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Tampa Bay Times: Scientology-related Narconon rehab center may have violated law
http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/scientology-related-rehab-may-have-violated-law/2194630
Excerpt:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/scientology-related-rehab-may-have-violated-law/2194630
Excerpt:
When the Scientology-affiliated Narconon drug treatment center in Spring Hill was told by Hernando County it could not expand its residential facility, the center didn't try to make do with existing space.
Its officers rented three properties elsewhere in Spring Hill and expanded there. That allowed the center to admit more patients. Narconon charges up to $30,000 for a three-month stay.
One site was in a commercial center. Narconon shuttled patients there for what director Tammy Strickling described as "daily therapeutic classes.'' The other two sites were houses. One slept eight, the other six. Narconon staffers, trainees and overflow patients bunked there.
"I don't like turning anyone away,'' Strickling said in court last year.
But all three rented locations may have violated state law.
Substance abuse treatment centers in Florida are required to deliver services only at licensed facilities. Since Narconon opened in 2008, it had been licensed by the state Department of Children and Families to provide services at one place, 8213 Cessna Drive.
"My mouth is hanging open,'' said Department of Children and Families licensure specialist Troy McDermott, when told of the rented sites. In his 21 years at DCF, he never has encountered a center providing services at unlicensed facilities, he said.
Penalties can range from a moratorium on patient admissions to loss of license.
Strickling declined to be interviewed for this story. In an email Friday night, she said her facility, also known as Suncoast Rehabilitation Center, was licensed at the rented commercial space, which is on Hearth Road.
It was, but just by a matter of hours.
Earlier Friday, DCF had issued Narconon a temporary license to provide "intensive outpatient'' services at the site. Its application had arrived mid-week, as the Tampa Bay Times was asking Narconon's leadership team for comment.