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CASE STUDY
CLEANING UP ITALY’S
RIVER OF COCAINE
When an analysis of Italy’s Po River showed that the waterway carried the equivalent of 4 kilos, or 8.8 pounds, of cocaine per day, the government launched a nationwide awareness campaign targeting young people.
Church of Scientology drug prevention programs were already at work in the country but were stepped up to meet the renewed urgency to cut drug use.
With heroin use high in the 1980s and ’90s, the Church had launched its first anti-drug initiative.
As part of the program, Scientologists organized syringe pick-up events in public parks and other heavy heroin-use areas—an activity that continues today. In total, they have logged one million hours removing massive quantities of dangerous needles.
At the same time, volunteers conducted lectures in schools, organized public awareness events and appeared on television and radio to bring the drug-free message to a broad audience.
To increase the grassroots impact of the program, Church teams have increased their distribution of The Truth About Drugs booklets through partnerships with sports organizations. Volunteers have also distributed the educational materials in nightclubs, passing out booklets and playing the Truth About Drugs documentary on closed-circuit television. The campaign has been officially adopted by whole towns, and the drug education booklets have been printed in full in a national police magazine.
In one year, Italian volunteers reached 500,000 people through 300 events, handed out 250,000 booklets and aired The Truth About Drugs documentary and public service announcements to 16 million viewers.
Writing to the Church of Scientology volunteers, Senator Salvo Fleres acknowledged their role in contributing to a 25 percent decrease in drug abuse in the country through the anti-drug campaign—“one of the most enduring and largest drug prevention initiatives in Italy.”
Thus, the director of the Department for Anti-Drug Policies of the Italian government might have been referring to the Truth About Drugs when he stated: “The alarms of past years, particularly regarding cocaine, made us think that living with drugs was inevitable. But the work of prevention activities, along with other efforts, yielded benefits. And now we can say that drugs aren’t an invincible plague.”
