John Simmons in Scientology's Published Service Completion Lists
The following 3 individual completions for John Simmons appear in official Scientology publications:
John Simmons ARC STRAIGHTWIRE Celebrity 306 1997-09-01
John Simmons GRADE 0 Celebrity 315 1998-11-01
John Simmons NEW HUBBARD SOLO AUDITOR COURSE PART I Advance 142 1999-07-01
Note: The dates listed above are the approximate publication dates of the magazines, which may be weeks or months later than the actual date the service was completed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Simmons in Scientology's Publications
No entries were found in my main Scientology Statistics database for this person.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Simmons and the Clear List
No entries were found in my Scientology Statistics Project Clear List database for this person.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Simmons and Scientologist Online Sites
My database does not list a Scientologist Online cookie-cutter web site for this person.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Simmons and WISE Directories
WISE, the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises, publishes directories listing their members.
My database does not list this person in the most recent WISE directories.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information on this page comes from my Scientology Statistics database. While I attempt to be as accurate as possible, errors or inaccuracies may be introduced by the source material, the transcription process, or database bugs. If you discover an error or problem, please let me know by writing to kristi@truthaboutscientology.com.
http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/by-name/j/john-simmons.html
Thursday, 30 September 2010
GPs to be ranked on antipsychotic prescribing - name & shame high prescribers
GPs to be ranked on antipsychotic prescribing
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=35&storycode=4127225&c=2
29 Sep 10
By Lilian Anekwe
GPs will be ranked according to their prescribing of antipsychotics, after the Government announced it will launch league tables to name and shame high prescribers.
The Department of Health's new drive on tackling dementia, published last week in a revised implementation plan for the national dementia strategy, revealed ministers have asked the NHS Information Centre to draw up league tables to encourage `local accountability' in GP prescribing.
Delivering the strategy, care services minister Paul Burstow said PCTs and GP commissioning consortia `will be held to account and expected to publish how they are providing quality care for people with dementia'.
`The first part of this work is to establish and communicate the current position regarding the prescribing of antipsychotic medicines for people with dementia,' the plan states.
`This data will support localities to determine and publish the outcomes they need to deliver locally, taking into account their current position in reducing the use of antipsychotic drugs for people with dementia.'
`The aim is to support local areas to prescribe appropriately with a view to achieving overall a two-thirds reduction in the use of antipsychotic medicines over a period of two years from establishing a baseline position.'
A spokesperson for the NHS Information Centre said the organisation had been commissioned to specifically audit dementia patients to see how many of them had been prescribed antipsychotics, and that the audit would probe much deeper and provide far more information than the prescribing data the organisation currently collates.
The NHS Information Centre's latest prescribing data, for the first quarter of 2010/11, shows that more than two million antipsychotics were prescribed in primary care, at a net ingredient cost of £67.3m.
The new strategy comes as a Pulse poll of 170 GPs found that 60% said they were `sometimes left with no options but to prescribe antipsychotics to patients with dementia'.
GPs were told last November to regularly review their patients with serious mental illnesses and patients in care homes, and to audit their use of antipsychotics, after a Government report found the drugs were linked with 1,800 excess deaths a year. Recent evidence has also linked antipsychotics with an increased risk of stroke, venous thromboembolism and pneumonia.
GPs were promised more training to encourage them to use alternative treatments where possible, but a recent Pulse investigation found PCTs could often not account for their allocation of the £150m funding they had been given by the DH to implement the National Dementia Strategy.
Dr Ian Greaves, a GPSI in dementia in Gnosall, Staffordshire, said: `Highlighting the problem is not enough, the Government needs to offer practical solutions because we often don't know what else to do.'
`Rather than berating us for prescribing, help us to choose a different way. Give us tools that we can use as alternatives that are practical and support us in our prescribing practice.'
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=35&storycode=4127225&c=2
29 Sep 10
By Lilian Anekwe
GPs will be ranked according to their prescribing of antipsychotics, after the Government announced it will launch league tables to name and shame high prescribers.
The Department of Health's new drive on tackling dementia, published last week in a revised implementation plan for the national dementia strategy, revealed ministers have asked the NHS Information Centre to draw up league tables to encourage `local accountability' in GP prescribing.
Delivering the strategy, care services minister Paul Burstow said PCTs and GP commissioning consortia `will be held to account and expected to publish how they are providing quality care for people with dementia'.
`The first part of this work is to establish and communicate the current position regarding the prescribing of antipsychotic medicines for people with dementia,' the plan states.
`This data will support localities to determine and publish the outcomes they need to deliver locally, taking into account their current position in reducing the use of antipsychotic drugs for people with dementia.'
`The aim is to support local areas to prescribe appropriately with a view to achieving overall a two-thirds reduction in the use of antipsychotic medicines over a period of two years from establishing a baseline position.'
A spokesperson for the NHS Information Centre said the organisation had been commissioned to specifically audit dementia patients to see how many of them had been prescribed antipsychotics, and that the audit would probe much deeper and provide far more information than the prescribing data the organisation currently collates.
The NHS Information Centre's latest prescribing data, for the first quarter of 2010/11, shows that more than two million antipsychotics were prescribed in primary care, at a net ingredient cost of £67.3m.
The new strategy comes as a Pulse poll of 170 GPs found that 60% said they were `sometimes left with no options but to prescribe antipsychotics to patients with dementia'.
GPs were told last November to regularly review their patients with serious mental illnesses and patients in care homes, and to audit their use of antipsychotics, after a Government report found the drugs were linked with 1,800 excess deaths a year. Recent evidence has also linked antipsychotics with an increased risk of stroke, venous thromboembolism and pneumonia.
GPs were promised more training to encourage them to use alternative treatments where possible, but a recent Pulse investigation found PCTs could often not account for their allocation of the £150m funding they had been given by the DH to implement the National Dementia Strategy.
Dr Ian Greaves, a GPSI in dementia in Gnosall, Staffordshire, said: `Highlighting the problem is not enough, the Government needs to offer practical solutions because we often don't know what else to do.'
`Rather than berating us for prescribing, help us to choose a different way. Give us tools that we can use as alternatives that are practical and support us in our prescribing practice.'
"Selling Sickness" - selling Baum & Hedlund
Conference 2010
Programme 'Selling Sickness'
Let op: opent in een nieuw venster AfdrukkenE-mailadres
sellingsickness_logo7 and 8 October 2010
Mövenpick Hotel Amsterdam
Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman will be presenting at one of the “poster sessions.” Our presentation is entitled “Secret Pharmaceutical Company Documents Obtained in Litigation: Revelations and Release in the Interest of Public Health,” based on two decades of our firm’s pharmaceutical product liability litigation experience. Poster sessions create an opportunity to share and debate a wide range of views consistent with the theme of this conference.
What: Selling Sickness International Conference
When: October 7-8, 2010
Where: Mövenpick Hotel Amsterdam
The conference is sponsored by:
The Dutch Ministry of Health and Health Care Inspectorate
Healthy Skepticism International
Co-sponsored by the World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe.
Programme 'Selling Sickness'
sellingsickness_logo7 and 8 October 2010
Mövenpick Hotel Amsterdam
Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman will be presenting at one of the “poster sessions.” Our presentation is entitled “Secret Pharmaceutical Company Documents Obtained in Litigation: Revelations and Release in the Interest of Public Health,” based on two decades of our firm’s pharmaceutical product liability litigation experience. Poster sessions create an opportunity to share and debate a wide range of views consistent with the theme of this conference.
What: Selling Sickness International Conference
When: October 7-8, 2010
Where: Mövenpick Hotel Amsterdam
The conference is sponsored by:
The Dutch Ministry of Health and Health Care Inspectorate
Healthy Skepticism International
Co-sponsored by the World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe.
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Scientology's LEAF Project - Letters To The Editor Attack Force - Exposed
Every thing in Scientology is choreographed... a SHOW, an apparency,
designed to leave the uniformed public confused and to provide an
apparency of agreement that there is belief is a certain desired
fallacy that benefits the coffers of $cientology.
Teen Screen is legislation to interview school kids to prevent
SUICIDES...that is opoosed by the scam of scientology, because it is
based upon psychology and psychiatry...
I never had any doubt that all the letters to editors and the anti-
psych spam was coordinated, but you'll LOVE THIS:
"LEAF" = Letters to the Editor Attack Force
It was / is an actual group set up to do this...
Run by Doyle Mills, CW scientologist and OSA volunteer. He also works at Digital Light Wave
Note that in some of the letters he says: "report compliance by email"
So his "LEAF" operatives are commanded to report completion of
assignments back to him
designed to leave the uniformed public confused and to provide an
apparency of agreement that there is belief is a certain desired
fallacy that benefits the coffers of $cientology.
Teen Screen is legislation to interview school kids to prevent
SUICIDES...that is opoosed by the scam of scientology, because it is
based upon psychology and psychiatry...
I never had any doubt that all the letters to editors and the anti-
psych spam was coordinated, but you'll LOVE THIS:
"LEAF" = Letters to the Editor Attack Force
It was / is an actual group set up to do this...
Run by Doyle Mills, CW scientologist and OSA volunteer. He also works at Digital Light Wave
Note that in some of the letters he says: "report compliance by email"
So his "LEAF" operatives are commanded to report completion of
assignments back to him
Monday, 27 September 2010
Scientology - BBC journalist John Sweeney writing for The Sunday Times
BBC journalist John Sweeney writing for The Sunday Times
Posted on September 26, 2010 by dialogueireland
Three years ago, while making a Panorama programme about Scientology, I made the mistake of exploding in front of the sect’s own cameras. The embarrassing clip of film became and internet hit. Now I’ve gone back for more.
The sequence of events – I hope they make sense, but we are now in Scientology world – began like this. I am in Scientology’s Psychiatry: An Industry of Death museum on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Monsters drill into brains; sparks flash inside a skull; electrodes clamp templates; an infant screams. The message: psychiatry is evil.
Black clad devotees of the Church of Scientology’s holy order, the Sea Org, are filming my every move. Tommy Davis, a Tom Cruise lookalike, and stone-faced Mike Rinder, head of Scientology’s secret police, the Office of Special Affairs, chew gum and stare at me, their jaws in sync.
I am interviewing another senior Scientologist, Jan Eastgate, who tells me: “Psychiatrists set up the whole euthanasia campaign in the concentration camps. They went into the concentration camps and they set it up. And they decided who was going to be killed.”
This is bonkers. Some German psychiatrists did take part in the Nazi extermination programme, but many more either fled or were murdered.
Davis, the church’s chief spokesman, takes over from Eastgate. He’s angry that I keep raising what the critics say. For example, that in 1984 Mr. Justice Latey called the Church of Scientology “a cult…corrupt, sinister and dangerous…out to capture people and…brainwash them”.
He’s irritated, too, that I ask about Lord Xenu, an intergalactic warlord who, according to former Scientologists, is the secret behind the cult. Davis says: “ None of us what you’re talking about. It’s looney.”
Is Davis’s anger personal? He says I have abused an Academy Award-nominated actress – his mother, Anne Archer, the actress whose bunny got boiled in Fatal Attraction.
The day before, she asked me: “Do I look brainwashed to you?” Eyes lifted to the heavens, I said nothing. She spat back: “How dare you?”
Davis now begins to shout at me: “No, no, no. I am not stopping, you listen to me for a second. You are accusing members of my religion of engaging in brainwashing.”
“No, Tommy, you stop!”
Davis: “Brainwashing! Brainwashing is a crime!”
Now it is me shouting: “You listen to me!” I sneak a look at my produced, who closes her eyes, once. Oh f***.
I never meant to shout. I apologise then, and I apologise now. I let my team down and gave the Scientologists a PR gift from deep space. Fool, Sweeney, fool.
The church put my impression of an exploding tomato on the internet before our Scientology & Me programme was broadcast in May 2007. I looked like a raving fruitcake, not a BBC reporter.
The next morning two kids on my street took one look at me and burst into giggles. John Travolta phoned up the director-general, it said in the papers, demanding my head, eight times.
Mr Shouty went viral, millions clicking on. Some anorak on the net an impression of me ranting about a banana. Another did Sweeney as a Dalek. My son was jogging on a running machine at the gym in front of a bank of TVs when his mate said: “Look at that nutter.” Sam replied: “Er…that’s my dad.”
Exultant, the church brought out 10,000 DVDs of me losing it and began posting them to vicars, bank managers, people of influence. Career-wise, I was a dead man walking.
And then our programme when out. Viewers say the creepy private eyes on my case, Davis drilling into me – “bigot, bigot, bigot” – Scientologists ambushing out interviews, and a funny thing happened: the law of unintended consequences kicked in.
The Great British public, who pay my wages, like a laugh but they also have a deep sense of fair play. Once they saw the full documentary, not just the explosion but what led up to it, the emails came in, thousands of them. Green Watch of Lambeth River fire brigade, said: “You should have punched that chap.” (Or another word beginning with c.)
Shortly after the programme went out, I received a tip-off: Mike Rinder had left the church. Three years on, my old enemy defected and has talked to me about his former life inside the Church of Scientology from when he was six to the moment he decided to get out.
He told me: “I knew, as I was walking out, that this was the last time I would ever talk to my wife, my children, the rest of my family. I couldn’t take it any more. When I left, I felt I had been freed.” Sure enough, his wife, daughter, son, brother and mother cut him out of their lives.
We discussed my experience in 2007. Back then, the Panorama team and I were followed by sinister black SUVs, windows tinted. Creepy strangers kept on our tail. A private eye was at every breakfast in out hotel in Los Angeles.
Was I being followed? When I asked Davis, he replied “I don’t know what you’re talking about. It seems you’re getting a bit paranoid.”
Now I asked Rinder. Was I being paranoid? “No. You were being followed. No doubt whatsoever.”
He says he and Davis were doing some of the following, and reporting back on our movements every few minutes or so to the office of David Miscavige, Scientology’s “worldwide ecclesiastical leader”.
Miscavige, Cruise’s best man wgen the actor wed Katie Holmes, is even shorter than the star; but he towers over the church. He is forever opening new “Orgs” – part of an 11m square foot property empire woth millions, if not billions, of dollars. The church doesn’t say how much.
Rinder says: “Under the leadership of David Miscavige, the church has become the cult of David Miscavige.” He has been in charge of it since L Ron Hubbard, the founder, died in 1986.
Rinder claims that the messages coming from Miscavige’s office to him and Davis while they were following us were often bizarrely abusive. One example: “’YSCOHB’…. And then the next message would be, ‘Well did you figure it out yet?’ That would be life five seconds after the one before. ‘Did you figure it out yet? Come on. Answer, answer, answer.’ And what YSCOHB stood for was, ‘You Suck Cock On Hollywood Boulevard.’”
Through its lawyers, he church and Miscavige deny Rinder’s allegations.
The public face of the church is a force for good, handing out free stress tests on Tottenham Court Road, London. Its star parishioners, Cruise, Travolta (who flew a plane to earthquake-hit Haiti and was filmed carrying a cardboard box), Kirstie Alley and Julliette Lewis – help to pull in fresh recruits. The lastest pin-up is Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss, who plays Peggy Olson. Probably the biggest global catch of all is Nancy Cartwright, who plays the voice of Bart in The Simpsons. She gave $10m to the church three years ago.
Life can be tough for Scientologists who leave. Amy Scobee spent her life from the are of 14 in the Sea Org. When she left and started criticising Miscavige and the church, her more intimate confidences were leaked to the press, and the church’s Freedom magazine labelled her “the Adultress”, accusing her of wanton sexual behaviour.
