September was National Recovery Month, an event with a history that dates back 25 years. National Recovery Month is sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and it has gained the support of thousands of organizations involved in prevention, treatment and recovery from substance abuse and addiction. More recently, National Recovery Month has been joined on the calendar by National Substance Abuse Prevention Month, which now occurs in October of every year. The new event was launched in 2011 when President Obama issued a proclamation to designate the month of October for its observance and of the themes and messages it is intended to spread.
While National Recovery Month is all about raising awareness of the problems of substance abuse and addiction and helping more people reach out for the help that they need, National Substance Abuse Prevention Month has the goal of bringing attention to the vital importance of prevention in battling the problem of substance abuse in our society. Although it does not yet have as much widespread recognition as its predecessor, National Substance Abuse Prevention Month has already gained support from a number of groups, and among them is Narconon.
Narconon Activities During Substance Abuse Prevention Month
Narconon is widely recognized as being one of the leading drug rehab programs in the world, but the many Narconon rehab centers and also the Narconon organization do far more than work in the field of addiction treatment. A considerable amount of their efforts are dedicated to working in the area of substance abuse prevention, and in this vein the goals of National Substance Abuse Prevention are directly in line with those of Narconon. At any given time, you can expect to find out about recent activities on the part of Narconon staff or volunteers in the community, with outreach activities aimed at educating the public about the risks of drugs and alcohol. Whether it’s passing out literature on the street, providing engaging anti-drug education lectures at local middle or high schools, or acting as a sponsor of a community event, Narconon works to keep people off drugs. Although the Narconon program may be effective at helping people to recover from addiction, it is far better to help them avoid getting hooked on drugs and alcohol in the first place, to prevent the serious and wide-ranging damage that addiction causes in a person’s life.
The goals of Narconon in their work for preventing substance abuse and addiction are closely aligned with those articulated by President Obama in the proclamation he issued to herald this year’s National Substance Abuse Prevention Month. In it, he says that “preventing substance use before it begins is the most effective way to eliminate the damage caused by drugs and the abuse of alcohol.” He goes on to say that his administration is investing resources in 680 local coalitions whose purpose is to reduce substance abuse in the United States. He is referring to the Drug-Free Communities program, which provides grants to groups to host events and run programs for the purpose of raising community awareness about the dangers of drugs and alcohol and to keep people safe from these threats. Narconon fully supports the aims of National Substance Abuse Prevention Month, and they are working to spread the message of the event so that more people in the United States can be spared the pain and suffering caused by living as an addict. President Obama and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy are to be commended for initiating this type of event, recognizing that through effective prevention measures we can save lives of people who otherwise might never make it to the chance to get into recovery.
Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/prevention-intro/prevention-month
