The Delaware Director of Drug Abuse Control will keep the Narconon Program
The Morning News
Wilmington, Delaware
July 17 1972
Drug course ‘graduates’ 23 inmates
From the Dover Bureau
SMYRNA - 23 Delaware Correctional Center inmates have “graduated” - not from prison - but from drugs.
Certificates and pins were presented Friday to the inmates for completing the 15-hour Narconon course. Narconon - meaning “non-narcotic or without drugs” - is a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing crime and drug abuse. Established in Arizona State Prison in 1966, the Narconon program is based on a training course that places men in contact with one another and teaches them to achieve increasingly difficult goals. When they attain a goal they have a “win.”
SOME of the theory behind the program is that the reason men find themselves in prisons or turning to drugs is that they have never learned to “win” in society and the burden of constant “losses” overwhelms them.
The practical exercises in living and confrontation are derived from the theories of L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the controversial Church of Scientology.
According to the Narconon theory, the program is intended to make an individual more aware of his environment, to allow him to communicate this awareness and eventually to control both himself and his environment.
29-YEAR-OLD Barry Jaye came from Narconon headquarters in Los Angeles to start the program in Delaware.
“The minute I got here I got the utmost cooperation and enthusiasm from everyone involved,” he said.
“These have been the most beautiful six weeks of my life. We started the program in Smyrna with eight students and we currently have 26 involved, including the 23 who graduated.
“We have four men who progressed from the training routine course to the supervisor’s course, so that they can carry on the program here,”
On Friday, James Timbs was presented with a supervisor’s certificate. The other three are about a week away. Next week, Jaye will move on to Connecticut, to help establish a Narconon program there. In Delaware, Lon Elmer, of the state Division of Drug Abuse Control, and the graduates of the program at Smyrna will keep the program.
In addition to the Narconon graduates Friday, more than 20 inmates who had completed high school equivalency programs also received certificates.
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