Campaign a Decoy
Addiction experts say Scientology Show is only a publicity stunt
Munich, Germany
January 18, 2002
Sueddeutsche Zeitungby Thomas Muenster
People viewed the addiction assistance coordination by the city for the roaming Scientology show with extreme skepticism. It opened today at 1 p.m. at 51-53 Luisen Strasse. The theme of the exhibition on 1,000 square meters of space was the "Anti-Drug Campaign" of the Scientologists. They said it was the biggest one of its kind in their press release. The opening speaker was a narcotics policeman from Scotland Yard.
The way it started off brushed scholar Michael Lubinski and his colleague, psychologist Axel Seifer, the wrong way. They provide consultation for and direct more than 50 addiction assistance initiatives and institutions. They were also at Scientology's two previous anti-drug shows at the main railway station and in the previous year in the Gaertner Square area. With the present show, equipped with 25 tons of material and accompanied by "consultants," opening up with a narcotics policeman from England, they think this means the arrangers are concerned mainly with blowing their own horn. After all, the organizers are members of a cult that is known for using any conceivable means to snag customers.
That is also what drug experts and cult experts believe, that the Scientologists' anti-drug campaign is nothing less than a large-scale recruitment drive along the lines of gaining young people as well as their parents on a new front. The word "heroin" acts as a decoy to lure in parents and others and "to make them curious as to what Scientology has to offer." In addition, the magic words "anti-drug campaign" deepen the misunderstanding that you could solve addiction problems by doing away with drugs or dealers -- "from a society, that is full of drugs and addiction, and in which drugs are available everywhere and illegal narcotics can be had."
Rather than going to Scientologists to get help for drug problems, it is much more valid to apply a series of tested measures to the addictive behavior itself. In addition to that, "dependable standards of addiction prevention are required." The Scientologists have always declined to have experts monitor their standards.