massive amounts of vitamins like Niacin.”

"Like many Narconon graduates, Love, 57, made an effortless transition from client to employee under the influence of his rehab's Scientology-based teachings. During the six months he worked at the clinic, he witnessed at least two hospitalizations: “One client had severe stomach pains and they sent him to his room to spend the whole day moaning and in pain, until he was finally taken to the hospital.” The other patient was a diabetic whose insulin was taken away when he entered the clinic, in keeping with its “drug free” philosophy. “The guy [went into insulin shock] and had to be rushed to the hospital. He was in a coma. They basically had to save his life,” said Love."

The above quotes are just from the first page -- there are five more pages in the article.

I just noticed that Sponge posted a link to the article about a week ago, but it apparently made it to the cover page of HuffPost today. Hopefully that will give it more exposure to the general public!

Yes, you can find more in this thread in the Narconon Section....
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=34687
With links to the original article in "The Fix" and other coverage including TIME/Healthland, plus scientology's response which doesn't address any of the allegations made.

There was also a pre-launch thread for "The Fix" (Started up by ex-Gawker founder Maer Roshan) with coverage from the New York Observer and NYmag...
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=34678

They have some great writers on the team including Mark Ebner who most of us know from his previous critical articles on scientology and who co-authored this Narconon article along with Walter Armstrong.
Maia Szalavitz who writes for TIME also writes a column in "The Fix".

Nice. This story could snowball.

We need to get to the criminal justice and medical people that presently refer addicts to Narconon, and probably don't know its dangers and lack of provable results. This might help.

Doesn't a rehab-centre need some kind of approval from the FDA or a similar organization on state level to get licensed?

The easiest way then would be to deliver proof of the dangers involved with the sauna-program and the financial irregularities to this organization, so the license of Narconon to give rehab-treatments will be revoked. Something like what's happening in Canada now. Local fire-regulations can be a useful tool to shut facilities down too. They barely ever comply to the set maximum of people on the property, and hardly ever have proper fire safety measures.

If the rehab field is not regulated on a federal- or state level it gets more difficult. Then every referring doctor, social worker, parole officer and judge will have to be convinced. And that's gonna be a huge job, I'm afraid.

I'll check out the legal situation in my country, to start with. See what can be done here. At least my country is a lot smaller and much more regulated than the US, so it should be easier here. I'll do my best.

Sekh, for rehab centres, as far as I can gather, it's more of a local licensing in the USA. There are probably national/state guidelines but the licenses are approved/disapproved locally. They may also add specific conditions to be enforced for any particular centre (I believe residents groups have indeed been sucessful at this, due to complaints of noise, crime etc). I think it was Narconon Newport Beach (where there is a hell of a lot of rehabs per square mile) that didn't get their licence renewed because it couldn't comply with new local changes. I'm going entirely from memory here, as I pass by this thread. I should really go do the research before I type.