She told me: “The details of how I had sex with my husband before I got married is not something that should go to a newspaper reported. They made it the world’s business, by issuing it to the internet and in a magazine that went to a hundred thousand or more people. It went to all my neighbours.”
Throughout our time in the United States making a new Panorama film about the sect, we were again followed by agents, who filmed us silently. I was grateful when images of me hugging Scobee at the end of a long and, at time, upsetting series of interviews were sent to my bosses at the BBC by the church’s lawyers, who claimed I must be biased against the church because I was overfamiliar with its critics. This was, in my view, a cheap slur and proof that the agents were working from the church.
Claire and Marc Headley joined the Sea Org when they were teenagers. They are now out, and are fighting a legal battle for compensation for the abuses that they say they suffered. They’ve lost the first round because the church is officially recognised as a religion in the United States, but they are appealing.
The Headley’s claim that “auditing” – the Scientology confessional – was spied on routinely. Marc says: “I installed over 100 rooms that had two cameras and a microphone in them where people would get auditing. In most cases, it’s inside of a smoke detector or a picture frame, pinhole cameras.”
Marty Rathbun, who like Rinder is now an independent Scientologist, used to audit the stars and says: “There is a specific VIP room for all the A-listers – John Travolta, Tom Cruise. And I audited Tom Cruise there. There is a shelf in there that has a false glass mirror panel – behind it there is a video camera.”
Claire Headley told me that she saw a tape of Cruise being audited by Rathbun: “Marty, sitting in the chair, the e-meter [an electrical gadget used in auditing] and on the opposite side of the table Tom Cruise, holding the cans [electrodes connected to the e-meter]. I saw those videos.” Did Cruise talk about personal things? “Absolutely.” Things that Cruise would not want people to know? “Absolutely.”
The church says secrets are scrosant, but it does film auditing confessionals for training and monitoring; it adds that filming is not done secretly and it has been announced publicly.
Rinder, though a “heretic” to the church, lives and breathes independent Scientology. In a free society, he has a right to believe in whatever he wants to believe in, and a right not to be persecuted for his belief.
Last April he drive his girlfriend to a medical appointment. On his own, in the car park, he was approached by seven Scientologists, including his wife, his daughter and his brother. One woman screamed: “You deserted your family, you piece of s***.” His wife screamed: “You walked out on me, you f*****.”
What the church didn’t realise was that Rinder was on the phone to a reporter – me. It sounded ghastly. “The intention was intimidation,” said Rinder.
On the day I met him in Scientology’s Mecca, Clearwater in Florida, an enormous black SUV came up onto the very car park deck where I had interviewed Shawn Lonsdale, a critic of Scientology, three years before.
Two agents got out and started filming us. The leader, wearing dark glasses, refused to shake my hand. His message, delivered in silence, was simple enough. Beware anyone who dares leave the church.
Panorama’s The Secrets of Scientology will be screened on BBC1 at 9pm on Tuesday.
Posted on September 26, 2010 by dialogueireland
Three years ago, while making a Panorama programme about Scientology, I made the mistake of exploding in front of the sect’s own cameras. The embarrassing clip of film became and internet hit. Now I’ve gone back for more.
The sequence of events – I hope they make sense, but we are now in Scientology world – began like this. I am in Scientology’s Psychiatry: An Industry of Death museum on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Monsters drill into brains; sparks flash inside a skull; electrodes clamp templates; an infant screams. The message: psychiatry is evil.
Black clad devotees of the Church of Scientology’s holy order, the Sea Org, are filming my every move. Tommy Davis, a Tom Cruise lookalike, and stone-faced Mike Rinder, head of Scientology’s secret police, the Office of Special Affairs, chew gum and stare at me, their jaws in sync.
I am interviewing another senior Scientologist, Jan Eastgate, who tells me: “Psychiatrists set up the whole euthanasia campaign in the concentration camps. They went into the concentration camps and they set it up. And they decided who was going to be killed.”
This is bonkers. Some German psychiatrists did take part in the Nazi extermination programme, but many more either fled or were murdered.
Davis, the church’s chief spokesman, takes over from Eastgate. He’s angry that I keep raising what the critics say. For example, that in 1984 Mr. Justice Latey called the Church of Scientology “a cult…corrupt, sinister and dangerous…out to capture people and…brainwash them”.
He’s irritated, too, that I ask about Lord Xenu, an intergalactic warlord who, according to former Scientologists, is the secret behind the cult. Davis says: “ None of us what you’re talking about. It’s looney.”
Is Davis’s anger personal? He says I have abused an Academy Award-nominated actress – his mother, Anne Archer, the actress whose bunny got boiled in Fatal Attraction.
The day before, she asked me: “Do I look brainwashed to you?” Eyes lifted to the heavens, I said nothing. She spat back: “How dare you?”
Davis now begins to shout at me: “No, no, no. I am not stopping, you listen to me for a second. You are accusing members of my religion of engaging in brainwashing.”
“No, Tommy, you stop!”
Davis: “Brainwashing! Brainwashing is a crime!”
Now it is me shouting: “You listen to me!” I sneak a look at my produced, who closes her eyes, once. Oh f***.
I never meant to shout. I apologise then, and I apologise now. I let my team down and gave the Scientologists a PR gift from deep space. Fool, Sweeney, fool.
The church put my impression of an exploding tomato on the internet before our Scientology & Me programme was broadcast in May 2007. I looked like a raving fruitcake, not a BBC reporter.
The next morning two kids on my street took one look at me and burst into giggles. John Travolta phoned up the director-general, it said in the papers, demanding my head, eight times.
Mr Shouty went viral, millions clicking on. Some anorak on the net an impression of me ranting about a banana. Another did Sweeney as a Dalek. My son was jogging on a running machine at the gym in front of a bank of TVs when his mate said: “Look at that nutter.” Sam replied: “Er…that’s my dad.”
Exultant, the church brought out 10,000 DVDs of me losing it and began posting them to vicars, bank managers, people of influence. Career-wise, I was a dead man walking.
And then our programme when out. Viewers say the creepy private eyes on my case, Davis drilling into me – “bigot, bigot, bigot” – Scientologists ambushing out interviews, and a funny thing happened: the law of unintended consequences kicked in.
The Great British public, who pay my wages, like a laugh but they also have a deep sense of fair play. Once they saw the full documentary, not just the explosion but what led up to it, the emails came in, thousands of them. Green Watch of Lambeth River fire brigade, said: “You should have punched that chap.” (Or another word beginning with c.)
Shortly after the programme went out, I received a tip-off: Mike Rinder had left the church. Three years on, my old enemy defected and has talked to me about his former life inside the Church of Scientology from when he was six to the moment he decided to get out.
He told me: “I knew, as I was walking out, that this was the last time I would ever talk to my wife, my children, the rest of my family. I couldn’t take it any more. When I left, I felt I had been freed.” Sure enough, his wife, daughter, son, brother and mother cut him out of their lives.
We discussed my experience in 2007. Back then, the Panorama team and I were followed by sinister black SUVs, windows tinted. Creepy strangers kept on our tail. A private eye was at every breakfast in out hotel in Los Angeles.
Was I being followed? When I asked Davis, he replied “I don’t know what you’re talking about. It seems you’re getting a bit paranoid.”
Now I asked Rinder. Was I being paranoid? “No. You were being followed. No doubt whatsoever.”
He says he and Davis were doing some of the following, and reporting back on our movements every few minutes or so to the office of David Miscavige, Scientology’s “worldwide ecclesiastical leader”.
Miscavige, Cruise’s best man wgen the actor wed Katie Holmes, is even shorter than the star; but he towers over the church. He is forever opening new “Orgs” – part of an 11m square foot property empire woth millions, if not billions, of dollars. The church doesn’t say how much.
Rinder says: “Under the leadership of David Miscavige, the church has become the cult of David Miscavige.” He has been in charge of it since L Ron Hubbard, the founder, died in 1986.
Rinder claims that the messages coming from Miscavige’s office to him and Davis while they were following us were often bizarrely abusive. One example: “’YSCOHB’…. And then the next message would be, ‘Well did you figure it out yet?’ That would be life five seconds after the one before. ‘Did you figure it out yet? Come on. Answer, answer, answer.’ And what YSCOHB stood for was, ‘You Suck Cock On Hollywood Boulevard.’”
Through its lawyers, he church and Miscavige deny Rinder’s allegations.
The public face of the church is a force for good, handing out free stress tests on Tottenham Court Road, London. Its star parishioners, Cruise, Travolta (who flew a plane to earthquake-hit Haiti and was filmed carrying a cardboard box), Kirstie Alley and Julliette Lewis – help to pull in fresh recruits. The lastest pin-up is Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss, who plays Peggy Olson. Probably the biggest global catch of all is Nancy Cartwright, who plays the voice of Bart in The Simpsons. She gave $10m to the church three years ago.
Life can be tough for Scientologists who leave. Amy Scobee spent her life from the are of 14 in the Sea Org. When she left and started criticising Miscavige and the church, her more intimate confidences were leaked to the press, and the church’s Freedom magazine labelled her “the Adultress”, accusing her of wanton sexual behaviour.
She told me: “The details of how I had sex with my husband before I got married is not something that should go to a newspaper reported. They made it the world’s business, by issuing it to the internet and in a magazine that went to a hundred thousand or more people. It went to all my neighbours.”
Throughout our time in the United States making a new Panorama film about the sect, we were again followed by agents, who filmed us silently. I was grateful when images of me hugging Scobee at the end of a long and, at time, upsetting series of interviews were sent to my bosses at the BBC by the church’s lawyers, who claimed I must be biased against the church because I was overfamiliar with its critics. This was, in my view, a cheap slur and proof that the agents were working from the church.
Claire and Marc Headley joined the Sea Org when they were teenagers. They are now out, and are fighting a legal battle for compensation for the abuses that they say they suffered. They’ve lost the first round because the church is officially recognised as a religion in the United States, but they are appealing.
The Headley’s claim that “auditing” – the Scientology confessional – was spied on routinely. Marc says: “I installed over 100 rooms that had two cameras and a microphone in them where people would get auditing. In most cases, it’s inside of a smoke detector or a picture frame, pinhole cameras.”
Marty Rathbun, who like Rinder is now an independent Scientologist, used to audit the stars and says: “There is a specific VIP room for all the A-listers – John Travolta, Tom Cruise. And I audited Tom Cruise there. There is a shelf in there that has a false glass mirror panel – behind it there is a video camera.”
Claire Headley told me that she saw a tape of Cruise being audited by Rathbun: “Marty, sitting in the chair, the e-meter [an electrical gadget used in auditing] and on the opposite side of the table Tom Cruise, holding the cans [electrodes connected to the e-meter]. I saw those videos.” Did Cruise talk about personal things? “Absolutely.” Things that Cruise would not want people to know? “Absolutely.”
The church says secrets are scrosant, but it does film auditing confessionals for training and monitoring; it adds that filming is not done secretly and it has been announced publicly.
Rinder, though a “heretic” to the church, lives and breathes independent Scientology. In a free society, he has a right to believe in whatever he wants to believe in, and a right not to be persecuted for his belief.
Last April he drive his girlfriend to a medical appointment. On his own, in the car park, he was approached by seven Scientologists, including his wife, his daughter and his brother. One woman screamed: “You deserted your family, you piece of s***.” His wife screamed: “You walked out on me, you f*****.”
What the church didn’t realise was that Rinder was on the phone to a reporter – me. It sounded ghastly. “The intention was intimidation,” said Rinder.
On the day I met him in Scientology’s Mecca, Clearwater in Florida, an enormous black SUV came up onto the very car park deck where I had interviewed Shawn Lonsdale, a critic of Scientology, three years before.
Two agents got out and started filming us. The leader, wearing dark glasses, refused to shake my hand. His message, delivered in silence, was simple enough. Beware anyone who dares leave the church.
Panorama’s The Secrets of Scientology will be screened on BBC1 at 9pm on Tuesday.
Scientology News and Propaganda > Dr Ann Blake Tracy
http://forum.reachingforthetippingpoint.net/index.php?topic=713.0;wap2
in a court hearing in Arkansas (David Eric WOOD v. STATE of Arkansas, Opinion delivered September 5, 2001), she "testified that she received a bachelor's degree in psychology and biblical studies from Coral Ridge Baptist University in Utah. She also holds a Ph.D. degree in health sciences, with emphasis on psychology, from George Wythe College."
James L Harper - TRB Scotland uses Narconon Scotland address
"The Road Back" - James L Harper sets up business @ Narconon Scotland Peebleshire
they seem to be using the old narconon building in scotland
http://forums.whyweprotest.net/298-jett-travolta/road-back-44966/
Quote:
Individual inquires and media inquires, please use form below
or call us at + 44 01968 660736 from 2pm to 5 pm week days GMT
Individual inquires and media inquires
Quote:
Narconon Scotland
Drug Prevention & Education Services
The Whitehouse
Main Street
West Linton
Peebleshire
EH46 7EA
Scotland
Phone: 01968 660736
Fax: 01968 661894
Narconon International - Narconon Centers in the United Kingdom
they seem to be using the old narconon building in scotland
http://forums.whyweprotest.net/298-jett-travolta/road-back-44966/
Quote:
or call us at + 44 01968 660736 from 2pm to 5 pm week days GMT
Individual inquires and media inquires
Quote:
Narconon Scotland
Drug Prevention & Education Services
The Whitehouse
Main Street
West Linton
Peebleshire
EH46 7EA
Scotland
Phone: 01968 660736
Fax: 01968 661894
Narconon International - Narconon Centers in the United Kingdom
James Harper - Scientology Service Completions | Truth About Scientology Statistics Project
James Harper - Scientology Service Completions
Truth About Scientology Statistics Project
James Harper - Scientology Service Completions
Truth About Scientology Statistics Project
James Harper in Scientology's Publications
The following 3 mentions of James Harper appear in official Scientology publications:
James & Mary Beth Harper Founding Patrons Impact 109 2004-09-01
James & Mary Beth Harper Patrons Impact 114 2006-09-01
James Harper Honor Roll Impact 114 2006-09-01
Truth About Scientology Statistics Project
Truth About Scientology Statistics Project
James Harper in Scientology's Publications
The following 3 mentions of James Harper appear in official Scientology publications:
James & Mary Beth Harper Founding Patrons Impact 109 2004-09-01
James & Mary Beth Harper Patrons Impact 114 2006-09-01
James Harper Honor Roll Impact 114 2006-09-01
James L Harper is Prozactruth . com
http://www.who.is/whois-com/ip-address/prozactruth.com/
Administrative Contact:
harper, james
harper consulting
ATTN: PROZACTRUTH.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447
570-708-8780
Technical Contact:
Support, Tech
Interland
ATTN: PROZACTRUTH.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447
570-708-8780
Administrative Contact:
harper, james
harper consulting
ATTN: PROZACTRUTH.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447
570-708-8780
Technical Contact:
Support, Tech
Interland
ATTN: PROZACTRUTH.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447
570-708-8780
James L. Harper - The Road Back Inc
Founder and C.E.O.
The Road Back Inc
http://www.theroadback.org/About_Us.htm
Narconon Scotland The Whitehouse West Linton Peebleshire Scotland EH46 7EA
Narconon Scotland
The Whitehouse
Main Street,
West Linton Peebleshire
Scotland EH46 7EA
Phone: 01968 660736
Fax: 01968 661894
Email: zzaj@btinternet.com
Main Street,
West Linton Peebleshire
Scotland EH46 7EA
Phone: 01968 660736
Fax: 01968 661894
Email: zzaj@btinternet.com
Narconon Scotland: Residential Drug Addiction Treatment center - address
repost
SEROXAT SUFFERERS - STAND UP AND BE COUNTED: Narconon Scotland: Residential Drug Addiction Trea...: "Narconon United Kingdom: Residential Drug Addiction Treatment Center Narconon Scotland The Whitehouse Main Street, West Linton Peebles..."
