I just posted this complaint to the IRB website:
I am very concerned about this study -
http://www.albany.edu/ihe/gulf.htm
The study is being performed on Gulf War vets, exposing them to the Scientology/Narconon “purification rundown” which includes high doses of niacin and long stints in the sauna. This can be dangerous and have long-term medical consequences, and there is no scientific evidence that it will work. Our vets do not deserve to be guinea pigs for this dangerous experiment.
I suspect that there may have been falsehoods presented in the description to IRB, since that is how Narconon operates.
Co-investigator with Dr. David Carpenter is Kathleen Kerr, who is/was Narconon Director in Canada.
The Severna Park Health and Wellness Center, where the study will take place, is/was a Narconon facility.
http://www.ocala.com/article/201001...will-benefit-detoxification-project#gsc.tab=0
http://www.drug-detox-rehab.org/sta...yland_drug_detox_rehab_info~Severna+Park.html
Narconon is a dangerous front group for Scientology and well known for its fraudulent methods. This study being run by Narconon staff at a Narconon facility puts the participants at serious risk. They generally don’t even have medical staff on site during their purification rundown. This study may be different, but it seems like a Narconon project so I don’t see why they would have a doctor onsite to monitor, since they never have in the past.
1. Just today, on investigative reporter Tony Ortega’s blog at
http://tonyortega.org/2014/02/02/sc...ada-sued-over-the-usual-litany-of-deceptions/, there is a report of a lawsuit filed against Narconon in Nevada by the family of 19-year-old Jack Ryan, a Narconon client. The family states that Jack was “expected to sit in a sauna for several hours a day as part of Scientology’s “Purification Rundown,” which includes doses of Niacin up to 5,000 mg a day. Jack spent 24 to 26 days in the sauna. “Jack experienced severe dehydration, headaches, and persistent diarrhea during the sauna program. The Niacin made his skin feel as if he had a bad, lasting sunburn. He observed many of his fellow students likewise becoming ill during the sauna program. Each time Jack complained to the staff supervisor on duty about his severe headaches and feeling ill, he was told to get back in the ‘Box’ and, ‘What turns it on, turns it off’. The complaint alleges that Jack continues to have health problems related to his time in the Purification Rundown.”
2. Narconon has been shut down in Quebec (
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montr...hab-centre-ordered-closed-in-quebec-1.1226881). “The head of a regional health agency in Quebec said he had no choice but to shut down a Scientology-based rehab centre in Trois-Rivières. In recent months, he said at least four clients were taken to hospital because of methods used at the centre. The Narconon Trois-Rivières is one of dozens of similar centres in the U.S. and around the world where the detox treatment is inspired by the teachings of Scientology. Mauricie regional health agency director Marc Latour said Narconon Trois-Rivières advertised an 80 per cent success rate and charged $25,000 for its program. Latour said the centre was dangerous for patients and violated many of the criteria regulating Quebec's rehab centres. He said there was no medical supervision and no scientific basis to the treatment. Latour said patients went cold turkey, then underwent lengthy sauna detox sessions designed to sweat out drugs and took an unhealthy amount of vitamins.
3. Narconon has been put on 6-months warning notice by the Netherlands because of concerns about patient safety, and could face closure if they fail to make improvements. (
http://infinitecomplacency.blogspot.com/2013/06/dutch-put-narconon-on-warning.html)
4. Narconon is under several lawsuits in the U.S. for patient deaths and insurance fraud. Besides the Nevada lawsuit I mentioned above, there are several others. This may not be directly related to the purification rundown (it seems that staff take drugs and provide them to the clients) but it is a signal that it is a dangerous group.
· Narconon Georgia gave up its license last September, avoiding prosecution on credit card and insurance fraud charges said to be in the millions of dollars. (
http://tonyortega.org/2013/09/25/na...t-down-in-georgia-has-court-loss-in-oklahoma/).
· Narconon Oklahoma lost its certification last August (
http://www.mcalesternews.com/breakingnews/x1981930665/Narconon-Arrowhead-loses-state-certification) after three young people died in a year. 20-year old Stacy Murphy died in July 2012, and her parents sued Narconon. (
http://www.newson6.com/story/190850...-drug-rehab-facility-her-family-wants-answers). Two months before Murphy was found dead, Hillary Holten, 21, was found dead in her bed April 2012, and Gabriel Graves, 32, was found dead in his bed at the facility in October 2011. Also under investigation is the 2009 death of Kaysie Dianne Werninck, 28. Werninck died at a local hospital while she was a client of Narconon Arrowhead’s rehab program. Lucas Catton, former Oklahoma Narconon Arrowhead director, got out of Scientology and wrote an expose (
http://rockcenter.nbcnews.com/_news...on-under-fire-from-two-former-executives?lite)
· Narconon Michigan:
On May 19, 2012, 22-year-old Amber Bullins died at Tranquility Detox, a Scientology-based drug rehab facility in Battle Creek, Michigan.
http://tonyortega.org/2013/07/31/de...n-drug-rehab-sparks-widespread-investigation/
On January 15, 2011, while being held in the “withdrawal unit” of Narconon Freedom Center in Albion, Michigan, Richard Teague, while exhibiting symptoms of severe benzodiazepine withdrawal, set himself on fire with the use of a cigarette lighter and a spray cologne bottle. With flames engulfing him, he ran outside and extinguished the fire by plunging into the snow. His attorney stated that [Teague] received serious, permanent and grievous injuries as a result of burns suffered while in the care of Narconon Freedom Center…[he] was in a delusional, paranoid state when he was severely and permanently burned on January 15, 2011…Narconon Freedom Center and A Forever Recovery rely exclusively on the written “technology” (writings) of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology, to address the drug and alcohol rehabilitation needs of students enrolled in Narconon programs, even though Hubbard had no training or education in drug and alcohol rehabilitation.”
http://tonyortega.org/2013/10/18/sc...nce-in-the-disturbing-case-of-richard-teague/
5. Narconon claims a 70-76% success rate, but their legal affairs officer says they have no evidence of it. She wrote to staff, “Do not say that we have 70% success (we do not have scientific evidence of it).”
http://tonyortega.org/2013/04/01/le...cientific-basis-for-advertised-success-rates/
Use the
web form on the Institutional Review Board here. The IRB is the oversight committee for all human trials conducted by any researcher affiliated with Albany.