Narconon Trois-Rivieres Success Story

"Seek Heroin, Will Travel"

A Teenager Confesses How Her Drug Dependence Drove Her Across the Continent in Search of Heroin, and How Narconon Brought Her Back From the Brink of Oblivion...

For more than 40 years thousands of addicts have been given their life back through Narconon - people who had submitted to their addictions found new hope and a new life. Indeed, that is how Narconon started four decades ago when an incarcerated heroin addict, William Benitez, decided that he had to try something new to save himself from his addiction as well as to help other similarly afflicted friends. He requested permission from Arizona state prison officials to start a drug rehabilitation program with 20 addict inmates, but was at first denied. Thankfully, he persisted because on February 19, 1966 he was finally granted permission and founded what he called Narconon, meaning NARCotics-NONe.
	William Benitez (far right) with the first Narconon group in 1966

The program Mr. Benitez founded grew and, in 1971, the first Narconon center outside prison walls opened in Los Angeles.

Today Narconon’s services are available at 39 drug rehabilitation and drug prevention centers in Canada, United States, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, England, Russia, New Zealand and South Africa. It is officially recognized in several countries as the most effective drug rehabilitation available and receives government funding in a number of nations. Narconon has an unsurpassed success rate, according to independent studies, with up to 72 percent of its graduates still off drugs after two years.

In this interview 26-year old S.A. provides her personal testimonial of Narconon's effectiveness. She started using drugs as a teenager and rapidly escalated from marijuana to heroin. Within two years she was emotionally dead, not caring about friends or family. This is her story, one that gives hope to countless teens who suffer from addiction. She did the program at Narconon Trois-Rivieres in Quebec, Canada. And like William Benitez and many others she got her life back.

What were you doing before you did the Narconon program?

That was 10 years ago: I was about 17 years old and living on the streets. I ran away from home over a year before that and was doing drugs. I lived mostly in Montreal but moved around a lot to Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. I lived like this for about two years. Before that I was going to high school and living with my parents.

When where you first introduced to drugs?

In high school; there were many people I knew who were using drugs, almost exclusively pot and alcohol, though some were using acid (LSD) & mushrooms too. I tried smoking pot once or twice with people I thought were friends, but I hated "buzz." Alcohol wasn't something I was very interested in, and I wasn’t about to try acid. To be honest, I never had the intention to use drugs; the first times I smoked pot, I just tried it because I was curious.

It seems odd to say that after all that happened, but I was really against drugs at first. My curiosity was peeked with artists that I admired being on heroin, such as Kurt Cobain from Nirvana and Nivek Ogre from Skinny Puppy, but I still didn’t have an interest at that point.

Were you attracted to drugs from the beginning?

Initially no; like I said I didn’t want to do any drugs. Besides having no interest in them, another reason I wasn’t interested was because my father had already given the "the talk." I avoided drugs like the plague because he had his own drug history, he let me know that he would be able to spot it – he’s been clean since several years before my birth. So, since there was no "getting away with it," I didn’t even attempt being curious, for years.

How did you end up living on the streets?

A few days before I turned 16 years old, I ran away from home. Maybe a year before that I would go downtown on weekends while lying to my parents about staying at a friend's place. I’d hang out in Gothic Industrial clubs, staying in shelters or with people I admired, mostly street punks - so I was already familiar with how to survive on the streets. I know it sounds strange, but I loved this life style with a passion.

I saw it as a form of "freedom;" I did not want such strict restrictions as early curfews, revoked phone and music privileges (etc) that I had recently incurred as a result of being less and less responsible and reliable.

That I love the mix of punk, Gothic Industrial and the likes, made the life of street punks very appealing to me from a young age. The difference is that back then I also especially loved anarchy, chaos and romanticized the idea of the end of the world. So I felt very at home on the streets. Thankfully I dropped the latter through the Narconon program! The other reason why I loved living on the streets was because it seems like you don't really exist, it feels like you're off the "grid" or off the "radar."

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