Narconon Scotland
The Whitehouse
Main Street,
West Linton Peebleshire
Scotland EH46 7EA
Phone: 01968 660736
Fax: 01968 661894
Email: zzaj@btinternet.com
From - http://www.scientology.org/world/betterment/narconon/locations/uk.html
Narconon United Kingdom
Narconon UK has been a registered charity since 1975. It has delivered drug education programs nationally since that time, from Bournemouth on the southern coast to Manchester, England and Scotland in the North.
As a result of its proven long-term success, Narconon UK has also received social service funding from England’s health care system. It is currently in the process of opening a new residential treatment center, and helping to open centers in Ireland and Scotland. They have also been running a program in the prison system and have trained prisoners in drug education. There are several Narconon® drug education centers throughout the United Kingdom and in Ireland.
Narconon United Kingdom
Caple Ne Ferne
2 Albany Road
St. Leonard on Sea
East Grinstead
England TN38 OLN
Phone: 01424 420 036
Email: we.help@drugrehab.co.uk
Narconon Scotland
The Whitehouse
Main Street,
West Linton Peebleshire
Scotland EH46 7EA
Phone: 01968 660736
Fax: 01968 661894
Email: zzaj@btinternet.com
SEROXAT SUFFERERS - STAND UP AND BE COUNTED: Narconon Scotland: Residential Drug Addiction Trea...: "Narconon United Kingdom: Residential Drug Addiction Treatment Center Narconon Scotland The Whitehouse Main Street, West Linton Peebles..."
Narconon Scotland
The Whitehouse
Main Street,
West Linton Peebleshire
Scotland EH46 7EA
Phone: 01968 660736
Fax: 01968 661894
Email: zzaj@btinternet.com
From - http://www.scientology.org/world/betterment/narconon/locations/uk.html
Narconon United Kingdom
Narconon UK has been a registered charity since 1975. It has delivered drug education programs nationally since that time, from Bournemouth on the southern coast to Manchester, England and Scotland in the North.
As a result of its proven long-term success, Narconon UK has also received social service funding from England’s health care system. It is currently in the process of opening a new residential treatment center, and helping to open centers in Ireland and Scotland. They have also been running a program in the prison system and have trained prisoners in drug education. There are several Narconon® drug education centers throughout the United Kingdom and in Ireland.
Narconon United Kingdom
Caple Ne Ferne
2 Albany Road
St. Leonard on Sea
East Grinstead
England TN38 OLN
Phone: 01424 420 036
Email: we.help@drugrehab.co.uk
Narconon Scotland
The Whitehouse
Main Street,
West Linton Peebleshire
Scotland EH46 7EA
Phone: 01968 660736
Fax: 01968 661894
Email: zzaj@btinternet.com
SEROXAT SUFFERERS - Narcanon Charity Index Details - Narconon Scotland Website:...
repost
SEROXAT SUFFERERS - STAND UP AND BE COUNTED: Charity Index Details - Narconon Scotland Website:...: "Charity Index Details http://www.oscr.org.uk/CharityIndexDetails.aspx?id=SC033877 SC033877 This is the charity's legal name as set out i..."
http://www.oscr.org.uk/CharityIndexDetails.aspx?id=SC033877
SC033877
This is the charity's legal name as set out in its governing document.
Charity Name: Narconon Scotland
This shows the latest contact address that OSCR has been given for the charity.
Address: The White House
Main Street
West Linton
This is the latest postcode which the charity has supplied.
Postcode: EH46 7EA
This shows whether the address supplied by the charity is:
their principal office
the address of one of the charity's trustees
neither of the above (not known)
Office/Home address: Charity Trustee's home address
The charity's website address. This is a hyperlink to the charity's website.
Website: www.drugfreescotland.co.uk
SEROXAT SUFFERERS - STAND UP AND BE COUNTED: Charity Index Details - Narconon Scotland Website:...: "Charity Index Details http://www.oscr.org.uk/CharityIndexDetails.aspx?id=SC033877 SC033877 This is the charity's legal name as set out i..."
http://www.oscr.org.uk/CharityIndexDetails.aspx?id=SC033877
SC033877
This is the charity's legal name as set out in its governing document.
Charity Name: Narconon Scotland
This shows the latest contact address that OSCR has been given for the charity.
Address: The White House
Main Street
West Linton
This is the latest postcode which the charity has supplied.
Postcode: EH46 7EA
This shows whether the address supplied by the charity is:
their principal office
the address of one of the charity's trustees
neither of the above (not known)
Office/Home address: Charity Trustee's home address
The charity's website address. This is a hyperlink to the charity's website.
Website: www.drugfreescotland.co.uk
SEROXAT SUFFERERS - STAND UP AND BE COUNTED: About Us Founder - Maxie Richards Drug Free Scotland
Drug Free Scotland was formed by the inspiration of a well known and respected anti drug campaigner from Glasgow, Maxie Richards.
As an outreach of her own personal campaign against drugs and in addition to her sterling work with addicted young people at her own home in Glasgow, Maxie realised that another branch of the tree was necessary.
READ ABOUT MAXIE'S PERSONAL FOUNDATION AT www.maxierichards.org
This website will provide "truth and reality" concerning drug addiction and also a strong arm to challenge current governmental policy concerning drug treatment.
PRESIDENT - Bill Cameron, from Fife
This is where we come into play - a small dedicated group whose aim is to continue to reach every addict, parent, partner and citizen in Scotland.
Our experience has to be shared not only in Scotland but globally and our membership is rising steadily from across the globe. We have contacted hundreds of people through our annual conferences and we regularly visit local groups to explain our mission.
Added soon to this photo of current president of Drug Free Scotland, Bill Cameron, from Fife, will be the rest of our small team. Watch this space.
As an outreach of her own personal campaign against drugs and in addition to her sterling work with addicted young people at her own home in Glasgow, Maxie realised that another branch of the tree was necessary.
READ ABOUT MAXIE'S PERSONAL FOUNDATION AT www.maxierichards.org
This website will provide "truth and reality" concerning drug addiction and also a strong arm to challenge current governmental policy concerning drug treatment.
PRESIDENT - Bill Cameron, from Fife
This is where we come into play - a small dedicated group whose aim is to continue to reach every addict, parent, partner and citizen in Scotland.
Our experience has to be shared not only in Scotland but globally and our membership is rising steadily from across the globe. We have contacted hundreds of people through our annual conferences and we regularly visit local groups to explain our mission.
Added soon to this photo of current president of Drug Free Scotland, Bill Cameron, from Fife, will be the rest of our small team. Watch this space.
SEROXAT SUFFERERS - Whois "Prozactruth.com" = James Harper and is a Scientologist
SEROXAT SUFFERERS - STAND UP AND BE COUNTED: Whois "Prozactruth.com" = James Harper and is a Sc...: http://www.who.is/whois-com/ip-address/prozactruth.com/%20Administrative%20Contact:%20harper,%20james%20harper%20consulting%20ATTN:...
repost
http://www.who.is/whois-com/ip-address/prozactruth.com/
Administrative Contact:
harper, james
harper consulting
ATTN: PROZACTRUTH.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447
570-708-8780
Technical Contact:
Support, Tech
Interland
ATTN: PROZACTRUTH.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447
570-708-8780
Record expires on 28-Sep-2009.
Record created on 28-Sep-1999.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS.ADDR.COM 38.113.244.55
NS2.ADDR.COM 38.113.244.196
This listing is a Network Solutions Private Registration. Mail
correspondence to this address must be sent via USPS Express Mail(TM) or
USPS Certified Mail(R); all other mail will not be processed. Be sure to
include the registrant's domain name in the address
repost
http://www.who.is/whois-com/ip-address/prozactruth.com/
Administrative Contact:
harper, james
harper consulting
ATTN: PROZACTRUTH.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447
570-708-8780
Technical Contact:
Support, Tech
Interland
ATTN: PROZACTRUTH.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447
570-708-8780
Record expires on 28-Sep-2009.
Record created on 28-Sep-1999.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS.ADDR.COM 38.113.244.55
NS2.ADDR.COM 38.113.244.196
This listing is a Network Solutions Private Registration. Mail
correspondence to this address must be sent via USPS Express Mail(TM) or
USPS Certified Mail(R); all other mail will not be processed. Be sure to
include the registrant's domain name in the address
Sunday, 26 September 2010
Scientology revisited by Panorama's John Sweeney BBC1 28th Sept 2010
John Sweeney revisits the Church of Scientology
http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_9032000/9032278.stm
In 2007, while investigating the Church of Scientology for Panorama, reporter John Sweeney had a dramatic on-camera confrontation with a church spokesman named Tommy Davis. The church was accusing the reporter of bias and it attempted to stop the documentary from being broadcast - a campaign backed by Scientology A-lister John Travolta. Sweeney has returned to investigate the church again.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Panorama Archive: Scientology and Me
I never meant to shout.
Strangers had been on my tail. Scientologist Tommy Davis and his colleague Mike Rinder - my handlers - had been on my case, day in and day out.
They had taken me to an exhibit called 'Psychiatry: Industry of Death' on Hollywood Boulevard, where a Scientologist told me psychiatrists set up the Holocaust. I feared I was being brain-washed.
And then I lost it - big time.
The Church of Scientology put out my impression of an exploding tomato onto the internet which millions had a laugh at courtesy of YouTube.
It was no way for me to behave. I apologised then and I apologise now.
Shortly after that programme, Scientology & Me, aired in 2007, I received a tip-off that Mike Rinder had left the church.
Three years on and my old adversary came to me to shed some light on what had been going on behind the scenes in the days leading up to my infamous meltdown and screaming session in Los Angeles.
Now an independent Scientologist, Mike is critical of the church and of its leader David Miscavige, who was actor Tom Cruise's best man at his wedding to Katie Holmes.
Mike, 55, wanted to meet and talk about his life in the church, which he was a part of from the age of six.
'Freed'
He began by telling me about the moment when he decided to get out: "I knew as I was walking out - that was the last time I would ever talk to my wife, my children, the rest of my family. I couldn't take it anymore. When I left I felt I had been freed."
FIND OUT MORE
Panorama, BBC One
Secrets of Scientology
Tuesday, 9pm
Mike was subjected to what the church calls disconnection. His wife, daughter, son, brother and mother have cut him out of their lives.
Mike was one of a number of people we met who effectively grew up in the church and have since left.
Those who speak out say they can be deemed by the church to be enemies and subjected to disconnection - when all ties to family and friends are severed.
The Panorama team were followed while filming in America
The church acknowledges some Scientologists choose to sever communications with family members who leave. The church says it is a fundamental human right to cease communication with someone. It adds disconnection is used against expelled members and those who attack the church.
During our investigation in 2007, black SUVs with tinted windows appeared to be following our team as we carried out interviews. A mystery man who we suspected was from the church also appeared to be keeping tabs on us at breakfast in our LA hotel each morning.
At the time, I put my suspicions of being under surveillance to Tommy Davis. He responded: "I don't know what you're talking about. It seems to me you're getting a bit paranoid."
Mike Rinder has since given me a different answer.
"Was I being paranoid?" I asked him when we met again.
"No, you were being followed. No doubt whatsoever," he told me.
Mike said he should know as it was he and Tommy Davis who were doing some of the covert surveillance.
Mike said he and Tommy were reporting back on our movements to David Miscavige's office every few minutes or so.
Through its UK lawyers, the firm Carter-Ruck, the church deny spying on us and reject Mike Rinder's version of events dating back to 2007.
Celebrity members
The public face of the church is as a force for good, perhaps most familiar to the public for their offers of free stress tests at their shopfront centres in major cities.
Its star members include Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley and Juliette Lewis.
When I interviewed Alley in 2007 and put the question to her that many believe Scientology to be a sinister brain-washing cult, she replied: "Would you ever sit with a Jew and tell them that their religion is a cult?"
When I asked the same question of Juliette Lewis, star of the film Natural Born Killers, she replied: "Some people say women are really stupid and shouldn't have the vote."
The church is popular among some Hollywood celebrities
The church said it is a religion and is recognised as such in America for tax purposes. It denies emphatically that it is a cult and has maintained that I am biased.
Many ex-Scientologists disagree with the celebrities who defend the church.
Amy Scobee, now in her mid-40s, is a former member who said she believes it is "a dangerous cult". She was a member from the age of 14, much of her time in the church was spent as part of what is known as the Sea Org - the highly-disciplined wing that effectively runs the church's day to day operations.
Private details
When Ms Scobee left and began to criticise David Miscavige and the church intimate details of her sex life before she was married leaked to the St Petersburg Times in Florida newspaper.
The church admits sending the newspaper material about Ms Scobee's sex life, but said it was acceptable because the information was contained in an affidavit signed by her. They say it was not confidential.
Ms Scobee said she had disclosed those details but she believed they would remain confidential.
During our time in America for the latest Panorama, we were once again followed by people filming us, this time more openly than before. When we approached the people with cameras to ask them who they were with and what they were doing, they refused to answer our questions.
That is why I was somewhat grateful to Scientology's UK lawyers at Carter-Ruck when they sent the BBC photographs of me hugging Amy Scobee at the end of a long and at times harrowing series of interviews about her experiences.
The photographs were meant to demonstrate to my bosses at the BBC, once again, that I must be biased against the church as I was overly familiar with its critics.
This was, oddly enough, welcome proof that the people who had been following and filming us in the States were indeed working for the Church of Scientology. As Mike Rinder had said, I was not being paranoid - I was being followed.
The Secrets of Scientology: A Panorama Special, BBC One, Tuesday, 28 September at 2100BST and then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer.
By Business Card Designs
http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_9032000/9032278.stm
In 2007, while investigating the Church of Scientology for Panorama, reporter John Sweeney had a dramatic on-camera confrontation with a church spokesman named Tommy Davis. The church was accusing the reporter of bias and it attempted to stop the documentary from being broadcast - a campaign backed by Scientology A-lister John Travolta. Sweeney has returned to investigate the church again.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Panorama Archive: Scientology and Me
I never meant to shout.
Strangers had been on my tail. Scientologist Tommy Davis and his colleague Mike Rinder - my handlers - had been on my case, day in and day out.
They had taken me to an exhibit called 'Psychiatry: Industry of Death' on Hollywood Boulevard, where a Scientologist told me psychiatrists set up the Holocaust. I feared I was being brain-washed.
And then I lost it - big time.
The Church of Scientology put out my impression of an exploding tomato onto the internet which millions had a laugh at courtesy of YouTube.
It was no way for me to behave. I apologised then and I apologise now.
Shortly after that programme, Scientology & Me, aired in 2007, I received a tip-off that Mike Rinder had left the church.
Three years on and my old adversary came to me to shed some light on what had been going on behind the scenes in the days leading up to my infamous meltdown and screaming session in Los Angeles.
Now an independent Scientologist, Mike is critical of the church and of its leader David Miscavige, who was actor Tom Cruise's best man at his wedding to Katie Holmes.
Mike, 55, wanted to meet and talk about his life in the church, which he was a part of from the age of six.
'Freed'
He began by telling me about the moment when he decided to get out: "I knew as I was walking out - that was the last time I would ever talk to my wife, my children, the rest of my family. I couldn't take it anymore. When I left I felt I had been freed."
FIND OUT MORE
Panorama, BBC One
Secrets of Scientology
Tuesday, 9pm
Mike was subjected to what the church calls disconnection. His wife, daughter, son, brother and mother have cut him out of their lives.
