According to the most recent Australia Crime Commission Illicit Drugs Report, clandestine drug laboratory detections in the country have risen by 245 percent in the last decade. The urgency of dealing with the drug problem was brought to the fore last week when Western Australia enacted its new drug policy, described by the media as the nation’s toughest drug laws, designed to target the growing number of drug labs manufacturing methamphetamine and other substances—177 busted last year and 44 found so far in 2012.

For the past two decades, the Church of Scientology has taken a practical and proactive approach to drug abuse, educating youth on the physical and mental effects of drugs. In that time, Australian Scientologists have:

• Distributed 2.5 million drug education booklets and fliers containing factual information about marijuana, Ecstasy, painkillers and other drugs of choice, in markets, fairs and through street events.
• Inspired 300,000 Australian youths to pledge to live drug-free lives.
• Translated drug education materials in Japanese, Indonesian and Korean to make this information available to Australian youth who speak these languages. They have also arranged for the translation of these booklets into Samoan, Tagalog and Malaysian.

To learn more about the drug prevention initiative sponsored by the Church of Scientology or to participate, visit the Scientology website.

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The Church of Scientology sponsors one of the world’s largest nongovernmental drug education and prevention campaigns. When young people are provided with the truth about drugs—factual information on what drugs are and what they do—usage rates drop commensurately.