Drug-Free Marshals of Los Angeles Promote Red Ribbon Anti-Drug Week

The Drug-Free Marshals chapter sponsored by the Church of Scientology of Los Angeles swore in hundreds of youth to live drug-free lives at a ceremony Saturday in honor of the 21st anniversary of Red Ribbon Week.

Red Ribbon Week honors the life of DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena whose death in 1985 was a wakeup call to the dangers of drugs and the drug trade. Camarena, an 11-year DEA agent working undercover in Mexico, was on the way to breaking up a multibillion-dollar drug pipeline when he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by Mexican drug traffickers.

In 1988, the National Family Partnership sponsored the first National Red Ribbon Week, with President and Mrs. Reagan its honorary chairpersons. Community groups, schools and churches hold yearly events to commemorate Camarena's work and rally support for drug education and prevention.

The Drug-Free Marshals takes its name from the U.S. marshals, a force for good popularized in novels and movies about the American West. The program was founded by the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles in 1993. Since then the program has helped more than 3 million youth worldwide pledge to be drug-free.

The Los Angeles Drug-Free Marshals and their parents "armed" themselves with booklets published by the Foundation for a Drug-Free World that provide information on the most commonly used drugs, such as marijuana, alcohol, heroin, crystal meth, prescription drugs, inhalants and painkillers.

"We need to educate our children about drug and alcohol abuse. Our children are constantly exposed to drugs at school, on television, and in movies, so if we don't tell them the truth, you can be sure that the drug-dealers will tell them lies. By early intervention we can prevent drug abuse, which also leads to violence," said Edie Reuveni, President of the Church of Scientology of Los Angeles. "Studies show a direct link between youth involvement in drugs and gang violence. Humanitarian, L. Ron Hubbard said, 'When children become unimportant to a society, that society has forfeited its future.' Unless we educate our children and take responsibility for them, we all lose."

For more information about the drug education and prevention programs sponsored by the Church of Scientology visit www.scientology.org.