Mike was one of a number of people we met who effectively grew up in the church and have since left.
Those who speak out say they can be deemed by the church to be enemies and subjected to disconnection - when all ties to family and friends are severed.
The Panorama team were followed while filming in America
The church acknowledges some Scientologists choose to sever communications with family members who leave. The church says it is a fundamental human right to cease communication with someone. It adds disconnection is used against expelled members and those who attack the church.
During our investigation in 2007, black SUVs with tinted windows appeared to be following our team as we carried out interviews. A mystery man who we suspected was from the church also appeared to be keeping tabs on us at breakfast in our LA hotel each morning.
At the time, I put my suspicions of being under surveillance to Tommy Davis. He responded: "I don't know what you're talking about. It seems to me you're getting a bit paranoid."
Mike Rinder has since given me a different answer.
"Was I being paranoid?" I asked him when we met again.
"No, you were being followed. No doubt whatsoever," he told me.
Mike said he should know as it was he and Tommy Davis who were doing some of the covert surveillance.
Mike said he and Tommy were reporting back on our movements to David Miscavige's office every few minutes or so.
Through its UK lawyers, the firm Carter-Ruck, the church deny spying on us and reject Mike Rinder's version of events dating back to 2007.
Celebrity members
The public face of the church is as a force for good, perhaps most familiar to the public for their offers of free stress tests at their shopfront centres in major cities.
Its star members include Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley and Juliette Lewis.
When I interviewed Alley in 2007 and put the question to her that many believe Scientology to be a sinister brain-washing cult, she replied: "Would you ever sit with a Jew and tell them that their religion is a cult?"
When I asked the same question of Juliette Lewis, star of the film Natural Born Killers, she replied: "Some people say women are really stupid and shouldn't have the vote."
The church said it is a religion and is recognised as such in America for tax purposes. It denies emphatically that it is a cult and has maintained that I am biased.
Many ex-Scientologists disagree with the celebrities who defend the church.
Amy Scobee, now in her mid-40s, is a former member who said she believes it is "a dangerous cult". She was a member from the age of 14, much of her time in the church was spent as part of what is known as the Sea Org - the highly-disciplined wing that effectively runs the church's day to day operations.
Private details
When Ms Scobee left and began to criticise David Miscavige and the church intimate details of her sex life before she was married leaked to the St Petersburg Times in Florida newspaper.
The church admits sending the newspaper material about Ms Scobee's sex life, but said it was acceptable because the information was contained in an affidavit signed by her. They say it was not confidential.
Ms Scobee said she had disclosed those details but she believed they would remain confidential.
During our time in America for the latest Panorama, we were once again followed by people filming us, this time more openly than before. When we approached the people with cameras to ask them who they were with and what they were doing, they refused to answer our questions.
That is why I was somewhat grateful to Scientology's UK lawyers at Carter-Ruck when they sent the BBC photographs of me hugging Amy Scobee at the end of a long and at times harrowing series of interviews about her experiences.
The photographs were meant to demonstrate to my bosses at the BBC, once again, that I must be biased against the church as I was overly familiar with its critics.
This was, oddly enough, welcome proof that the people who had been following and filming us in the States were indeed working for the Church of Scientology. As Mike Rinder had said, I was not being paranoid - I was being followed.
The Secrets of Scientology: A Panorama Special, BBC One, Tuesday, 28 September at 2100BST and then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer.
By Business Card Designs
CHIPMUNKA watch blog - established 2008
extract
Thanks to Chipmunka for making Jason Pegler's autobiography, A Can of Madness, available free of charge.
link
http://chipmunkawatch.blogspot.com/2009/09/jason-pegler-is-rapist.html
Also, as requested by Chipmunka themselves, this post now comes with page numbers and screenshots of pages in case someone might think I made all this up.
Reading the book, painful as it may be, reveals some interesting things about the CEO of Chipmunka Publishing.
Let's start at page 21
Thanks to Chipmunka for making Jason Pegler's autobiography, A Can of Madness, available free of charge.
link
http://chipmunkawatch.blogspot.com/2009/09/jason-pegler-is-rapist.html
Reading the book, painful as it may be, reveals some interesting things about the CEO of Chipmunka Publishing.
Let's start at page 21
Making a Killing - Scientology video who's who
"source -http://forums.whyweprotest.net/12-current-projects/making-killing-interviewee-listing-megathread-32263/ Recently, Scientology ha..."
Recently, Scientology has released a "documentary" under CCHR, called "Making a killing". The documentary is available in 10 parts here:
Quote:
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 1
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 2
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 3
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 4
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 5
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 6
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 7
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 8
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 9
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 10
Now for the good stuff. This is a list the first instances of ALL interviewees whose names were shown (they have lots of nameless "psychiatrists" interviewed too). I have bolded ones of particular interest, greened potential "GOOD" contacts, and stricken out "BAD" contacts:
Quote:
Part 1:
Mike Adams - Consumer Health Advocate (1:44)
Pamela Seefeld - Clinical Pharmacist (1:58)
Ben Hansen - Investegative Researcher (2:04) Bonkers institute? More of a satirist than anything.
Dr. Pamela Popper - Clinic Founder & Director (2:09)
Gina Ross - Fmr. Psychiatric Clinical Supervisor (3:02)
Gwen Olsen - Fmr. Drug Sales Rep (3:13) On CCHR board
Dr. David Stein - Professor of Psychology Longwood University (3:20) On CCHR board
Michael Oldani - Fmr. Drug Sales Rep (4:50)
Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau - Fmr. Drug Sales Rep (4:55)
Shane Ellison - Fmr. Drug Research Chemist, Eli Lilly (5:04)
Kay Carlson - Fmr. Drug Sales Rep (5:23)
Jim Harper - Founder, Drug Rehab Program (7:02)
Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D - Author & Lecturer (7:17)
Dr. Garry Gordon - Physician (7:27)
Jonathan Emord - Attorney Emord & Assoc (8:09)
Dr. Ron Leifer - Psychiatrist (8:30)
Dr. Rima Laibow - Psychiatrist (8:47)
Dr. Thomas Dorman - Physician (9:10)
Timothy Scott - Psychologist (9:14)
Lauren DeWitt, R.Ph - Registered Pharmacist (9:37)
Part 2:
Dr. Thomas Szasz - Psychiatrist (0:31) Founder of CCHR
John Bosley - Fmr. Research Psychologist Natl. Inst of Mental Health (1:21)
John Sommers-Flanagan - Prof of Counselor Ed. University of Montana (1:29)
Andy Vickery - Trial Lawyer Vickery Waldner & Mallia LLP (1:51)
James Turner - Attorney Swankin & Turner (3:07)
Johnathan Emord - Attorney Emord & Assoc (3:35)
Ralph Fucetola - Attorney (3:47)
Rep. Dan Burton - U.S. Congressman (4:12)
Dr. Howard Brody - Bioethicist, Univ. of Texas (5:04)
Linda Eldridge - Health Care Consultant (6:52)
Dr. Holly Lucille - Physician (9:17)
Shane Ellison - Fmr. Drug Research Chemist, Eli Lilly (9:26)
Part 3:
Johnathan Emord - Attorney Emord & Assoc (0:01)
Evelyn Pringle - Investegative Journalist (0:37)
Arlene tessitore - Fmr. Manager Pharmaceutical Marketing Co.
Dr. Walter Afield - Psychiatrist (2:26)
Wynford Thomas - Fmr. Mental Health Social Worker (7:16)
Mike Adams - Consumer Health Advocate (8:00)
Part 4:
Ana Koenig - Fmr. Drug Sales Rep (6:19)
Part 5:
Derek Braslow - Trial Attorney Pogust Braslow, LLC (0:16)
Sach Oliver - Trial Attorney Bailey & Oliver (1:27)
Dr. James Chappell - Clinician (2:19) On CCHR board
Dr. Norman Shealy PH.D. - Neurosurgeon (5:35)
Dr. Michael Murray - Physician (5:42)
Bryan Hubbard - Author & Publisher (6:46)
Dr. Gary Null - Professor of Science Farleigh Dickinson University (9:11)
Part 6:
Dr. Colin Ross - Psychiatrist (1:50)
Allen Jones - Investegator, Office of Inspector General (ret) PA (1:51)
Dr. Tim O'Shea - Author & Lecturer (4:10)
Mary Starett - Investegative Reporter (3:14)
Frank Bailey - Attorney (6:06)
Beth Clay - Government Consultant (7:14) On CCHR board
Steven Plog - Fmr. CHADD Coordinator (7:35) On CCHR board
Part 7:
John Whitehead - Attorney for the Rhodes Family (1:44)
Nanci Wilson - Investegative Reporter (4:52)
Dr. Julian Whitaker - Physician (6:33) On CCHR board
G. Edward Griffin - Researcher & Author (7:38)
Kelly O'Meara - Investegative Journalist (7:57)
Dr. William Glasser - Psychiatrist - (9:54)
Part 8:
Genita Petralli - Nutritional Biochemist (0:40)
Dr. Matt Irwin - Physician (2:19)
Dr. Lance Durrett - Clinic Founder (4:32)
Dr. James O'Donnell - Assoc. Professor of Pharmacology Rush University (4:38)
Dr. Mary Ann Block - Physician (6:17) On CCHR board
Dr. Ludwig Lowenstein - Clinical Psychologist (6:32)
Dr. Sherri Tenpenny - Physician (6:57)
Ian Hartley - Medical Laboratory Scientific Officer (ret) (7:06)
Barbara Findeisen - Clinical Psychologist (7:19)
Stephen McCrea - Court Apointed Child Advocate (9:05)
Dr. Kurt Donsbach - Clinic Founder & Director (9:19)
Part 9:
Anthony Pellicci - Registered Nurse (0:10)
Jim Harper - Founder Drug Rehab Program (4:20)
Dr. Anne Coxon - Neurologist (4:25) On CCHR board.
Dr. John Friedberg - Neurologist (6:34)
Dr. Grace Jackson - Psychiatrist (6:45)
Dr. Gary Gohls - Physician (7:06)
Dr. Johnathan Wright - Physician (8:31)
Part 10:
Dr. Jerome Kassirer - Fmr. Editor New England Journal of Medicine (0:16)
Dr. Charles Ray Jones - Physician
Recently, Scientology has released a "documentary" under CCHR, called "Making a killing". The documentary is available in 10 parts here:
Quote:
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 1
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 2
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 3
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 4
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 5
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 6
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 7
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 8
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 9
YouTube - Making A Killing Pt 10
Now for the good stuff. This is a list the first instances of ALL interviewees whose names were shown (they have lots of nameless "psychiatrists" interviewed too). I have bolded ones of particular interest, greened potential "GOOD" contacts, and stricken out "BAD" contacts:
Quote:
Part 1:
Mike Adams - Consumer Health Advocate (1:44)
Pamela Seefeld - Clinical Pharmacist (1:58)
Ben Hansen - Investegative Researcher (2:04) Bonkers institute? More of a satirist than anything.
Dr. Pamela Popper - Clinic Founder & Director (2:09)
Gina Ross - Fmr. Psychiatric Clinical Supervisor (3:02)
Gwen Olsen - Fmr. Drug Sales Rep (3:13) On CCHR board
Dr. David Stein - Professor of Psychology Longwood University (3:20) On CCHR board
Michael Oldani - Fmr. Drug Sales Rep (4:50)
Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau - Fmr. Drug Sales Rep (4:55)
Shane Ellison - Fmr. Drug Research Chemist, Eli Lilly (5:04)
Kay Carlson - Fmr. Drug Sales Rep (5:23)
Jim Harper - Founder, Drug Rehab Program (7:02)
Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D - Author & Lecturer (7:17)
Dr. Garry Gordon - Physician (7:27)
Jonathan Emord - Attorney Emord & Assoc (8:09)
Dr. Ron Leifer - Psychiatrist (8:30)
Dr. Rima Laibow - Psychiatrist (8:47)
Dr. Thomas Dorman - Physician (9:10)
Timothy Scott - Psychologist (9:14)
Lauren DeWitt, R.Ph - Registered Pharmacist (9:37)
Part 2:
Dr. Thomas Szasz - Psychiatrist (0:31) Founder of CCHR
John Bosley - Fmr. Research Psychologist Natl. Inst of Mental Health (1:21)
John Sommers-Flanagan - Prof of Counselor Ed. University of Montana (1:29)
Andy Vickery - Trial Lawyer Vickery Waldner & Mallia LLP (1:51)
James Turner - Attorney Swankin & Turner (3:07)
Johnathan Emord - Attorney Emord & Assoc (3:35)
Ralph Fucetola - Attorney (3:47)
Rep. Dan Burton - U.S. Congressman (4:12)
Dr. Howard Brody - Bioethicist, Univ. of Texas (5:04)
Linda Eldridge - Health Care Consultant (6:52)
Dr. Holly Lucille - Physician (9:17)
Shane Ellison - Fmr. Drug Research Chemist, Eli Lilly (9:26)
Part 3:
Johnathan Emord - Attorney Emord & Assoc (0:01)
Evelyn Pringle - Investegative Journalist (0:37)
Arlene tessitore - Fmr. Manager Pharmaceutical Marketing Co.
Dr. Walter Afield - Psychiatrist (2:26)
Wynford Thomas - Fmr. Mental Health Social Worker (7:16)
Mike Adams - Consumer Health Advocate (8:00)
Part 4:
Ana Koenig - Fmr. Drug Sales Rep (6:19)
Part 5:
Derek Braslow - Trial Attorney Pogust Braslow, LLC (0:16)
Sach Oliver - Trial Attorney Bailey & Oliver (1:27)
Dr. James Chappell - Clinician (2:19) On CCHR board
Dr. Norman Shealy PH.D. - Neurosurgeon (5:35)
Dr. Michael Murray - Physician (5:42)
Bryan Hubbard - Author & Publisher (6:46)
Dr. Gary Null - Professor of Science Farleigh Dickinson University (9:11)
Part 6:
Dr. Colin Ross - Psychiatrist (1:50)
Allen Jones - Investegator, Office of Inspector General (ret) PA (1:51)
Dr. Tim O'Shea - Author & Lecturer (4:10)
Mary Starett - Investegative Reporter (3:14)
Frank Bailey - Attorney (6:06)
Beth Clay - Government Consultant (7:14) On CCHR board
Steven Plog - Fmr. CHADD Coordinator (7:35) On CCHR board
Part 7:
John Whitehead - Attorney for the Rhodes Family (1:44)
Nanci Wilson - Investegative Reporter (4:52)
Dr. Julian Whitaker - Physician (6:33) On CCHR board
G. Edward Griffin - Researcher & Author (7:38)
Kelly O'Meara - Investegative Journalist (7:57)
Dr. William Glasser - Psychiatrist - (9:54)
Part 8:
Genita Petralli - Nutritional Biochemist (0:40)
Dr. Matt Irwin - Physician (2:19)
Dr. Lance Durrett - Clinic Founder (4:32)
Dr. James O'Donnell - Assoc. Professor of Pharmacology Rush University (4:38)
Dr. Mary Ann Block - Physician (6:17) On CCHR board
Dr. Ludwig Lowenstein - Clinical Psychologist (6:32)
Dr. Sherri Tenpenny - Physician (6:57)
Ian Hartley - Medical Laboratory Scientific Officer (ret) (7:06)
Barbara Findeisen - Clinical Psychologist (7:19)
Stephen McCrea - Court Apointed Child Advocate (9:05)
Dr. Kurt Donsbach - Clinic Founder & Director (9:19)
Part 9:
Anthony Pellicci - Registered Nurse (0:10)
Jim Harper - Founder Drug Rehab Program (4:20)
Dr. Anne Coxon - Neurologist (4:25) On CCHR board.
