Anti-Drug Group Offers Solution to the Growing Crisis of Drug Abuse and Crime

This article appeared in http://www.communityguide.com.au/site.cfm?/drugfree/

Homebush West, NSW -- December 4, 2005 -- A special group of volunteers called the Drug Free Ambassadors are mounting an effort to handle what Michelle Leslie, Van Nguyen, Shapelle Corby and a host of others got caught in--the trap of drug addiction and trafficking. They met with local residents and council members explaining a better way, a drug-free life.

The group is a drug education and prevention group started by the Church of Scientology to fill a gap in the education and giving youth a hope of living drug free. Spokesman Cyrus Brooks said, "It was found that with drug education, the option of being drug free is rarely even presented, unless by some outside group that is not part of the school system. So what the Drug Free Ambassadors are is a national anti-drug prevention campaign aimed at young teens and pre-teens with the purpose of helping youth make the important decision to remain drug-free and to assist their family and friends to make the same decision. And in Homebush and around Strathfield we have had great responses. Today a young girl of 14 wanted to help in her school and with council we spoke of getting the anti-drug message all over the local government area. So we're pretty excited about this."

The Campaign is mirrored off the very successful Drug Free Marshall program which has run in the United States, South Africa and under different banners around the world, with thousands of children participating in programs run in their schools, pledging them to remain drug-free and have done so. It has created a base of youth who say "no" and do resist the temptation to "experiment" with drugs.

The belief is that a school age child can be sufficiently educated on the full dangers to their body, mind and spirit, so that they can make positive decisions about the direction of their life, regardless of peer pressure. If they are not given the needed education, then they will come across drugs at some point with no education and no information with which to make an informed decision about their future health and mental well being.

The program is simple - it begins with getting kids who are drug-free, educated and then making the decision to remain drug-free. They then publicly pledge to do so and to fight all peer pressure. It has been found from experience that once they have made a decision about this, then it is quite strong and can carry them through their teenage years.

The campaign was taken to the streets and volunteers, Drug Free Ambassadors themselves, met with thousands of youth at the markets, at the beach and on the city streets around the country, talking one-on-one with kids and parents.

There are many workable programs that get addicts off drugs without giving them more drugs in the process and plenty of drug education programs to keep our kids away from drugs. A certain portion of society don't want a drug free nation as this means loss of control of the millions of dollars in drug funding - if we solve the problem, then the research dollars are no longer needed, the drug trials are no longer needed and the kick backs stop. They have strong lobby groups who work on government staff to convince them it is all hopeless.

The Drug Free Ambassadors consider there are workable answers for everyone - we have some of them and together with like-minded groups, we already have all of them. It is our view that the current decline of today's society, with the dramatic rise in crime and illiteracy can be directly traced back to the rise in both illegal and prescriptive drugs, creating a "chemical" society. Thus it must be stopped. It is simple to do, but takes persistence.

For more information or free booklets, see http://www.drugfreeambassadors.com.au or

contact: info@drugfreeambassadors.com.au or phone: 02 9692 7308.