On World Health Day, Tampa Scientologists Promote Drug-Free Living

Volunteers from the Churches of Scientology of the Tampa Bay Area spent World Health Day April 7 helping local residents make healthy choices by providing the truth about drugs.

Members of the Churches of Scientology in the Tampa Bay area marked World Health Day April 7 by taking action against drug abuse—a health issue that has become an epidemic.

On March 28, Dr. Tom Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tweeted: “Drug poisoning deaths from opioid analgesics have more than quadrupled since 1999, now 43% of drug poisoning deaths.”

The news in Florida is a bit more hopeful. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced in March that drug-related deaths dropped 5 percent in the first half of 2012 compared to the same period the year before.

But this still means that 4,126 Floridians died of drug-related causes—4,126 too many, according to the Tampa Bay Scientologists who took to the streets on World Health Day and distributed more than 3,000 copies of The Truth About Drugs booklet at Clearwater Beach and in Tarpon Springs and Tampa.

The Truth About Drugs booklet provides essential information on how drugs work and how they affect the body and mind, why people take them, and the effects of the most commonly abused substances. Without scare tactics, the booklet provides information that empowers young people to make their own decisions to live drug-free.

The Church of Scientology has published the brochure Scientology: How We Help—The Truth About Drugs, Creating a Drug-Free World to meet requests for more information about the drug education and prevention initiative it supports. To learn more or to read a copy of the brochure, visit scientology.org/antidrug.

Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote, “The planet has hit a barrier which prevents any widespread social progress—drugs and other biochemical substances. These can put people into a condition which not only prohibits and destroys physical health but which can prevent any stable advancement in mental or spiritual well-being.”

The Church of Scientology supports the Truth About Drugs, one of the world’s largest nongovernmental drug education and prevention campaigns. It has been conclusively proven that when young people are provided with the truth about drugs—factual information on what drugs are and what they do—usage rates drop commensurately.