Dr. John Friedberg - Neurologist (6:34)
Dr. Grace Jackson - Psychiatrist (6:45)
Dr. Gary Gohls - Physician (7:06)
Dr. Johnathan Wright - Physician (8:31)
Part 10:
Dr. Jerome Kassirer - Fmr. Editor New England Journal of Medicine (0:16)
Dr. Charles Ray Jones - Physician
Anonymised findings from the 239 responses were sent to MHRA
SEROXAT SUFFERERS - STAND UP AND BE COUNTED: Anonymised findings from the 239 responses were se...: "Mind is a mental health charity in England and Wales.... collaborated with Panorama in a survey of those who emailed the programme. Anonymis..."
Mind is a mental health charity in England and Wales....
collaborated with Panorama in a survey of those who emailed the programme. Anonymised findings from the 239 responses were sent to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory AgencyMedicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is a statutory body in the United Kingdom that seeks to find and eli...
(MHRA).(*)
Mind is a mental health charity in England and Wales....
collaborated with Panorama in a survey of those who emailed the programme. Anonymised findings from the 239 responses were sent to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory AgencyMedicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is a statutory body in the United Kingdom that seeks to find and eli...
(MHRA).(*)
SEROXAT SUFFERERS - STAND UP AND BE COUNTED: Panorama (TV series): Facts, Discussion Forum, and...
"Panorama (TV series): Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article http://66.102.9.132/search?q=cache:zkC5Fr9C0rMJ:www.absoluteastro..."
extract -
Panorama and Seroxat
Since 2002, Panorama has made four programmes about the anti-depressant Seroxat:
"The Secrets of Seroxat" (2002); "Seroxat: Emails from the Edge" (2003); "Taken on Trust" (2004) and "Secrets of the Drug Trials" (2007).
"The Secrets of Seroxat" elicited a record response from the public as 65,000 people called the BBC helpline and 1,300 people emailed Panorama directly.(*)
The leading mental health charity MindMind (charity)
Mind is a mental health charity in England and Wales....
collaborated with Panorama in a survey of those who emailed the programme. Anonymised findings from the 239 responses were sent to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory AgencyMedicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is a statutory body in the United Kingdom that seeks to find and eli...
(MHRA).(*)
The second Panorama programme on Seroxat, "Emails from the Edge", included a report of the survey to which the 239 people responded. It showed widespread experiences of suicidal feelings and other severe reactions, very bad withdrawal symptoms and lack of warnings from doctors. Following the broadcast users/survivors and Mind protested outside the offices of the MHRA.(*)
On January 29 2007, the fourth documentary in the series about the drug Seroxat was broadcast. It focused on three GlaxoSmithKlineGlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline plc is a British based pharmaceutical, biologicals, and healthcare company....
paediatric clinical trials on depressed children and adolescents. Data from the trials show that Seroxat could not be proven to work for teenagers. Not only that, one clinical trial indicated that they were six times more likely to become suicidal after taking it. In the programme, Panorama revealed the secret trail of internal emails which show how GlaxoSmithKline manipulated the results of the trials for its own commercial gain. Access to the documents has been gained as GlaxoSmithKline fights a fraud trial in the US.
Some of these previously secret Glaxo documents, featured in the programme were leaked into the internet following the programme's broadcast.
extract -
Panorama and Seroxat
Since 2002, Panorama has made four programmes about the anti-depressant Seroxat:
"The Secrets of Seroxat" (2002); "Seroxat: Emails from the Edge" (2003); "Taken on Trust" (2004) and "Secrets of the Drug Trials" (2007).
"The Secrets of Seroxat" elicited a record response from the public as 65,000 people called the BBC helpline and 1,300 people emailed Panorama directly.(*)
The leading mental health charity MindMind (charity)
Mind is a mental health charity in England and Wales....
collaborated with Panorama in a survey of those who emailed the programme. Anonymised findings from the 239 responses were sent to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory AgencyMedicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is a statutory body in the United Kingdom that seeks to find and eli...
(MHRA).(*)
The second Panorama programme on Seroxat, "Emails from the Edge", included a report of the survey to which the 239 people responded. It showed widespread experiences of suicidal feelings and other severe reactions, very bad withdrawal symptoms and lack of warnings from doctors. Following the broadcast users/survivors and Mind protested outside the offices of the MHRA.(*)
On January 29 2007, the fourth documentary in the series about the drug Seroxat was broadcast. It focused on three GlaxoSmithKlineGlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline plc is a British based pharmaceutical, biologicals, and healthcare company....
paediatric clinical trials on depressed children and adolescents. Data from the trials show that Seroxat could not be proven to work for teenagers. Not only that, one clinical trial indicated that they were six times more likely to become suicidal after taking it. In the programme, Panorama revealed the secret trail of internal emails which show how GlaxoSmithKline manipulated the results of the trials for its own commercial gain. Access to the documents has been gained as GlaxoSmithKline fights a fraud trial in the US.
Some of these previously secret Glaxo documents, featured in the programme were leaked into the internet following the programme's broadcast.
Saturday, 25 September 2010
Fiddaman's publisher locked the door to rape teenage the girl - update
extract from Fiddaman's publishers own book ~~~ "a can of madness by Jason Pegler"
source - http://chipmunkawatch.blogspot.com/
Let's start at page 21:
Note: "they wouldn’t let me have sex with them," "I did manage to push it in to one of them but she wriggled off," and "I started fucking one who had passed out but she woke up."
again from - http://chipmunkawatch.blogspot.com/
UPDATE: In reviewing the text for Chipmunka, I found something I overlooked the first time, immediately following the text quoted above. "Her friends broke in and gave
her a bath to sober her up." Her friends broke in, past the door that Jason Pegler locked in order to rape a girl who was passed out drunk.
source - http://chipmunkawatch.blogspot.com/
Let's start at page 21:
I also remember having an aching hard-on with several naked girls when I was 14 but they wouldn’t let me have sex with them – either because they didn’t want to get pregnant or because they didn’t want to be called slags. There again, I did manage to push it in to one of them but she wriggled off. In the event, I started fucking one who had passed out but she woke up barfing on my shoe.
again from - http://chipmunkawatch.blogspot.com/
UPDATE: In reviewing the text for Chipmunka, I found something I overlooked the first time, immediately following the text quoted above. "Her friends broke in and gave
her a bath to sober her up." Her friends broke in, past the door that Jason Pegler locked in order to rape a girl who was passed out drunk.
Scientology targeting Irish schools
Narcanon - License Agreement: Narconon International/Centers—Marks
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Stop-Narconon/Documents/nn_lic_agr.pdf
..... consider this passage taken from License Agreement: Narconon International/Centers—Marks, a contract between any Narconon center and Narconon International:
"... particularly including the promise to actively use the [Narconon trademark] in advancing and disseminating the Hubbard Philosophy and Technology in accordance with [Hubbard's written and recorded spoken works] in [Narconon Rehabilitation Center's] field and to promote and protect the Hubbard Philosophy and Technology"
Now consider this statement from the Religious Technology Center — the self-described 'guardian' of Scientology scripture [ref] — states:
"The Scientology religion is based exclusively upon L. Ron Hubbard's research, writings and recorded lectures — all of which constitute the Scriptures of the religion. These encompass more than 500,000 pages of writings, nearly 3,000 recorded lectures and more than 100 films." [ref]
..... consider this passage taken from License Agreement: Narconon International/Centers—Marks, a contract between any Narconon center and Narconon International:
"... particularly including the promise to actively use the [Narconon trademark] in advancing and disseminating the Hubbard Philosophy and Technology in accordance with [Hubbard's written and recorded spoken works] in [Narconon Rehabilitation Center's] field and to promote and protect the Hubbard Philosophy and Technology"
Now consider this statement from the Religious Technology Center — the self-described 'guardian' of Scientology scripture [ref] — states:
"The Scientology religion is based exclusively upon L. Ron Hubbard's research, writings and recorded lectures — all of which constitute the Scriptures of the religion. These encompass more than 500,000 pages of writings, nearly 3,000 recorded lectures and more than 100 films." [ref]
Narconon UK President implodes on-air (repost) - 1997
Subject: 1997 - Narconon UK President implodes on-air (repost)
http://www.holysmoke.org/narconon/narconon-president-imploded.htm
Repost
From: Chris Owen
Subject: UK MEDIA: Narconon UK President implodes on-air
The following interview was conducted on 20 December 1997 by a local radio station in Guildford, Surrey. The Mayor of the town had earlier withdrawn at the last minute from the opening of a helpline by the Narconon drugs rehabilitation centre, described by the US IRS as a "Scientology-related organisation".
The presenter of the station's morning programme, Johnny Greenwood, subsequently interviewed John Wood, the UK President of Narconon. However, the interview rapidly descended into a farcical slanging match which, if the Mayor was listening, would surely have confirmed that she was right to withdraw her support for Narconon. Although Greenwood repeats the same question no less than eight times, Wood refuses to answer and instead launches into vitriolic attacks against the programme's researcher (!).
The interview can be heard in streaming RealAudio from: http://www.spirant.demon.co.uk/sound/Narconon.ram
And it can be downloaded for offline playing from: http://www.spirant.demon.co.uk/sound/Narconon.ra
My thanks to Sol for the recording and help with the transcription.
For more information about Narconon, see the critical web pages at: http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~cowen/essays/narconon/narconon.html
---------- Interview, Radio Guildford (?), 20 December 1997 transcript here
PRESENTER: It was decided not to open a drugs helpline in the town this afternoon. Councillor Linda Strudwick says that when she agreed to officiate the opening of the Narconon drugs helpline, she was unaware of the organisation's links with the Church of Scientology and controversy over its methods. Her office now says it will be doing more research on Narconon before agreeing to having any more official involvement.
In a moment we'll be speaking to John Woods, who is the UK President of Narconon. First, though, our reporter Nicola Downs has been looking at the organisation.
NICOLA DOWNS: Narconon describes itself as a totally drug-free, highly effective programme to rehabilitate drug or alcohol users and put them back in control of their lives. It uses methods devised by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology. The programme was first made available to the public in 1972 but since then its unusual and unconventional methods have caused controversy. "Claire", who has asked to remain anonymous, took part in a Narconon project to give moral support to her boyfriend, who is addicted to heroin. She describes some of the methods used by Narconon to wean him off drugs:
"CLAIRE": I know what Phil went through because I went through the same thing. Some of you were doing the things called "training your TRs", as they're called, where you sit and stare into somebody's eyes and you pass and fail things, and sometimes you're not allowed to blink, and there's another one called "TR Bullbait" where you sit and stare as people sort of hurl abuse at you and try to get you to grin or move. You're not support to react to noises, smacks close to your face and all sorts of things like that - you're not supposed to react.
NICOLA DOWNS: And she says she was surprised by some of the other methods used.
"CLAIRE": They said that some drug usement [sic], even me having been injected in my mouth for my fillings, all of these things get taken into into our body and actually get trapped in the fat cells, and you have to go into this sauna, you go for half an hour's jog, you take lots of vitamins and minerals. You take these, you go out for a jog for half an hour, then you come back and sit in the sauna for four and a half hours. They say that the heat and the vitamins stimulate the things in your body and they come out of you. You expect that you're going to survive it, but when you're with somebody who is so keen to feel like they want their lives back you'll just go through anything. I was absolutely convinced that what they were telling me was true, that they were going to cure him.
NICOLA DOWNS: John Garrows is a Professor of Human Nutrition who's head of the department at St Bart's Medical School in London. We asked him if in his opinion giving drug addicts doses of minerals and vitamins, as is described in Narconon's literature, and experienced by "Claire" and her boyfriend, is effective in detoxifying them.
JOHN GARROWS: On theoretical grounds I don't know why the programme of exercise and drugs and saunas and so forth should be particularly effective, nor do I know of any trials in which they compared their programme with anybody else's programme in a properly controlled manner and starting with the same sort of people at the beginning.
NICOLA DOWNS: And forensic psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Tylden says she treated half a dozen people at her London practice suffering from what she sees as the ill-effects of the Narconon programme.
DR TYLDEN: Some of the advice that they were given would be OK, but the programme hasn't been effective in the people who I've known who've tried to use it. I've come across people who've looked extremely ill.
NICOLA DOWNS: One of the criticisms of Narconon which have been aired is that it is not sufficiently upfront about its links with Scientology. "Claire" says that she was positively encouraged by Narconon to go to the Scientology headquarters in East Grinstead for help in getting over her depression about her boyfriend's problem.
"CLAIRE": It wasn't explained to me like that, that they - what happened was that Phil got quite thin and very stressed-out and I was getting very upset because I didn't know what was happening to him. I was told that there was a way that could help me and I kept saying to Sheila, "What is that way that would help me?", I said "Is it Narconon?" "No no no, it's not Narconon, not Narconon but quite similar," and I was sent to a man's house in East Grinstead. He was a member of the Church of Scientology and they have a special way of dealing with things. I was given a freebie of this certain way that they do things.
NICOLA DOWNS: After several weeks on the Narconon programme, Claire's boyfriend went back to taking heroin and is currently in prison. The Narconon rehab clinic he attended is no longer open. In fact Narconon currently has no drug rehab clinics in the UK at all. Those who enrol must travel to Holland.
PRESENTER: Well, that was our reporter, Nicola Downs, reporting there. And John Wood of Narconon joins me now. Good morning, John.
JOHN WOOD: Good morning.
PRESENTER: The first criticism contained in the report there that I've like to ask you about - in your leaflet, which I've got in front of me - "Give them the truth and they'll see the lies" - the word Scientology doesn't appear at all. Why not?
JOHN WOOD: I don't see why it should. I mean, Narconon is an effective drug rehabilitation centre. It is also a tested method of warning children about the dangers of drugs. Now, L. Ron Hubbard wrote many techniques to overcome many of society's ills. There's a whole range of issues - solutions to develop in society - how you - I don't see why every time his name is mentioned all of them should be mentioned next to it.
PRESENTER: Well, just to pick you up on that at the moment, what were Mr. Hubbard's qualifications for this?
JOHN WOOD: Well, he was an expert in I think 29 different fields.
PRESENTER: Well, according to the Board of Mental Health in the State of Oklahoma, and this was written in 1991, they said that they threw out the certification of Narconon purely because he had no professional qualifications and was not really fitted to quote on it.
JOHN WOOD: No. You've got old information there. Your researchers didn't do their job properly. Can I just - Can I just start again? Listen: we are saving people's lives. Narconon is an effective drug rehabilitation centre. Now, what has happened here, right, is that controversy has been created by your researcher on purpose because that's his job. That's how he feels he gets his reward, by creating controversy. He has gone through - on that tape he has gone to people who are know - going to say something untrue about it. How come he hasn't gone to - There are a hundred and forty thousand people in the world who say their lives have been saved thanks to Narconon.
PRESENTER: Where has this research been published?
JOHN WOOD: No, they're all over the world. The testimonials - Sorry, there's no doubt that Narconon is the most effective drug rehabilitation method in the world -
PRESENTER: Where is the published research?
JOHN WOOD: There are plenty of reports that have been conducted -
PRESENTER: Like where, for example?
JOHN WOOD: Well, perhaps - Well, there have been tests done in Sweden, in Spain and various other regions written up in the Journal of Toxicology. But the problem is that your researcher went out of the way to create controversy.
PRESENTER: Well, this is your opportunity to tell -
JOHN WOOD: Absolutely - No, I would rather say I -
(both talk at once)
PRESENTER: You're not telling me where I can go to, an accredited body in *this* country which has scientific approval, to tell me that your Narconon is an effective treatment against drugs.
