Narconon practices risky, according to regional Health Agency

Translation by mnql1 of a French article posted on April 17, 2012 on the website of radio station 98.5 FM in Montreal:
Des pratiques risquées chez Narconon selon l'Agence régionale

Narconon practices risky, according to regional Health Agency

by Jocelyn Ouellet
April 17, 2012
CKOI 106,9 Mauricie

The Mauricie and Central-Quebec Health and Social Services Agency gave details on Tuesday about the reasons that led it to deny certification to the Narconon Trois-Rivières detoxification center.

The center was ordered to cease its activities and to relocate the twenty-four residents who were there. Seventeen of them were transferred to Narconon centers in the United States. The organization has ten days to send its comments to the Agency, which will then issue a final decision. The center will then have sixty days to contest the decision before the Quebec administrative court.

Of the fifty-five criteria required for certification, the Quebec Accreditation Council identified forty-six deficiencies, twenty-six of them considered high-risk. One of the procedures that represents a health risk is the sauna sweating sessions combined with massive doses of vitamins.

Narconon's methods are based on the teachings of the Church of Scientology, which, according to the Agency, perceives drug addiction as moral depravity and associates it with dishonesty.

Marc Lacour also confirmed that the regional complaints commissioner has received a certain number of complaints about Narconon. Clients who wanted to end their stay prematurely complained that their identity cards, passports, and money were taken and withheld to make departing more complicated.