Foundation for a Drug-Free World event warns of the harm marijuana can cause while a legalization march commences meters away, without incident.

A funny thing happened during a pro-legalization “Global Marijuana March” in Munich, Germany, this last Saturday: Demonstrators demanding that pot be made legal throughout Germany had their attention diverted by a booth staffed by the nonprofit Foundation for a Drug-Free World and its Truth About Drugs education campaign.

The back story is that the Drug-Free World volunteers had earlier gotten permission to hold their own event a mere 500 meters from where the Marijuana March was being held. So the two seemingly clashing gatherings were held side by side—and far more peacefully than might be imagined.

"…the two seemingly clashing gatherings were held side by side—and far more peacefully than might be imagined"

In fact, the Drug-Free World Foundation booth was mobbed both by demonstration participants interested in what they had to say as well as those simply drawn to the commotion. So thick was the traffic that even while they were setting up the stand, two people had to be commissioned to answer questions and pass out materials laying out the realities about drug abuse.

The Truth About Drugs initiative is supported by the Church of Scientology and many of the volunteers at the stand represented the Church of Scientology of Munich. The campaign extols the virtues of drug-free living, empowering young people in particular with factual information about drugs that they can use to make informed decisions about whether to pick up in the first place.

Last Saturday, volunteers passed out nearly 2,500 copies of the Truth About Drugs series booklets including numerous The Truth About Marijuana booklets. It attracted the attention of—among others—an addiction counselor and a young couple who had gone through drug withdrawal and just completed 2½ years of rehab without relapsing and thanked them for making information available that would hopefully help others to avoid the ordeal they had just come through.

It was revealed in April that—after a decline from 2009 and 2012—drug-related deaths in Germany spiked in 2014, rising some 3 percent to 1,032. The same announcement disclosed that German drug users are increasingly turning to artificially-produced substances to get their high. Some 350 psychoactive drugs now flood the German market.