JOHN WOOD: Well, the effective - the place to go is to meet the people - Why don't your researchers ever contact people who have done the programme? My own - my own friend, my best friend - I was at university with him at this university in the eighties, he was an alcoholic. He says his life was saved. He tells me himself his life was saved by drugs [sic]. He's a Guildford man who was injecting methadone for fourteen years. And he would never be - Narconon -
PRESENTER: I'm not suggesting that nobody's ever benefited from your programme, I'm saying that the fact that we do not seem to have any written evidence from what people would recognise as a properly qualified clinical body in the United Kingdom to give you the full accreditation -
(JOHN WOOD tries to interrupt)
PRESENTER: - to be an accredited anti-narcotics agency. Why not?
JOHN WOOD: It is not a clinical agency. It is not medical. That's the main reason.
PRESENTER: So it's psychological?
JOHN WOOD: No - I mean, when the centre operated in the UK, in Dover, and in Crowborough [near East Grinstead], we are authorised as a registered care home for those who phone in from Social Services to be put into the care home and we received funding from the Social Services programme. And - If we were medical, we would have to be a nursing home, so I'm sorry but it's more than medical treatment. If you like to call it psychological, it basically deals with the reasons someone got involved in drugs in the first place -
PRESENTER: All right -
JOHN WOOD: - and how to overcome it.
PRESENTER: So you're saying that people who deal with drugs are, we know, enormously vulnerable, and especially when you're getting them off it they go through all kinds of psychological dark shadows which are being brought out. Now, you say you're not medical and you're not psychiatric, so what qualifies you to do this?
JOHN WOOD: Well - God! - we've got nothing to do with *psychiatry* - their practices are *dangerous*! They put people on - now listen to this - psychiatrists put people *on* an addictive substance more addictive than the drugs they were taking in the first place. They replace heroin -
PRESENTER: Now I have no medical qualifications so I can't argue with you on that. What I am saying is two things, and you still haven't answered my first question. Why is there no published research by an accredited body in the UK which says that Narconon is a proper agency doing a good job?
JOHN WOOD: Well, there's no such report in the UK, however there are plenty of international ones - The thing is, Narconon is standard throughout the world. It's the same programme - the withdrawal programme, the sauna detoxification, as spoken about in that tape, and methods looking at that person's ethics, honesty - restoring - You see, the real issue here is drugs cause enormous destruction in society. You know, what are we talking about here? It's the parent's greatest fear, that their children would be involved in drugs. Addicts are involved in crime, we're talking about robbery, we're talking about AIDS from needles - we're talking about -
PRESENTER: Nobody's arguing about the drugs menace. What we're talking - It's not the subject we're discussing here. The subject we're discussing here is whether Narconon is an effective treatment for drugs or a front for the Scientology movement.
JOHN WOOD: Oh, please. I mean - There are experts throughout the world - I could supply you - your researcher - never even tried but they went out of their way to find only negative reports -
PRESENTER: Can you give the names of any two agencies in this country that we can telephone and get official accreditation for Narconon?
JOHN WOOD: Well, I don't really know what you mean by "official accreditation".
PRESENTER: Well, I mean, for example the one I quoted - admittedly - from seven or eight years ago which says that certification was refused, this was the one in America - here we are, the Board of Mental Health for the State of Oklahoma - now, you must have, presumably, acceptances from people who are not the Board of Mental Health for the State of Oklahoma.
JOHN WOOD: Oh, yes - now, you see - this is going to be embarrassing for you, I'm afraid - the thing you are putting out there - the Oklahoma Board of Mental Health - What actually happened is that psychiatrists that are controlling that, run that mental health board, refused a licence to Narconon because their own methods are ineffective, they were going to be embarrassed. The vested interests in their methadone treatment and all their -
PRESENTER interrupts, both talk across each other
JOHN WOOD: This is the truth. I'm telling you the truth here -
PRESENTER: That's what they say -
(Both speak together)
JOHN WOOD: - No - Please - Can I - Give me a chance to answer the question. Thank you. Now, this was back in '91 or whatever it is and that was some very up to date information you've got there. Now, what happened after the licence was refused is that an organisation called CARF [Commission for Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities] - it is basically in America a five - If you get accreditation from the organisation CARF, which is a five-star organisation, and we have - it has - The accreditation from that is the best. It is the stamp of approval. After, given all of that, the Mental Health Board looked stupid and they gave a licence because they just -
PRESENTER (interrupting): Are you saying it does now have a licence?
JOHN WOOD: Absolutely. *Absolutely*. It is recognised by CARF and many others in the UK.
PRESENTER: Do you have any documentary evidence of this?
JOHN WOOD: I can get it to you with pleasure. It's in my car, I haven't actually got it any of the things right here - I can give to you in a second.
PRESENTER: I do apologise, you've given me a lot of anecdotal evidence, and that's something which is fine, except that - you must know this as a Scientologist yourself - the Church of Scientology comes in for a fair amount of criticism, and I'm not saying that it deserves it all, I don't know anything about it. (WOOD in background: "Right.") What I am saying is - you must know that whatever you do is going to come into this - shouldn't you be belt-and-braces, copper-bottomed, absolutely solid gold with your research printed material before you go into any of this?
JOHN WOOD: Well, I have a report that Jonathon never asked for, which is called -
(PRESENTER interrupts)
JOHN WOOD: - it has all the details there -
PRESENTER: You're accusing our researcher of having it in for you -
JOHN WOOD: Yeah.
PRESENTER: - and yet you're saying you had a report which explains -
JOHN WOOD: Which he never asked for -
PRESENTER: But why didn't you volunteer to give it to him?
JOHN WOOD: What the hell, he's the researcher. He's doing the research behind our backs. I'm sorry, he never asked me. He could have gone to plenty of addicts - He could -
PRESENTER: That's like somebody accused of burglary saying I never gave an alibi because they never asked me for one.
JOHN WOOD: Well, I mean, I gave you the press release, you've got Scientology and all the details - They're all here (rustles paper).
PRESENTER: I'd like to see that.
JOHN WOOD: OK, it's completely there. It's talking about the Jive Aces, promoting the book "Scientology: Fundamentals of Thought". OK. He never called me and said, "Can I be introduced to someone who has done the programme - who's said it's saved my life", but -
PRESENTER: We did. He did ask this agency in London everything he had on you -
JOHN WOOD: Yeah but -
PRESENTER: - and what we've got is basically all your own publications here, plus - there's also another one here, from the Ministry of Public Health of the Russian Federation, refusing certification to Narconon.
JOHN WOOD: Let's update and - You know, he's purposefully gone out of his way to create controversy, which is inexcusable. We're working on this serious drug problem. We're, we're -
(PRESENTER and WOOD talk across each other briefly)
PRESENTER: But if they haven't got all the information that's your fault for not telling them.
JOHN WOOD: OK. Sure, OK. I admit - Sorry, I should have made sure that the agencies that he went to had all the latest information - they haven't. Thank you very much for pointing that out to me. The fact is - Look, locally here we have five percent of eleven-year-olds using cannabis.
PRESENTER: This is not the issue, John. The issue is not drugs. The issue is (a) does Narconon work and (b) is it a front for Scientology? And you haven't answered either of those questions.
JOHN WOOD: Yes, it does work, it's the most effective rehab in the world.
PRESENTER: And is it a front for Scientology?
JOHN WOOD: No - that is - that is irrelevant. Firstly -
PRESENTER: I must take issue with you there. You are dealing with people, in sauna baths for hours at a time, who are at their most vulnerable, their most self-doubting, at their most desperate. You've got the opportunity to - I'm not suggesting that you do this, I'm saying that the opportunity would be there if you were to take it to put any thoughts you wanted into their minds.
JOHN WOOD: Please - listen to this! - What Narconon really does, is take a person who is an addict. I'm talking about a life of crime, I'm talking about overdosing and AIDS and so on. It was - he had no choice. He is a slave to the drugs. He has to rob you, your house, my house, to survive, right? Narconon takes a person like that, restores his life, gives him some honesty, gives him a life back, gives him the ability to work, no longer a burden on the taxpayer. That's fantastic. That is fantastic. That is actually giving a person his life back.
PRESENTER: But once again, you still haven't - When will you be able to present us with hard, black-and-white evidence signed by someone in the Department of Health saying yes, Narconon is a good and effective treatment for drug rehabilitation and it has no strings of any other kind attached to it? When?
JOHN WOOD: In about five minutes. It's in my boot. Do you want to hang on?
PRESENTER: Well, we'll have to leave it there for the moment but, John, if you want to bring it in I'll certainly have a look at it.
JOHN WOOD: Thanks, I will.
PRESENTER: Thank you very much indeed. John Wood, from Narconon - pulling a face - thank you very much.
JOHN WOOD: Thank you.
[END]
http://www.holysmoke.org/narconon/narconon-president-imploded.htm
Repost
From: Chris Owen
Subject: UK MEDIA: Narconon UK President implodes on-air
The following interview was conducted on 20 December 1997 by a local radio station in Guildford, Surrey. The Mayor of the town had earlier withdrawn at the last minute from the opening of a helpline by the Narconon drugs rehabilitation centre, described by the US IRS as a "Scientology-related organisation".
The presenter of the station's morning programme, Johnny Greenwood, subsequently interviewed John Wood, the UK President of Narconon. However, the interview rapidly descended into a farcical slanging match which, if the Mayor was listening, would surely have confirmed that she was right to withdraw her support for Narconon. Although Greenwood repeats the same question no less than eight times, Wood refuses to answer and instead launches into vitriolic attacks against the programme's researcher (!).
The interview can be heard in streaming RealAudio from: http://www.spirant.demon.co.uk/sound/Narconon.ram
And it can be downloaded for offline playing from: http://www.spirant.demon.co.uk/sound/Narconon.ra
My thanks to Sol for the recording and help with the transcription.
For more information about Narconon, see the critical web pages at: http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~cowen/essays/narconon/narconon.html
---------- Interview, Radio Guildford (?), 20 December 1997 transcript here
PRESENTER: It was decided not to open a drugs helpline in the town this afternoon. Councillor Linda Strudwick says that when she agreed to officiate the opening of the Narconon drugs helpline, she was unaware of the organisation's links with the Church of Scientology and controversy over its methods. Her office now says it will be doing more research on Narconon before agreeing to having any more official involvement.
In a moment we'll be speaking to John Woods, who is the UK President of Narconon. First, though, our reporter Nicola Downs has been looking at the organisation.
NICOLA DOWNS: Narconon describes itself as a totally drug-free, highly effective programme to rehabilitate drug or alcohol users and put them back in control of their lives. It uses methods devised by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology. The programme was first made available to the public in 1972 but since then its unusual and unconventional methods have caused controversy. "Claire", who has asked to remain anonymous, took part in a Narconon project to give moral support to her boyfriend, who is addicted to heroin. She describes some of the methods used by Narconon to wean him off drugs:
"CLAIRE": I know what Phil went through because I went through the same thing. Some of you were doing the things called "training your TRs", as they're called, where you sit and stare into somebody's eyes and you pass and fail things, and sometimes you're not allowed to blink, and there's another one called "TR Bullbait" where you sit and stare as people sort of hurl abuse at you and try to get you to grin or move. You're not support to react to noises, smacks close to your face and all sorts of things like that - you're not supposed to react.
NICOLA DOWNS: And she says she was surprised by some of the other methods used.
"CLAIRE": They said that some drug usement [sic], even me having been injected in my mouth for my fillings, all of these things get taken into into our body and actually get trapped in the fat cells, and you have to go into this sauna, you go for half an hour's jog, you take lots of vitamins and minerals. You take these, you go out for a jog for half an hour, then you come back and sit in the sauna for four and a half hours. They say that the heat and the vitamins stimulate the things in your body and they come out of you. You expect that you're going to survive it, but when you're with somebody who is so keen to feel like they want their lives back you'll just go through anything. I was absolutely convinced that what they were telling me was true, that they were going to cure him.
NICOLA DOWNS: John Garrows is a Professor of Human Nutrition who's head of the department at St Bart's Medical School in London. We asked him if in his opinion giving drug addicts doses of minerals and vitamins, as is described in Narconon's literature, and experienced by "Claire" and her boyfriend, is effective in detoxifying them.
JOHN GARROWS: On theoretical grounds I don't know why the programme of exercise and drugs and saunas and so forth should be particularly effective, nor do I know of any trials in which they compared their programme with anybody else's programme in a properly controlled manner and starting with the same sort of people at the beginning.
NICOLA DOWNS: And forensic psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Tylden says she treated half a dozen people at her London practice suffering from what she sees as the ill-effects of the Narconon programme.
DR TYLDEN: Some of the advice that they were given would be OK, but the programme hasn't been effective in the people who I've known who've tried to use it. I've come across people who've looked extremely ill.
NICOLA DOWNS: One of the criticisms of Narconon which have been aired is that it is not sufficiently upfront about its links with Scientology. "Claire" says that she was positively encouraged by Narconon to go to the Scientology headquarters in East Grinstead for help in getting over her depression about her boyfriend's problem.
"CLAIRE": It wasn't explained to me like that, that they - what happened was that Phil got quite thin and very stressed-out and I was getting very upset because I didn't know what was happening to him. I was told that there was a way that could help me and I kept saying to Sheila, "What is that way that would help me?", I said "Is it Narconon?" "No no no, it's not Narconon, not Narconon but quite similar," and I was sent to a man's house in East Grinstead. He was a member of the Church of Scientology and they have a special way of dealing with things. I was given a freebie of this certain way that they do things.
NICOLA DOWNS: After several weeks on the Narconon programme, Claire's boyfriend went back to taking heroin and is currently in prison. The Narconon rehab clinic he attended is no longer open. In fact Narconon currently has no drug rehab clinics in the UK at all. Those who enrol must travel to Holland.
PRESENTER: Well, that was our reporter, Nicola Downs, reporting there. And John Wood of Narconon joins me now. Good morning, John.
JOHN WOOD: Good morning.
PRESENTER: The first criticism contained in the report there that I've like to ask you about - in your leaflet, which I've got in front of me - "Give them the truth and they'll see the lies" - the word Scientology doesn't appear at all. Why not?
JOHN WOOD: I don't see why it should. I mean, Narconon is an effective drug rehabilitation centre. It is also a tested method of warning children about the dangers of drugs. Now, L. Ron Hubbard wrote many techniques to overcome many of society's ills. There's a whole range of issues - solutions to develop in society - how you - I don't see why every time his name is mentioned all of them should be mentioned next to it.
PRESENTER: Well, just to pick you up on that at the moment, what were Mr. Hubbard's qualifications for this?
JOHN WOOD: Well, he was an expert in I think 29 different fields.
PRESENTER: Well, according to the Board of Mental Health in the State of Oklahoma, and this was written in 1991, they said that they threw out the certification of Narconon purely because he had no professional qualifications and was not really fitted to quote on it.
JOHN WOOD: No. You've got old information there. Your researchers didn't do their job properly. Can I just - Can I just start again? Listen: we are saving people's lives. Narconon is an effective drug rehabilitation centre. Now, what has happened here, right, is that controversy has been created by your researcher on purpose because that's his job. That's how he feels he gets his reward, by creating controversy. He has gone through - on that tape he has gone to people who are know - going to say something untrue about it. How come he hasn't gone to - There are a hundred and forty thousand people in the world who say their lives have been saved thanks to Narconon.
PRESENTER: Where has this research been published?
