Editing Narconon (section)

===Overview===

The Narconon detoxification program is based on Hubbard's theory that "small amounts of drugs [and their [[metabolite]]s] stored in fat cells are released at a later time causing the person to re-experience the drug effect and desire to use again."<ref name="Hubbard's Drug Rehabilitation Program"/> According to Narconon, exercise helps to release toxins from body fat as fat deposits are burned for energy, while concurrently releasing chemicals via sweating, [[sebum]] (produced by the skin's sebaceous glands), and regular bowel movements.

Narconon is not a medical model. The program rejects the [[disease model of addiction]], and its literature has described the terminology used by that model as being disempowering to patients.<ref>{{citation | first1= A. |last1= Jeewa |author2= Kasiram M, PhD | title = Treatment for substance abuse in the 21st century: A South African perspective |journal= South African Family Practice |volume= 50 |issue= 6 |pages= 44 |access-date=5 February 2014 |url=http://www.ajol.info/index.php/safp/article/view/13481/59641|date= January 2008 |doi= 10.1080/20786204.2008.10873782 |s2cid= 73188147 |doi-access= free }}</ref>

The Narconon program follows the "social education" model of drug rehabilitation. The program is four to six months long and includes a regimen of detoxification that includes "aerobic exercise, dry-sauna sweating, hydration and nutrition supplements; life skills trainings; and personalized plans for after-graduation living." The main premise of the detoxification regimen is that "the activation of drug residuals stored in the body can elicit drug cravings in the former drug user thus tempting relapse. The Narconon detoxification regimen is designed to eliminate drug residues from drug users' bodies and thus reduce the cravings that may be caused by these residues."<ref name="CHKRC"/>

Experts from mainstream medicine and toxicology have repeatedly argued that Hubbard's method has no validity: "one may from a pharmacological point of view strongly question the idea of using enforced sweating to expel drugs from the body", said Professor Folke Sjoqvist in a 1996 report for the [[Sweden|Swedish]] government,<ref>{{Cite report | author = Folke Sjoqvist | date = 26 November 1996 | title = Expert advice on Narconon given to the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare | publisher = The National Board of Health and Welfare }}</ref> while an Oklahoma Board of Mental Health report from 1990 states that, "Although minute quantities of some drugs may be found in sweat the amount represents a small fraction of drug elimination".<ref name="ffact1" /> In a [[deposition (law)|deposition]] concerning the [[#Patrick Desmond, Norcross, Georgia, United States (2008)|death of Patrick Desmond at Narconon Georgia]], expert witness Louis A. Casal was questioned by plaintiff's attorney Jeff Harris:<ref>{{cite news|last=Combs|first=Pete|title=Narconon Debunked by its own Expert|url=http://www.wsbradio.com/news/news/local/narconon-debunked-its-own-expert/nSQ3t/|access-date=3 October 2012|newspaper=WBS Radio|date=1 October 2012|archive-date=November 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116234344/http://www.wsbradio.com/news/news/local/narconon-debunked-its-own-expert/nSQ3t/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
{{Poemquote|text=
Harris:  And the sauna program, what Narconon contends is that in—it in fact detoxifies your body. True?
Casal: True.
Harris:  But there's no scientific basis that you can point me to<!--not a mistake--> to support that contention, is there, sir?
Casal: You're correct.
Harris:  So when Narconon states that the sauna program detoxifies its students, you're not aware, as a medical doctor, of any scientific basis for that contention?
Casal: I agree.
Harris:  The vitamin regimen. You're familiar with the vitamin regimen?
Casal: Yes, sir.
Harris:  What—do you have an opinion about whether or not the vitamin regimen is effective at treating addiction?
Casal: I believe that it has very likely no bearing whatsoever on the treatment of addiction.}}

Narconon asserts that [[methadone]], [[amphetamines]], [[methamphetamines]], [[morphine]], [[copper]], [[mercury (element)|mercury]], and other toxins, some consumed years earlier, leave the body by means of sweating. This contrasts with the view of the body's drug retention taken by mainstream science, which has found that most recreational drugs leave the body within a few days (with the exception of [[cannabis (drug)|cannabis]], which in the case of frequent use can remain in the body for up to a month).<ref>{{Cite report | author = Center for Human Reliability Studies | date = May 2007 | title = Drug Retention Times | url = http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/908420-mhlTOr/908420.pdf | publisher = U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Health, Safety and Security (Office of Security Policy) | page = 4 | access-date =14 September 2012 }}</ref>