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Italian Volunteers Say an Active, Creative Lifestyle is a Much Better High Than Drugs 

Foundation for a Drug-Free World Italy brought its drug education and prevention initiative to the Lucca Comics & Games, Italy’s annual comic book and gaming convention

Is LSD harmless? Can a single hit of crack hurt you? How addictive is heroin, really? And what about marijuana? “You need to know the truth about drugs,” say volunteers of Foundation for  Drug-Free World Italy—the drug education and prevention initiative supported by the Church of Scientology.

You’d have to be Mad as a Hatter to experiment with drugs without informing yourself about them, say the Drug-Free World volunteers.
  A Drug-Free World Italy volunteer, photographed with Alice in Wonderland-themed visitors to the Lucca Comics & Games convention, says “You’d have to be Mad as a Hatter to experiment with drugs without informing yourself about them and the harm they can cause.”
 

Hundreds of thousands of young people and their families visit the city of Lucca for its annual Comics & Games Festival. Which is why the Drug-Free World Italy volunteers were there: to reach young people with their youth-friendly Truth About Drugs booklets. And they also talk to parents to urge them to use these materials to help their children make informed decisions on this vital subject.

The Foundation’s Truth About Drugs booklets provide facts about the most commonly abused drugs, including hashish and marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine, heroin, crack, LSD, amphetamines, alcohol, and opioid painkillers and other prescription drugs. The booklets inform the reader of the short and long-term effects of these substances on the body and mind. 

Thanks to the support of the Church of Scientology and Scientologists, the Foundation provides the Truth About Drugs secular program and materials free of charge.

Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard noted the role substance abuse plays in the disintegration of the social fabric: “Research has demonstrated that the single most destructive element present in our current culture is drugs.”

“More and more people are dying of drug overdose in Italy every year,” says Drug-Free World Italy executive director Oreste Depaoli. “People are not well informed about what drugs are and what they do. And there are active campaigns in our society that make it look like drugs do no harm. If people knew what drugs really lead to, they could choose not to take them.” 

Depaoli is featured in an episode of Voices for Humanity on the Scientology Network, available in 17 languages on DIRECTV Channel 320, DIRECTV STREAM, AT&T U-verse and streaming at Scientology.tv, on mobile apps and via the Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV platforms. Since launching with a special episode featuring Scientology ecclesiastical leader Mr. David Miscavige, Scientology Network has been viewed in 240 countries and territories worldwide in 17 languages.


The Scientology religion was founded by author and philosopher L. Ron Hubbard. The first Church of Scientology was formed in Los Angeles in 1954 and the religion has expanded to more than 11,000 Churches, Missions and affiliated groups, with millions of members in 167 countries.

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