UNITED STATES

In the United States, for instance, Church-sponsored anti-drug campaigns have helped millions of people by fighting further drug proliferation. It has done so through enlisting the aid of celebrities for concerts with anti-drug themes; by raising funds for youth groups such as the Police Activities League, which provides tutorial services for disadvantaged youth; and by hosting conferences of community leaders involved in anti-drug activities, such as that in Washington, D.C., which led city commissioner Bob King to present the Church’s local “Lead the Way to a Drug-Free USA” program with a proclamation lauding its efforts in the war against drugs.

Nor was he by any means the only one to recognize the Church’s efforts. Not long after establishment of “Lead the Way” in the District of Columbia, the director of the Office for Substance Abuse Prevention of the US Department of Health commended the Church for its drug-fighting initiative: “It is because of the participation of dedicated groups like yours that we are making progress in the reduction of alcohol and other drug problems.”

A young Drug-Free Marshal meets McGruff, the Crime Dog.

McGruff asks to be sworn in as a Drug-Free Marshal.

Drug-Free Marshals on the job preparing for an event.

Using programs developed and supervised by local churches, the Church has encouraged individual Scientologists to participate in Church-sponsored anti-drug campaigns.

Scientologists across the U.S. rallied to join the “Lead the Way to a Drug-Free USA” program, and to encourage youth to be drug-free through the “Drug-Free Marshals” program. Spawned by the “Lead the Way” campaign in 1993, the program has become one of the most successful grass-roots endeavors of its kind and today is international in scope.