Narconon is Non Profit

Narconon is a non-profit, public benefit organization that uses the drug rehabilitation methods of L. Ron Hubbard. The first Narconon group was founded in 1966 by William Benitez, who at the time was an inmate in Arizona State Prison. In 1971, Benitez was one of the signatories of the papers establishing the Narconon, a non-profit, public benefit corporation. Although there is a new Board of Directors, this is the same corporation that is Narconon International today.

The Narconon rehabilitation program uses techniques developed by American researcher L. Ron Hubbard. Mr. Hubbard took a personal interest in the success of the Narconon program and contributed new, workable discoveries to the program over a period of twenty years.

L. Ron Hubbard believed that man is basically good. He was convinced that the majority of those who have fallen into drug abuse and/or a criminal life, when educated in the skills necessary to live a drug-free and honorable life, will work very hard to make such a reality come true. Narconon International licenses all Narconon centers and other organizations to use its methodology, which license includes the agreement to maintain the integrity and workability of the methodology according to Narconon standards.

“I demonstrated to officials that any person, inmate or otherwise, could benefit from Narconon because its attention was on increasing abilities, that we had an ethics mechanism built into the program, and that the responsibility and involvement required of a member would soon dissuade anyone not serious about improvement...The program met its expectations so well that seven months after the beginning of Narconon, I was asked to start another program for young offenders housed in the annex outside the prison walls.”

After leaving Arizona to open the first residential Narconon center in Los Angeles, Mr. Benitez continued to work with and organize the developing Narconon program for many years. For the last 16 years he worked with the Arizona State Department of Corrections. To read his account of the beginnings of Narconon, see “The Origins of Narconon”

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