THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD NEWS

A study conducted by the University of Michigan in 2004 stated that a drop in marijuana use had taken place for the first time in many years.

This was great news and many of you may have heard about this.

While I am certain that this was due to many efforts around the country, we feel that Friends of Narconon's video, Marijuana The Myth, played an important role on a national scale in the decline of marijuana use.

Continuing this trend, from 2005 to 2006, marijuana use among 8th through 10th graders dropped again--approximately 7%.

This drop has continued from about 2001 until now. It is no surprise that we continue to see a drop with our video program, Marijuana The Myth, in over 4,0000 schools.

One of the key factors to the success of our video program is the fact that Narconon's top Prevention Specialist, Bobby Wiggins, had spent many years researching, developing and refining approaches to handling kids on the subject of Marijuana.

We all owe a lot of gratitude to Mr. Wiggins for his more than 20 year dedication to the fight against drugs.

On a more somber note, I am seeing indicators of drug use increase on many other dangerous drugs.

This is cause for us all to be concerned.

Consider for a moment the cost impact of drug and alcohol abuse.

Disorder, crime, and public nuisance place a heavy burden on communities and high demand on public services such as policing, street cleaning,
emergency services, and public transportation.

Next time you write your property tax check or send taxes to Uncle Sam, just think about these hidden costs of drug abuse that you are having to support.

The following national statistics are for the year 2005 through 2006: (Source - Monitoring The Future Study, University of Michigan)

Over 7% increase in use of Tranquilizers by 8th graders.
Over 10% increase in use of LSD by 10th graders.
Over 10% increase in use of Inhalants by 10th graders.
Over 15% increase in use of Crack / Cocaine by 12th graders.
Over 16% increase in use of Ecstasy (MDMA) by 12th graders.

One of the more publicized drugs, Methamphetamine, (speed) saw a drop in usage among 8th through 12th graders for the first time since 2003.

While Methamphetamine has been getting the lion share of headlines in the news media (illustrating how bad the problem is), we are now seeing a drop in this drugs usage within this age group.

Yet drug use continues to rise in other areas.

With Methamphetamine getting all the media attention, the drug marketers have gone more mainstream and more grassroots with their marketing efforts on other drugs.

By mainstream for example, it used to be that you could only get Ecstasy at RAVE parties (all night parties), but now you can get it at most regular house parties.

The access to these drugs has gone more mainstream, not as underground as it used to be.

But lets get back to the good news.

Last year, through your generous sponsorships, Friends of Narconon placed our video program into 1,126 public and some private schools across America.

This means over 300,000 students will be viewing the video within the first year alone!

That was double the amount of new schools reached in the previous year! So well done to all of you and thank you for your support!

So do what you can to sponsor as many schools as possible. Our target is to double last years sponsorships and reach double the amount of students!

Don't Wait!

Call Friends of Narconon and sponsor a school today.

It only costs $200 to sponsor a school with our drug education videos and materials.

We have videos for Primary Schools, Junior-High and High Schools. Each video can reach over 3,000 students during its life (only 7 cents per student!).

A public version of our school videos (which includes additional footage and material) is available on DVD for $47. Contact Donna Miller at Friends of Narconon today!

CALL Donna Miller at 1-800-882-6862.

Sincerely,
Robert Hernandez, CCDC*
President, Friends of Narconon, Intl.
*Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor

P.S. Sponsor a school. Click here (or copy and paste into your browser):
http://www.friendsofnarconon.org/drug_education/school_sponsorship_program/

Make a donation right now. Click here (or copy and paste into your browser):
http://friendsofnarconon.org/

©2007 Friends of Narconon, Intl. All Rights Reserved. Narconon, the Narconon logo, and the Narconon "Jumping Man" logo are trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are used with its permission.