JOHN WOOD: No, they're all over the world. The testimonials - Sorry, there's no doubt that Narconon is the most effective drug rehabilitation method in the world -
PRESENTER: Where is the published research?
JOHN WOOD: There are plenty of reports that have been conducted -
PRESENTER: Like where, for example?
JOHN WOOD: Well, perhaps - Well, there have been tests done in Sweden, in Spain and various other regions written up in the Journal of Toxicology. But the problem is that your researcher went out of the way to create controversy.
PRESENTER: Well, this is your opportunity to tell -
JOHN WOOD: Absolutely - No, I would rather say I -
(both talk at once)
PRESENTER: You're not telling me where I can go to, an accredited body in *this* country which has scientific approval, to tell me that your Narconon is an effective treatment against drugs.
JOHN WOOD: Well, the effective - the place to go is to meet the people - Why don't your researchers ever contact people who have done the programme? My own - my own friend, my best friend - I was at university with him at this university in the eighties, he was an alcoholic. He says his life was saved. He tells me himself his life was saved by drugs [sic]. He's a Guildford man who was injecting methadone for fourteen years. And he would never be - Narconon -
PRESENTER: I'm not suggesting that nobody's ever benefited from your programme, I'm saying that the fact that we do not seem to have any written evidence from what people would recognise as a properly qualified clinical body in the United Kingdom to give you the full accreditation -
(JOHN WOOD tries to interrupt)
PRESENTER: - to be an accredited anti-narcotics agency. Why not?
JOHN WOOD: It is not a clinical agency. It is not medical. That's the main reason.
PRESENTER: So it's psychological?
JOHN WOOD: No - I mean, when the centre operated in the UK, in Dover, and in Crowborough [near East Grinstead], we are authorised as a registered care home for those who phone in from Social Services to be put into the care home and we received funding from the Social Services programme. And - If we were medical, we would have to be a nursing home, so I'm sorry but it's more than medical treatment. If you like to call it psychological, it basically deals with the reasons someone got involved in drugs in the first place -
PRESENTER: All right -
JOHN WOOD: - and how to overcome it.
PRESENTER: So you're saying that people who deal with drugs are, we know, enormously vulnerable, and especially when you're getting them off it they go through all kinds of psychological dark shadows which are being brought out. Now, you say you're not medical and you're not psychiatric, so what qualifies you to do this?
JOHN WOOD: Well - God! - we've got nothing to do with *psychiatry* - their practices are *dangerous*! They put people on - now listen to this - psychiatrists put people *on* an addictive substance more addictive than the drugs they were taking in the first place. They replace heroin -
PRESENTER: Now I have no medical qualifications so I can't argue with you on that. What I am saying is two things, and you still haven't answered my first question. Why is there no published research by an accredited body in the UK which says that Narconon is a proper agency doing a good job?
JOHN WOOD: Well, there's no such report in the UK, however there are plenty of international ones - The thing is, Narconon is standard throughout the world. It's the same programme - the withdrawal programme, the sauna detoxification, as spoken about in that tape, and methods looking at that person's ethics, honesty - restoring - You see, the real issue here is drugs cause enormous destruction in society. You know, what are we talking about here? It's the parent's greatest fear, that their children would be involved in drugs. Addicts are involved in crime, we're talking about robbery, we're talking about AIDS from needles - we're talking about -
PRESENTER: Nobody's arguing about the drugs menace. What we're talking - It's not the subject we're discussing here. The subject we're discussing here is whether Narconon is an effective treatment for drugs or a front for the Scientology movement.
JOHN WOOD: Oh, please. I mean - There are experts throughout the world - I could supply you - your researcher - never even tried but they went out of their way to find only negative reports -
PRESENTER: Can you give the names of any two agencies in this country that we can telephone and get official accreditation for Narconon?
JOHN WOOD: Well, I don't really know what you mean by "official accreditation".
PRESENTER: Well, I mean, for example the one I quoted - admittedly - from seven or eight years ago which says that certification was refused, this was the one in America - here we are, the Board of Mental Health for the State of Oklahoma - now, you must have, presumably, acceptances from people who are not the Board of Mental Health for the State of Oklahoma.
JOHN WOOD: Oh, yes - now, you see - this is going to be embarrassing for you, I'm afraid - the thing you are putting out there - the Oklahoma Board of Mental Health - What actually happened is that psychiatrists that are controlling that, run that mental health board, refused a licence to Narconon because their own methods are ineffective, they were going to be embarrassed. The vested interests in their methadone treatment and all their -
PRESENTER interrupts, both talk across each other
JOHN WOOD: This is the truth. I'm telling you the truth here -
PRESENTER: That's what they say -
(Both speak together)
JOHN WOOD: - No - Please - Can I - Give me a chance to answer the question. Thank you. Now, this was back in '91 or whatever it is and that was some very up to date information you've got there. Now, what happened after the licence was refused is that an organisation called CARF [Commission for Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities] - it is basically in America a five - If you get accreditation from the organisation CARF, which is a five-star organisation, and we have - it has - The accreditation from that is the best. It is the stamp of approval. After, given all of that, the Mental Health Board looked stupid and they gave a licence because they just -
PRESENTER (interrupting): Are you saying it does now have a licence?
JOHN WOOD: Absolutely. *Absolutely*. It is recognised by CARF and many others in the UK.
PRESENTER: Do you have any documentary evidence of this?
JOHN WOOD: I can get it to you with pleasure. It's in my car, I haven't actually got it any of the things right here - I can give to you in a second.
PRESENTER: I do apologise, you've given me a lot of anecdotal evidence, and that's something which is fine, except that - you must know this as a Scientologist yourself - the Church of Scientology comes in for a fair amount of criticism, and I'm not saying that it deserves it all, I don't know anything about it. (WOOD in background: "Right.") What I am saying is - you must know that whatever you do is going to come into this - shouldn't you be belt-and-braces, copper-bottomed, absolutely solid gold with your research printed material before you go into any of this?
JOHN WOOD: Well, I have a report that Jonathon never asked for, which is called -
(PRESENTER interrupts)
JOHN WOOD: - it has all the details there -
PRESENTER: You're accusing our researcher of having it in for you -
JOHN WOOD: Yeah.
PRESENTER: - and yet you're saying you had a report which explains -
JOHN WOOD: Which he never asked for -
PRESENTER: But why didn't you volunteer to give it to him?
JOHN WOOD: What the hell, he's the researcher. He's doing the research behind our backs. I'm sorry, he never asked me. He could have gone to plenty of addicts - He could -
PRESENTER: That's like somebody accused of burglary saying I never gave an alibi because they never asked me for one.
JOHN WOOD: Well, I mean, I gave you the press release, you've got Scientology and all the details - They're all here (rustles paper).
PRESENTER: I'd like to see that.
JOHN WOOD: OK, it's completely there. It's talking about the Jive Aces, promoting the book "Scientology: Fundamentals of Thought". OK. He never called me and said, "Can I be introduced to someone who has done the programme - who's said it's saved my life", but -
PRESENTER: We did. He did ask this agency in London everything he had on you -
JOHN WOOD: Yeah but -
PRESENTER: - and what we've got is basically all your own publications here, plus - there's also another one here, from the Ministry of Public Health of the Russian Federation, refusing certification to Narconon.
JOHN WOOD: Let's update and - You know, he's purposefully gone out of his way to create controversy, which is inexcusable. We're working on this serious drug problem. We're, we're -
(PRESENTER and WOOD talk across each other briefly)
PRESENTER: But if they haven't got all the information that's your fault for not telling them.
JOHN WOOD: OK. Sure, OK. I admit - Sorry, I should have made sure that the agencies that he went to had all the latest information - they haven't. Thank you very much for pointing that out to me. The fact is - Look, locally here we have five percent of eleven-year-olds using cannabis.
PRESENTER: This is not the issue, John. The issue is not drugs. The issue is (a) does Narconon work and (b) is it a front for Scientology? And you haven't answered either of those questions.
JOHN WOOD: Yes, it does work, it's the most effective rehab in the world.
PRESENTER: And is it a front for Scientology?
JOHN WOOD: No - that is - that is irrelevant. Firstly -
PRESENTER: I must take issue with you there. You are dealing with people, in sauna baths for hours at a time, who are at their most vulnerable, their most self-doubting, at their most desperate. You've got the opportunity to - I'm not suggesting that you do this, I'm saying that the opportunity would be there if you were to take it to put any thoughts you wanted into their minds.
JOHN WOOD: Please - listen to this! - What Narconon really does, is take a person who is an addict. I'm talking about a life of crime, I'm talking about overdosing and AIDS and so on. It was - he had no choice. He is a slave to the drugs. He has to rob you, your house, my house, to survive, right? Narconon takes a person like that, restores his life, gives him some honesty, gives him a life back, gives him the ability to work, no longer a burden on the taxpayer. That's fantastic. That is fantastic. That is actually giving a person his life back.
PRESENTER: But once again, you still haven't - When will you be able to present us with hard, black-and-white evidence signed by someone in the Department of Health saying yes, Narconon is a good and effective treatment for drug rehabilitation and it has no strings of any other kind attached to it? When?
JOHN WOOD: In about five minutes. It's in my boot. Do you want to hang on?
PRESENTER: Well, we'll have to leave it there for the moment but, John, if you want to bring it in I'll certainly have a look at it.
JOHN WOOD: Thanks, I will.
PRESENTER: Thank you very much indeed. John Wood, from Narconon - pulling a face - thank you very much.
JOHN WOOD: Thank you.
[END]
Friday, 24 September 2010
Fiddaman's publisher a rapist ? .....the evidence is clear !
Let's start at page 21:
"I also remember having an aching hard-on with several naked girls when I was 14 but they wouldn’t let me have sex with them – either because they didn’t want to get pregnant or because they didn’t want to be called slags. There again, I did manage to push it in to one of them but she wriggled off. In the event, I started fucking one who had passed out but she woke up barfing on my shoe."
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:c4cBye_IqTEJ:chipmunkawatch.blogspot.com/2009/09/jason-pegler-is-rapist.html+pegler+pushed+it+into+girls&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:c4cBye_IqTEJ:chipmunkawatch.blogspot.com/2009/09/jason-pegler-is-rapist.html+pegler+pushed+it+into+girls&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
Fiddaman's publisher Jason Pegler - a cause for concern...
Fiddaman's publisher Jason Pegler - a cause for co...: "58147 Chipmunka offers an extremely nonstandard contract, including: Chipmunka offers an extremely nonstandard contract, including: - req..."
58147 Chipmunka offers an extremely nonstandard contract, including:
Chipmunka offers an extremely nonstandard contract, including: - requiring authors to waive moral rights (Chipmunka is a UK-based publisher; the USA doesn't... bryce_j_j
jeremybryce1...
8:09 pm
58148 writers forum members concerned about character of Jason Pegler
Quote: Originally Posted by colealpaugh [View Post]
58149 Chipmunka a vanity project for CEO Jason Pegler
http://mentaldimensions.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/chipmunka-publishing-th\ e-mental-health-publisher/#comment-1568 ...
58147 Chipmunka offers an extremely nonstandard contract, including:
Chipmunka offers an extremely nonstandard contract, including: - requiring authors to waive moral rights (Chipmunka is a UK-based publisher; the USA doesn't... bryce_j_j
jeremybryce1...
8:09 pm
58148 writers forum members concerned about character of Jason Pegler
Quote: Originally Posted by colealpaugh [View Post]
58149 Chipmunka a vanity project for CEO Jason Pegler
http://mentaldimensions.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/chipmunka-publishing-th\ e-mental-health-publisher/#comment-1568 ...
Seroxat solicitors Hugh James are - SOLICITORS FROM HELL
http://solicitorsfromhell.co.uk/
Normal Listing Results 1 - 2 of 2
Hugh James Solicitors - Cardiff
▼
Nicola Martin, Scott Thomas, Malcolm Evans
READ MORE
Hedge House
114-116 St Marys Street
Cardiff
CF10 1DY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
READ MORE
Print Version
Warn a friend
Hugh James Solicitors - Cardiff
▼
All of them
READ MORE
Hedge House
114-116 St Marys Street
Cardiff
CF10 1DY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
READ MORE
Print Version
Warn a friend
Normal Listing Results 1 - 2 of 2
Hugh James Solicitors - Cardiff
▼
Nicola Martin, Scott Thomas, Malcolm Evans
READ MORE
Hedge House
114-116 St Marys Street
Cardiff
CF10 1DY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
READ MORE
Print Version
Warn a friend
Hugh James Solicitors - Cardiff
▼
All of them
READ MORE
Hedge House
114-116 St Marys Street
Cardiff
CF10 1DY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
READ MORE
Print Version
Warn a friend
Thursday, 23 September 2010
Seroxat withdrawal no worse than other SSRI's - MIND 1994
| Seroxat withdrawal no worse than other SSRI's - MIND 1994 |
| click image to enlarge | <><><> |
SEROXAT SUFFERERS - STAND UP AND BE COUNTED: TOP BLOG POST - Fiddaman recently posting he got ...
TOP BLOG POST - Fiddaman recently posting he got ...: "SEROXAT SUFFERERS - STAND UP AND BE COUNTED: Fiddaman recently posting he got over the zaps, sw...: 'Article Discussion: Discontinuing antid..."
SEROXAT SUFFERERS - STAND UP AND BE COUNTED: Fiddaman recently posting he got over the zaps, sw...: "Article Discussion: Discontinuing antidepressant can't be ru by Fiddy on June 2nd, 2008, 1:17 am http://neighbors.denverpost.com/viewtopi..."
Article Discussion: Discontinuing antidepressant can't be ru
by Fiddy on June 2nd, 2008, 1:17 am
http://neighbors.denverpost.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=9437847&p=221585
"The term "withdrawal" implies that you're addicted to a drug. But addiction is a complex pattern of behavior that involves craving, drug seeking, and needing more and more drug to achieve a desired effect. In that sense, antidepressants are not addicting"
I disagree. When I tapered off Paxil I used an oral syringe. I 'came down' by half a mg per week and it took me 18 months to taper down from 40mg per day to 22mg per day. That is NOT a discontinuation, that IS a withdrawal. Paxil IS addictive, there are thousands of stories of people suffering because they cannot taper off this drug.
After 18 months I went cold turkey. It took me 3 months to get passed the zaps, profuse sweating, anger outbursts, suicidal thoughts, craving (temptation to go back on Paxil) plus a whole host of other side effects.There are over 10,000 stories online from patients who have suffered withdrawal symptoms at the hands of Paxil. To suggest that antidepressants are not addictive is basically sticking your middle finger up to those that have... and still are suffering trying to taper off this drug.
Fiddy
BOB FIDDAMAN
BOB's recent comments
Zip Code: B32 1SF
Posts: 1
Joined: June 2nd, 2008, 1:09 am
SEROXAT SUFFERERS - STAND UP AND BE COUNTED: Fiddaman recently posting he got over the zaps, sw...: "Article Discussion: Discontinuing antidepressant can't be ru by Fiddy on June 2nd, 2008, 1:17 am http://neighbors.denverpost.com/viewtopi..."
Article Discussion: Discontinuing antidepressant can't be ru
by Fiddy on June 2nd, 2008, 1:17 am
http://neighbors.denverpost.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=9437847&p=221585
"The term "withdrawal" implies that you're addicted to a drug. But addiction is a complex pattern of behavior that involves craving, drug seeking, and needing more and more drug to achieve a desired effect. In that sense, antidepressants are not addicting"
I disagree. When I tapered off Paxil I used an oral syringe. I 'came down' by half a mg per week and it took me 18 months to taper down from 40mg per day to 22mg per day. That is NOT a discontinuation, that IS a withdrawal. Paxil IS addictive, there are thousands of stories of people suffering because they cannot taper off this drug.
