Scientology Backs Day Against Drug Abuse With International Initiative

Scientology Churches worldwide support International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking and the motto for this year's campaign—“Listen First: Listening to children and youth is the first step to help them grow healthy and safe.”

Scientologists mobilize June 26 in support of the United Nations International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. They mark the day with massive drug education booklet distribution, interactive drug education workshops and lectures, sports events, drug-awareness marches and drug prevention open houses. Today and throughout the year, they ignite a grassroots drug prevention movement to combat the epidemic that affects communities the world over, as evidenced by the World Drug Report for 2017 released June 22.

Now in its 20th year, the Report estimates a quarter of a billion people used drugs at least once in 2015—29.5 million of them problem users. It also states some 28 million years of “healthy life” were lost worldwide in 2015 as a result of drug-related premature death and disability.

“The many evolving drug challenges also highlight the importance of prevention,” wrote Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in his preface to Global Overview of Drug Demand and Supply booklet, one of four publications that comprise this year’s World Drug Report.

This year’s World Drug Campaign theme—“Listen First: Listening to children and youth is the first step to help them grow healthy and safe”—is a philosophy embedded in the Truth About Drugs, the drug education and prevention initiative of the Church of Scientology.

To make it easy for parents to interact with their kids on this vital subject, a series of award-winning booklets and videos are available online through the website of the Foundation for a Drug-Free World, the secular nonprofit corporation whose worldwide efforts are sponsored in large part by members of the Churches of Scientology and the International Association of Scientologists.

“We wholeheartedly support the message of this year’s International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking campaign,” says Jessica Hochman, Executive Director of the Foundation for a Drug-Free World. “Teenagers whose parents talk to them about drugs are 42 percent less likely to use drugs. We urge parents, teachers, and mentors to put this year’s International Day Against Drugs motto into action.”

According to the United Nations Office on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, “Every dollar spent on prevention can save governments up to ten dollars in later costs.”