Scientologists Step Up the Fight Against Drugs in Tennessee

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Two Scientologists have spent the last three years spreading drug education throughout Tennessee

Anne and Marc Vallieres set out to create a drug-free Tennessee after they began to notice heavy drug abuse in their own small town of Woodbury.

“It was awful to see so many young people using meth and cocaine in our town—and we have a very small community. So we knew it must be like this all over the state and we had to do something about it,” says Anne Vallieres.

They began the campaign in 2009 and since then have conducted drug education seminars in schools, reaching thousands of children in 30 counties around the state. They intend to bring the program to all remaining counties and make drug prevention part of every child’s education in Tennessee.

Anne’s reason for concentrating on schoolchildren is obvious—as she puts it: “They are most susceptible to targeting by dealers.”

The Vallieres’ dedication is illustrated by the work they accomplished in the course of a single week last month.

• They traveled five hours through mountains in the snow to Johnson County to conduct seven seminars for 267 middle school students and three seminars for 112 high school students the following day.
• Two days later, it was off to Bledsoe County where they provided seminars to 520 students in the high school auditorium.
• The following day in Putnam County they briefed 30 school counselors on the Truth About Drugs curriculum.
• Two days after that, they set up a booth in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, at a continuing education convention for emergency personnel where they introduced those attending to the Truth About Drugs resources and curriculum.

After one of the school seminars, a young man shared his own story. The boy’s grandmother and mother are both addicted to methamphetamine. His mother, now in jail, was on meth when she was 13. That’s when she gave birth to his older brother. She was still on meth a year later when this young man was born. His brother still suffers from serious physical problems caused by prenatal meth exposure.

“In some of the schools we visit, students are frequently offered drugs. They often have to deal with drugs at home,” says Anne Vallieres. “Tennessee is number one right now in crystal meth production. The children of today are the leaders of tomorrow, and we can’t forget that. We will go anywhere and everywhere because we are dedicated to freeing Tennessee of drugs.”

The Church of Scientology has published a new brochure, Scientology: How We Help—The Truth About Drugs, Creating a Drug-Free World, to meet requests for more information about the drug education and prevention initiative it supports. To learn more or to read a copy of the brochure, visit www.Scientology.org/AntiDrug [13].

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Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote, “The planet has hit a barrier which prevents any widespread social progress—drugs and other biochemical substances. These can put people into a condition which not only prohibits and destroys physical health but which can prevent any stable advancement in mental or spiritual well-being.”

The Church of Scientology supports the Truth About Drugs, one of the world’s largest nongovernmental drug education and prevention campaigns. It has been conclusively proven that when young people are provided with the truth about drugs—factual information on what drugs are and what they do—usage rates drop commensurately.