After 18 months I went cold turkey. It took me 3 months to get passed the zaps, profuse sweating, anger outbursts, suicidal thoughts, craving (temptation to go back on Paxil) plus a whole host of other side effects.There are over 10,000 stories online from patients who have suffered withdrawal symptoms at the hands of Paxil. To suggest that antidepressants are not addictive is basically sticking your middle finger up to those that have... and still are suffering trying to taper off this drug.
Fiddy
BOB FIDDAMAN
BOB's recent comments
Zip Code: B32 1SF
Posts: 1
Joined: June 2nd, 2008, 1:09 am
SEROXAT withdrawal zaps over & done with in 3 months - FIDDAMAN admits
SEROXAT SUFFERERS - STAND UP AND BE COUNTED: Fiddaman recently posting he got over the zaps, sw...: "Article Discussion: Discontinuing antidepressant can't be ru by Fiddy on June 2nd, 2008, 1:17 am http://neighbors.denverpost.com/viewtopi..."
Article Discussion: Discontinuing antidepressant can't be ru
by Fiddy on June 2nd, 2008, 1:17 am
http://neighbors.denverpost.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=9437847&p=221585
"The term "withdrawal" implies that you're addicted to a drug. But addiction is a complex pattern of behavior that involves craving, drug seeking, and needing more and more drug to achieve a desired effect. In that sense, antidepressants are not addicting"
I disagree. When I tapered off Paxil I used an oral syringe. I 'came down' by half a mg per week and it took me 18 months to taper down from 40mg per day to 22mg per day. That is NOT a discontinuation, that IS a withdrawal. Paxil IS addictive, there are thousands of stories of people suffering because they cannot taper off this drug.
After 18 months I went cold turkey. It took me 3 months to get passed the zaps, profuse sweating, anger outbursts, suicidal thoughts, craving (temptation to go back on Paxil) plus a whole host of other side effects.There are over 10,000 stories online from patients who have suffered withdrawal symptoms at the hands of Paxil. To suggest that antidepressants are not addictive is basically sticking your middle finger up to those that have... and still are suffering trying to taper off this drug.
Fiddy
BOB FIDDAMAN
BOB's recent comments
Zip Code: B32 1SF
Posts: 1
Joined: June 2nd, 2008, 1:09 am
Article Discussion: Discontinuing antidepressant can't be ru
by Fiddy on June 2nd, 2008, 1:17 am
http://neighbors.denverpost.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=9437847&p=221585
"The term "withdrawal" implies that you're addicted to a drug. But addiction is a complex pattern of behavior that involves craving, drug seeking, and needing more and more drug to achieve a desired effect. In that sense, antidepressants are not addicting"
I disagree. When I tapered off Paxil I used an oral syringe. I 'came down' by half a mg per week and it took me 18 months to taper down from 40mg per day to 22mg per day. That is NOT a discontinuation, that IS a withdrawal. Paxil IS addictive, there are thousands of stories of people suffering because they cannot taper off this drug.
After 18 months I went cold turkey. It took me 3 months to get passed the zaps, profuse sweating, anger outbursts, suicidal thoughts, craving (temptation to go back on Paxil) plus a whole host of other side effects.There are over 10,000 stories online from patients who have suffered withdrawal symptoms at the hands of Paxil. To suggest that antidepressants are not addictive is basically sticking your middle finger up to those that have... and still are suffering trying to taper off this drug.
Fiddy
BOB FIDDAMAN
BOB's recent comments
Zip Code: B32 1SF
Posts: 1
Joined: June 2nd, 2008, 1:09 am
Settlements can end up "making them [claimants] worse off in the end"
Settlements can end up "making them [claimants] worse off in the end"
The comments below the article at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/are-lawsuits-the-way-to-ensure-drug-safety/article1719615/
"...Latest Comments
Puck 9/23/2010 3:12:50 AM
More companies could follow the lead of Phillip Morris, which incorporated in Switzerland because this country does not allow class action law suits.
Danny Haszard 9/23/2010 3:03:54 AM
The deal with Zyprexa is that Eli Lilly pleaded guilty to criminal wrongs ("viva Zyprexa" campaign) the Zyprexa saga was rotten through and through.
Eight Lilly EMPLOYEES got about $8 million each as supposed informant 'whistle blowers'.Lawyers on BOTH sides got millions and millions......most patient claimants who got sick are 'mentally challenged' and less able to advocate for themselves.
We must remember that Zyprexa is way way over prescribed,as only a maximum of .03% of the world's pop is indicated for any atypical anti-psychotics.
The Class action Lawsuits in the US had payouts of $85,000 BUT the lawyers got 45 percent and then the govt got most of the rest for having to take care of the victim/patients medical expenses.Soooo,$85K turned into about $9,000 for Zyprexa claimants many had their food stamps and other state benefits taken away because of their *windfall profit* making them worse off in the end.
*
Daniel Haszard Zyprexa whistle-blower and patient who got diabetes from it. zyprexa-victims.com "
The comments below the article at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/are-lawsuits-the-way-to-ensure-drug-safety/article1719615/
"...Latest Comments
Puck 9/23/2010 3:12:50 AM
More companies could follow the lead of Phillip Morris, which incorporated in Switzerland because this country does not allow class action law suits.
Danny Haszard 9/23/2010 3:03:54 AM
The deal with Zyprexa is that Eli Lilly pleaded guilty to criminal wrongs ("viva Zyprexa" campaign) the Zyprexa saga was rotten through and through.
Eight Lilly EMPLOYEES got about $8 million each as supposed informant 'whistle blowers'.Lawyers on BOTH sides got millions and millions......most patient claimants who got sick are 'mentally challenged' and less able to advocate for themselves.
We must remember that Zyprexa is way way over prescribed,as only a maximum of .03% of the world's pop is indicated for any atypical anti-psychotics.
The Class action Lawsuits in the US had payouts of $85,000 BUT the lawyers got 45 percent and then the govt got most of the rest for having to take care of the victim/patients medical expenses.Soooo,$85K turned into about $9,000 for Zyprexa claimants many had their food stamps and other state benefits taken away because of their *windfall profit* making them worse off in the end.
*
Daniel Haszard Zyprexa whistle-blower and patient who got diabetes from it. zyprexa-victims.com "
Are lawsuits the way to ensure drug safety?
Are lawsuits the way to ensure drug safety?
Class actions are no substitute for post-market surveillance
http://www.network54.com/Forum/281849/message/1285238542/%26quot%3BAre+lawsuits+the+way+to+ensure+drug+safety-%26quot%3B
Andre Picard
From Thursday's Globe and Mail Published on Wednesday, Sep. 22, 2010 8:13PM EDT Last updated on Wednesday, Sep. 22, 2010 8:15PM EDT
We do a pretty poor job of ensuring drug safety in Canada. Sure, drugs go through a long and thorough approval process, but once on the market, there is little follow-up. Post-market surveillance is virtually non-existent, apart from a voluntary database of adverse drug reactions.
As a result, drug-safety issues are increasingly being resolved through the courts, with class-action lawsuits in particular.
When something goes wrong – unanticipated or undisclosed side effects (because drug companies have a bad habit of suppressing negative research) – consumers who are harmed band together to seek redress.
In theory, it's effective: Those who are wronged get compensation and companies get a financial spanking that should make them more cautious in the future.
But does this approach work in practice?
Are those who take harmful drugs adequately compensated? And does litigation actually make for safer drugs?
To help answer those questions, let's look at a recent case.
In June of this year, the courts approved a negotiated settlement in the class-action lawsuit related to Zyprexa, an antipsychotic drug used for the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other forms of psychosis.
The class-action lawsuits – filed in Ontario, Quebec and B.C. – alleged that the manufacturer, Eli Lilly Canada Inc., and its parent, Eli Lilly and Co., negligently manufactured, marketed and sold Zyprexa without properly warning of the risks prior to June 6, 2007.
In particular, the drug is alleged to increase significantly the risk of diabetes and related health problems.
Those allegations have not been proved in court and the settlement does not imply liability or wrongdoing.
Nevertheless, Eli Lilly agreed to pay about $26-million to settle the claims in Canada.
As much as $17.5-million will go to the claimants. Individuals will receive, on average, about $12,000 each. In exchange, they cannot make further legal claims against the manufacturer, even if their condition worsens. Provincial health plans will get a payout of $2.25-million to cover additional treatment costs.
The lawyers who initiated the suits will, for their part, share $5-million (including $500,000 for expenses), and an additional $1-million was allocated for administration of claims, including notification.
All in all, it was a modest settlement, a fairly routine resolution of a drug-related class action.
The amount of the settlement is based on an actuarial calculation that about 1,450 users of the drugs may have suffered harm and could come forward.
To date, a little more than half that number has made a claim. The deadline for doing so is Oct. 28. (Details are on the settlement website www.zyprexasettlement.ca) This raises an important question: How much effort is invested in finding people who are harmed? In this case, small ads were placed among the legal notices in 24 daily newspapers and in SZ Magazine (a magazine that specializes in coverage of schizophrenia.) Consumer groups such as the Schizophrenia Society, the Mood Disorders Society and the Canadian Mental Health Association were also informed in writing.
No TV ads, no Internet ads and, above all, no provision for actually contacting individuals who were prescribed Zyprexa through their drug plans. You could argue that this would be a violation of privacy: But is warning someone of potentially serious side effects and offering them thousands of dollars in compensation for harm suffered a violation or an affirmation of their rights?
Claimants who are aware of the settlement also have to jump through a few hoops, and quickly. They must provide "product ingestion documentation" that includes pharmacy records, medical records showing they took Zyprexa for at least 90 days, and medical records proving they suffered diabetes-related symptoms while taking the drug.
If you are already suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and maybe diabetes to boot, you've already got a lot on your plate. Is it fair to place so much of the burden on those who, already sick, suffered additional harm?
Then there is the larger question: Are Canadians safer as a result of this class-action settlement?
Zyprexa (generic name olanzapine) is still sold. That is not necessarily inappropriate. Treating psychosis is important, and every drug has side effects.
Since 2007, the labelling on the product has been improved so that the diabetes-related side effects are clear. But is that enough? Should a settlement of this nature not include a provision for education – after all, who reads the fine print on labels, especially in a state of psychosis?
Sales of Zyprexa were $4.9-billion (U.S.) last year, including about $225-million in Canada.
A $26-million payout (and it will be less, based on fewer claimants) is chump change for Eli Lilly.
For that matter, so too is the $1.4-billion the company has paid out to date to settle criminal and civil claims related to Zyprexa in the U.S. There, the issue was principally illegal marketing – promoting the drug for use in seniors with dementia when it is not approved for that use.
If there is a dissuasive effect, it is not at all obvious. Even if class-action lawsuits bring some redress, they cannot substitute for good post-market surveillance.
The one thing that is certain is that class actions are extremely lucrative for lawyers and claims administrators. They make out like bandits. Consumers who suffered harm, not so much.
So, is justice truly being served?
Class actions are no substitute for post-market surveillance
http://www.network54.com/Forum/281849/message/1285238542/%26quot%3BAre+lawsuits+the+way+to+ensure+drug+safety-%26quot%3B
Andre Picard
From Thursday's Globe and Mail Published on Wednesday, Sep. 22, 2010 8:13PM EDT Last updated on Wednesday, Sep. 22, 2010 8:15PM EDT
We do a pretty poor job of ensuring drug safety in Canada. Sure, drugs go through a long and thorough approval process, but once on the market, there is little follow-up. Post-market surveillance is virtually non-existent, apart from a voluntary database of adverse drug reactions.
As a result, drug-safety issues are increasingly being resolved through the courts, with class-action lawsuits in particular.
When something goes wrong – unanticipated or undisclosed side effects (because drug companies have a bad habit of suppressing negative research) – consumers who are harmed band together to seek redress.
In theory, it's effective: Those who are wronged get compensation and companies get a financial spanking that should make them more cautious in the future.
But does this approach work in practice?
Are those who take harmful drugs adequately compensated? And does litigation actually make for safer drugs?
In June of this year, the courts approved a negotiated settlement in the class-action lawsuit related to Zyprexa, an antipsychotic drug used for the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other forms of psychosis.
The class-action lawsuits – filed in Ontario, Quebec and B.C. – alleged that the manufacturer, Eli Lilly Canada Inc., and its parent, Eli Lilly and Co., negligently manufactured, marketed and sold Zyprexa without properly warning of the risks prior to June 6, 2007.
In particular, the drug is alleged to increase significantly the risk of diabetes and related health problems.
Those allegations have not been proved in court and the settlement does not imply liability or wrongdoing.
Nevertheless, Eli Lilly agreed to pay about $26-million to settle the claims in Canada.
As much as $17.5-million will go to the claimants. Individuals will receive, on average, about $12,000 each. In exchange, they cannot make further legal claims against the manufacturer, even if their condition worsens. Provincial health plans will get a payout of $2.25-million to cover additional treatment costs.
The lawyers who initiated the suits will, for their part, share $5-million (including $500,000 for expenses), and an additional $1-million was allocated for administration of claims, including notification.
All in all, it was a modest settlement, a fairly routine resolution of a drug-related class action.
The amount of the settlement is based on an actuarial calculation that about 1,450 users of the drugs may have suffered harm and could come forward.
To date, a little more than half that number has made a claim. The deadline for doing so is Oct. 28. (Details are on the settlement website www.zyprexasettlement.ca) This raises an important question: How much effort is invested in finding people who are harmed? In this case, small ads were placed among the legal notices in 24 daily newspapers and in SZ Magazine (a magazine that specializes in coverage of schizophrenia.) Consumer groups such as the Schizophrenia Society, the Mood Disorders Society and the Canadian Mental Health Association were also informed in writing.
No TV ads, no Internet ads and, above all, no provision for actually contacting individuals who were prescribed Zyprexa through their drug plans. You could argue that this would be a violation of privacy: But is warning someone of potentially serious side effects and offering them thousands of dollars in compensation for harm suffered a violation or an affirmation of their rights?
Claimants who are aware of the settlement also have to jump through a few hoops, and quickly. They must provide "product ingestion documentation" that includes pharmacy records, medical records showing they took Zyprexa for at least 90 days, and medical records proving they suffered diabetes-related symptoms while taking the drug.
If you are already suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and maybe diabetes to boot, you've already got a lot on your plate. Is it fair to place so much of the burden on those who, already sick, suffered additional harm?
Then there is the larger question: Are Canadians safer as a result of this class-action settlement?
Zyprexa (generic name olanzapine) is still sold. That is not necessarily inappropriate. Treating psychosis is important, and every drug has side effects.
Since 2007, the labelling on the product has been improved so that the diabetes-related side effects are clear. But is that enough? Should a settlement of this nature not include a provision for education – after all, who reads the fine print on labels, especially in a state of psychosis?
Sales of Zyprexa were $4.9-billion (U.S.) last year, including about $225-million in Canada.
A $26-million payout (and it will be less, based on fewer claimants) is chump change for Eli Lilly.
For that matter, so too is the $1.4-billion the company has paid out to date to settle criminal and civil claims related to Zyprexa in the U.S. There, the issue was principally illegal marketing – promoting the drug for use in seniors with dementia when it is not approved for that use.
If there is a dissuasive effect, it is not at all obvious. Even if class-action lawsuits bring some redress, they cannot substitute for good post-market surveillance.
The one thing that is certain is that class actions are extremely lucrative for lawyers and claims administrators. They make out like bandits. Consumers who suffered harm, not so much.
So, is justice truly being served?
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